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 rule even in non war times when possible because the bottom line is that we should not waste the potential of trees. Trees don’t just belong to us, they are part of the earth and can be there beyond just our life. We studied the concept Baal Tashchit. This is a concept that the Rabbis derived from Devarim. It is a rule about not wasting. We reflected on how we could be more responsible about not wasting and how that could help our world. We also studied a text from the Mishnah from Taanit 23A. We read the story about Honi the Cirlce maker learning a lesson about how we need to plant trees for the future even if we cannot reap benefit from them in our lifetime. Students practiced their multi step direction following and chevruta compromising by creating a tree with answers to questions about the text inside of it. It was so fun to hear their presentations and reflect on how it was to work together and compromise.

Shabbat Shalom- Laura 

MATH: 5th graders have been working on some challenging word problems in the new unit we started this week, “Multiply and Divide Fractions.” They will be bringing home their unit three test home today and I am happy to announce that everyone did really well! It should be signed and returned by Tuesday (6th) the latest.-Kelly

HEBREW:

K group
This week the K group read a biography on David ben gurion.
Students learned about Ben – gurions early life,his zionist activities and his beliefs.

J group

In addition, we had the shinshinim visit our class this week and teach us about Tu bishvat in Israel and about JNF and the work they do.-Yehuda

SCIENCE: Students started a new unit about the concept of circuits. This week they constructed a basic circuit that had a functional light bulb. Once they completed this circuit they modified it to include a switch in order to control the light bulb. This made their circuit into a morse code generator. Students had fun creating messages in morse code and having their partner decode the dot and dashes of the blinking lights. Next week we will continue or exploration of circuits.-Mike