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February 2, 2018

January 29th – February 2nd

Judaic Studies 7th graders continued to explore chapter 11 of Bmidbar, focusing on the interaction between Moshe and God. What does Moshe really want from God? Does he get it? As part of our translation, we reinforced two grammar skills: ה’ השאלה and ו ההיפוך. The 7th graders participated in a Tu b’Shvat seder in class. The 17 century Kabbalist Isaac Luria came up with the idea of having a seder on Tu b’Shvat to explore kabbalistic ideas through eating different types of fruit and drinking 4 cups of wine / grape juice. Students were amazing at preparing the room...
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5th Grade Week of 1/29

HUMANITIES: In Humanities this week, we continued our study of Tuck Everlasting, had a great fishbowl discussion, and worked on grammar and spelling. In Social Studies, we explored Chinese Philosophy, including Taoism and Confucianism. We will finish that unit next week with Legalism. Have a good weekend!-Tony JUDAICS: This week students learned two texts connecting to Tu Bshvat. We learned from Devarim 20 that during times of war we cannot cut down trees that produce fruit and we can only cut down non fruit trees if we need to build something with them. From this we discussed that we learn to follow this...
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Celebrating Tu B’Shvat and Learning Measurement

Yahadut: Celebrating Tu B’Shvat We celebrated the holiday of Tu B’shvat with the school. Our sixth grade buddies took us to the school fair. Jed from third grade visited our class to read a Tu B’shvat book written by his grandma. Israel: Working together on Kibbutz Yaheli and Yuval taught us about what a kibbutz is. They showed us images from google maps of the kibbutz that Hannah Senesh lived on, kibbutz Nahalal. They challenged us to group cooperation activities, as people have to live and work together on kibbutz. Lastly, students had a chance to use their dramatic skills...
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6th Grade News: 1/29 – 2/2/18

ADVISORY In advisory this week, students focused on gratitude. We asked ourselves: What small and large gifts are we thankful for? What are the places and memories that have made our lives meaningful? Who are the people that bring us joy? We then played the “Gratitude Game,” a combination of Bingo and Pick-Up-Sticks, which encouraged students to share their ideas on the topic. Enjoy the photos below!   HUMANITIES This week in History class, students learned about all of the jobs and tasks that went into pyramid-building in ancient Egypt. They then performed skits to present each stage of the process...
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Week 21: Monday, January 29th – Friday, February 2nd

Advisory This week, we explored our ability to focus on the opportunities in life rather than on the challenges. We discussed how even challenges can be used in our quest to improve ourselves. Judaic Studies Inspired by a student, we tried something new this week — exploring what Judaism has to say about an issue important to middle schoolers. We began by looking at several texts about depression and anxiety, and used them as jumping off points to reflect on our own experiences. We also thought about what it means to be a good friend to someone who is struggling. There...
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New Amsterdam Explorations

Dear Third Grade families, Happy February! We are gradually returning to our full third grade selves after a week of colds and flues. We hope you all a healthy start to February! This week in Writing, students continued working on their persuasive speeches. Last week, we learned that in addition to writing persuasive speeches focused on making a positive change to the world around us, writers also think about people, things, and ideas that deserve attention. At the beginning of the week, third graders practiced writing powerful thesis statements, with a focus on hooking their audience into their speech. Some...
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First Grade News: Week of January 29

This week in Writing Workshop, students learned about including introductions in their information books. They studied different information texts in our classroom to see how different authors chose to start their books. They noticed that introductions can start with a question, an action, a story, or a big idea. On Thursday, each first grader shared a chapter of their book with a small group.   With the conclusion of our unit on length, first grade mathematicians finished their first math book this week! We will begin book two next week. We will also be going on our field trip to...
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Tu B’shvat, Curiosity on Court, Science and much more!

Dear Kindergarten Families, We had a wonderful week in Kindergarten! On Wednesday, we enjoyed the Tu B’Shvat Fair with our buddies learning about trees, the environment and tasting the fruit of trees. On Thursday, we had lots of fun climbing, running around, exploring and playing at Curiosity on Court! Thank you to Lisa, Almah’s mom for organizing the trip and to our wonderful chaperones: Jinah, Yulia, Lana and Zina! The children are bringing home a book about Rainbow based on a song (a gift from Scholastic to our class) and here is the site to listen to this book/song. The children...
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Welcome February

Hello Fourth Grade Families! It’s so hard to believe it, but February is upon us! This means that we are more than halfway through the school year, and from here the days only get longer and (hopefully) warmer. Your fourth graders are busy as always, learning and preparing for upcoming events. This week, they enjoyed the school Tu B’Shvat fair, where they sampled fruits of Israel, played games, got their faces painted, and made bath bombs! February break is only two weeks away (!) now, and so we ask that if your child will be leaving early or coming back...
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