1. religion and spirituality
2. judaism

November 14, 2014
21 Cheshvan 5775
Volume 18, Issue 10
Dates to Remember:
 W 11/19 – Class 3 trip to
Sony Wonder
 Th 11/27 – F 11/28 –
Thanksgiving Break, NO
SESSIONS
In the Bnos Malka Family
☺ Mazel Tov to Dr. & Mrs.
Leiby Tropper (parents
of Adina, 2) on the Bar
Mitzvah of their son!
Candle Lighting 4:19

Mrs. Rivky Babad
Assistant Principal, Kindergarten – 4th grade
In this week's parsha, ‫ אברהם‬returns
home to find his beloved wife Sara has
passed away. He immediately begins
eulogizing her and making arrangements
for her ‫קבורה‬. He goes to ‫ עפרון החיטי‬to
purchase what will ultimately become one
of the greatest ‫ מקומות הקדושים‬for ‫כלל‬
‫ ישראל‬- the ‫מערת המכפלה‬. In the course of
the negotiations, the Torah highlights for
us the vast differences between ‫ עפרון‬and
‫אברהם‬. ‫ אברהם‬was a member of the ‫אמור‬
‫ מעט ועשה הרבה‬club, and ‫ עפרון‬was the
opposite. ‫'עפרון‬s focus was on ‫ גשמיות‬and
acquiring money; he would never be
satisfied that he had enough. Conversely,
‫ אברהם‬valued doing mitzvos and was
prepared to spend as much money as it
would take to complete the mitzva.
Obviously, ‫ אברהם‬and ‫ עפרון‬were vastly
different, but what was the underlying
reason for their antithetical behavior?
The simple answer is perspective. ‫’אברהם‬s
outlook was solely to serve Hashem,
while ‫'עפרון‬s perspective was to serve his
own human fetishes. A person's outlook
or perspective ultimately sets the tone for
everything that they believe and value,
and by extension, everything that they do.
This week, the teachers and
administrators of Bnos Malka and many
other local Yeshivos gathered together to
learn and grow as educators. We were
privileged to hear from an esteemed
professional, Dr. John D'Auria about the
work of noted researcher, Dr. Carol
Dweck. Her bestselling book, Mindset,
describes why some students are
successful and others are not. If you
think the answer to this age-old question
is IQ, or environmental factors, or book
knowledge, you'd be out of luck. The
answer to why some people are
successful while others are not is actually
a person's mindset...or perspective.
Students who approach each new
challenge as an opportunity to learn and
grow, known as the growth mindset, will
ultimately be successful. Interestingly,
students who can only face challenge
from the perspective of success or
failure, and do not see the opportunity
for growth, will ultimately give up if they
think they can't succeed and will miss the
Shabbos Ends 5:26 
chance to learn and grow. This was a
powerful message for us to bring back to
our classrooms. Clearly, a person's
perception of how to approach challenge
has a huge impact on behavior and
success.
On Thursday, one of the students in
the third grade taught me a powerful
lesson on perspective. A friend had
accidentally broken a very special item of
hers, and she was doing her best not to
cry. When I questioned her about what
was upsetting her, she said, “I am trying
hard to keep it in. If I cry, I will end up
hurting my friend's feelings, and I know
that it was an accident. She didn't mean to
break it.” I was so impressed with this
student's middos, her lack of concern for
her own personal ‫הפסד‬, and her greater
concern for her friend's feelings. Where
did that stem from? Her perspective, her
outlook, her mindset. It is a lesson I hope
never to forget. This student chose to view
her challenge as a chance to spare her
friend's feelings though others might have
focused on their own emotions instead.
The lens through which we choose to view
life will ultimately shape how we respond.
It is the basis for all of our thoughts and
actions. In a way, it is comforting to know
that the changes we sometimes wish to see
in ourselves and in others is as simple as
changing our own perspective. Wishing
you all a growth mindset and a good
shabbos.
Class Milestones
Kindergarten - Mrs. Eileen Cohen
It is a very happy and busy time in
Kindergarten.
Our
students
are
outstanding. They are extremely eager to
participate in all of our daily discussions
and activities. It is truly so gratifying to see
them develop such a beautiful love of
learning this early in the year.
Our color unit ended with the color
brown. Brown is a tertiary color which
means it takes three colors to make brown.
The children did a little chemistry and
found that red, yellow and blue can make
brown. Each child painted with these
colors and the results were lovely because
every piece of art was different. They also
designed pictures using all of the seven
colors that we learned about which were
used to create a very colorful bulletin board. We will begin
our shape unit shortly.
Literacy remains a very important part of our curriculum.
The students are very enthusiastic when asked to choose
whether one of Morah’s books is fact or fiction. They do an
excellent job differentiating which books are true (fact) and
which books seem to be imaginary (fiction). Our students
also like looking at books in our library. The class is such a
cute and perceptive group of children. Best wishes for a good
Shabbos.
3rd Grade – Mrs. Zahava Jeff
I want to thank all of my parents for your thoughtful emails and your genuine concern for my well-being. I am so
happy to be back in school and, G-d willing, look forward to
a healthy and productive year.
We’ve been working hard trying to improve our writing
skills. Recently the book, I Wanna Iguana was read to the girls.
The little boy in the story worked hard convincing his mom
to let him get an iguana. The girls have been working on a
persuasive writing piece. They are getting really good at
expressing themselves. Moms beware! If your girls really
want something, they now have excellent skills with which to
provide a convincing argument to sway you to their side!
Some of the girls even wrote persuasive letters to Rabbi
Weichselbaum. The Rabbi answered their letters. You’ll have
to ask your daughters if they were persuasive enough.
In math, we are working on problem solving and have
introduced our unit on multiplication. The girls will soon
learn songs and games which will help them, in a fun way,
master the multiplication tables.
Does anyone need a map? Just ask a third grader. In
social studies, we are currently working on recognizing the
seven continents and the large bodies of water. We
completed two bulletin board projects and hung our work in
our classroom.
We continue to enjoy our special reading time together at
the end of each day. We began reading the book Frindle.
What is a frindle, anyway? We will have to continue reading
in order to find out. I anticipate that the girls will enjoy this
book as much as they enjoyed The Chocolate Touch. The girls
continue to be a joy to teach. Have a good Shabbos!

4th Grade – Mrs. Beverly Fruchter
Poor Matt is having many scary experiences while living
on his own. Someone stole a rifle from his cabin, he was
attacked by a swarm of bees, and his cabin was ransacked and
there was flour everywhere! Was Ben responsible for this?
Could it have been a Native American? We have yet to find
out!
Speaking of Native Americans, we are learning all about
the Algonquins who lived in what is now New York City.
Their leader was called the Sachem, and he did not make
village decisions on his own. What can you infer from this?
Class 4 is becoming very adept at using the strategy of
making inferences. They can confidently tell you the answer
to this question.
Class 4 looks forward to independent reading and
meeting in guided reading groups. During this time we think
about the inferences being made in our reading and we then
share them with our classmates.
Do you know that we (mammals) have some things in
common with fish? We are both vertebrates and we both need
oxygen to survive. We are learning about their streamlined
shape and how it helps them. We are also learning about the
importance and functions of all of its parts, and even how to
draw them! Have a wonderful Shabbos!
5th & 6th Math – Ms. Yocheved Weiner
In 5th grade, the students have been busy learning
multiplication. They have reviewed one digit multiplication
and moved on to studying two and three digit multiplication.
The fifth graders also looked at other strategies of
multiplication like the array, partial products and lattice
methods. In addition, they discovered how to solve problems
that involve multiplication. After studying multiplication, the
students are now turning to its inverse operation, division.
They are looking at how to divide with two-digit divisors using
long division and partial quotients and how to interpret the
remainder.
The sixth grade students continued their study of ratios by
looking at how ratios can be used in everyday life. They also
learned how to find the unit rate to determine the better buy
and compare two situations. The students looked at how to
use ratios to convert within the customary and metric systems.
The students will then go on to study percentages. They saw
that percentages are a part-to-whole ratios where the whole is
one hundred. They are also learning how to convert
percentages into fractions and decimals and how to solve
problems with percentages. Have a great Shabbos!
6th Grade ELA – Ms. Sara Lieberman
The World Fair Project is underway and the girls are very
excited! They have been researching their countries and are
beginning to outline the information for their research paper.
We are ending our unit on How Writers Work and will then
focus on writing our papers. I am looking forward to seeing
the girls’ hard work and their final projects!
We are finishing our launching unit of Reading
Fundamentals where we explored mentor texts of biographies,
poetry, fiction and non-fiction. We used a technique called
“stop-and-jot” where we wrote down different ideas that came
to mind during the read and then shared our thoughts with
each other. We are looking forward to starting our novel, The
Egypt Game. I am confident that the girls will continue to
develop themselves as readers! Have a good Shabbos!
 – Mrs. Leya Thurm
This week has been very exciting in 6th grade! As we delve
deeper into the story of the Navi, we learn all about the
Nevuah of Shmuel and his first encounter with Hashem. We
discussed many lessons we can learn from the characters of
the story and how we can apply them to our lives. We are very
excited to start learning about the Halachot of Shemittah next
week and to discuss the different concepts that come along
with it.