Sprinkling Spring Showers
Greetings Senesh Community, As the mid-afternoon sun showers trickle down on the tender seeds our students have sown in our school garden, our second grade scholars have been applying their growing knowledge in many important areas. Lag Baomer set the stage for our final academic push with a well deserved celebration of color, creativity and stewardship. Our young learners had so much fun creating murals, and sidewalk art to support all the teams at Senesh and truly thrived in our adrenaline rushing relay races. This is such an important and pivotal day for our learners to take a break from... Read More
First Grade Newsletter
Hello Families, In Hebrew, we continued traveling through the state of Israel and visited the city of Eilat. We spoke and wrote sentences about what so special about this city. At the end of our traveling the students made their own map of Israel. In yahadut, we learned a new prayer from the Amidah. That prayer does not have words. We spoke about how the Amidah is a time when we can have a private conversation with God and make our own wishes or prayers. During tefilah we leave a minute for each first grader to say their own prayer. We also spoke about Lag Ba’Omer. We learned that many years ago the... Read More
May 6, 2021
HUMANITIES We are in the thick of Romeo and Juliet. Romeo is in exile in Mantua, and Juliet is trying to figure out how to be with her new husband. Once we are finished, the seventh graders will actively argue over whether or not Romeo and Juliet were truly in love and who is to blame for their tragic deaths. In Social Studies, we are analyzing the US Constitution and the founding of the United States. Students are grappling with different sections of the nation’s founding document with rigor, questioning why the founders made certain decisions as well as how... Read More
8th grade graduation is approaching! :'(
Humanities Students have chosen their final independent reading assignment for their 8th grade year: They are reading nonfiction books that range in topics from true crime to astrophysics, from historical pirates to DNA sequencing. Additionally, students are preparing for a big test taking place on June 2 that will assess their constitutional knowledge. Through reading excerpts in the American Constitution, students learn to identify 5 key concepts in American law: popular sovereignty, limited government, federalism, checks and balances, and the 3/5ths compromise. These thoughtful and critical 8th graders are excited to get a more intimate understanding of the foundation of... Read More
6th Grade News: 5/7/21
Humanities: In humanities class this week, we began discussions about our new class novel, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The story tells the strange and spooky tale of a child raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Though his upbringing is anything but ordinary, the conflicts and internal struggles he faces as he comes of age are universal and relatable. While 6th graders experience the emotional and physical changes of their “tween” years, The Graveyard Book provides an engaging entry-point to conversations about gaining independence, building personal identity, and navigating our relationships to our homes and the outside world as we... Read More
HaYidion: Nicole Nash and Judy Schoenberg—The Head and Board Chair Partnership
by Nicole Nash and Judy Schoenberg HaYidion: The Prizmah Journal on Leading Together The Head and Board Chair Partnership: Recipe for Success A conversation with Hannah Senesh Community Day School’s head of school Nicole Nash and board chair Judy Schoenberg. There’s no question this year was hard on Jewish day schools. In challenging times, leadership is put to the test, and the quality of the board-head partnership has the potential to either promote resilience or compromise the school’s health. The two of us are notorious for hosting board conversations in the form of periodic “fireside chats” as a way to... Read More