An article - Shavit Hakimi

It was a wonderful trimester and we learned many things. One of the important things that we learned from the beginning of the year was the new prayer "The Amidah". The Amidah "The Standing Prayer", also called the Shmona Esre "The Eighteen [‏Blessings‏]", is the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy. Observant Jews recite the Amidah at each prayer service of the day—morning, afternoon, and evening. The weekday Amidah consists of 19 blessings, though it originally had 18; hence the name "Shemoneh Esrei". Since the service of the Beis Hamikdosh can no longer be done, every jew fulfills these services by reciting a prayer called Amidah. The Amidah is the holiest part of our daily prayers. This prayer contains requests for all our needs both as individuals and as a nation.
It was very important to me that the students will learn about the Amidah from the beginning of the year. I asked the students about the meaning of prayer for them. I heard wonderful answers from them, for example: "I pray because I want to succeed in school", another one said: "I pray because I want peace in Israel" and many other interesting answers. After this discussion I taught them that the essence of the Amidah is the Kavanah – meaning. The next step was to learn the ritual of the Amidah. I taught them the rules of this Tefilah, for example: How to behave while you are praying, how to start this Tefilah and how to finish it, where to bow exc. Every week I taught the student a new blessing, and we always review the earlier blessings. This Tefilah was said at loud with me with everyone together. After I felt that the students feel more confidence, they started to pray by themselves.
One of the important things that we do in 3rd grade is to understand the meaning of the Shema Israel – שמע ישראל. The students have workbooks contain many ideas that teach the students the subject. We have three Parashiyot – sections in this prayer. Each section introduced with the new words being in big hollow letter and we use it in a different ways in class. For example: to color in different colors which word means what, or to color the root in, or to color these letters which make it singular or plural. Each section also has a picture attached to it, which will be related to the section, so as to give the students a visual image of the meaning of each section, as best possible.
The students pray diligently every day. They know how important it is. The student's consistency adds special prayer for the sick. You just need to walk in the hallway in the morning to hear their beautiful pray.
I am so proud to be their teacher and watch them growing and learning somuch. Wish you Shabbat Shalom