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6th Grade News: 10/9/20

General 6th Grade + Advisory

The first month of school this year has been different than any other! Students and teachers alike are slowly but surely adjusting to a hybrid schedule and to learning routines that best ensure our health and safety. We are also embracing the surprise benefits of these strange times, including an influx of innovative digital learning tools that are useful now more than ever, as well as new opportunities for community-building — both grade-wide and in our tight-knit pods, both virtually and in person. Thank you for your patience and support from home as we continue to learn joyfully despite the unique challenges this year has brought!

In 6th grade, our theme for this year is “Teamwork.” Each pod is its own team (ask your child about their pod’s team name and mascot!), and our grade is one big team, too. The 6th grade advisors have emphasized to the students that together, we’ll make it through this year stronger and wiser. No challenge is too great if we support each other and have each other’s backs. And, of course, everything is more fun with trusty teammates and friends by your side.

Here are our team “jerseys,” which represent the sense of pride and camaraderie we have as individuals, in our pods, and as part of the “6th grade team”: 

Humanities:

The first month of humanities has been filled with Greek gods, narrative writing practice, and the 2020 election:

Reading – Through the classic D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths and our “Guide to the Gods,” we are learning all about the 12 gods who supposedly ruled over the world from their perch on Mount Olympus. The stories are quite entertaining: from Cronus actually EATING his children, to Zeus turning his wife into a fly, to Athena popping out of her father’s head . . . the gods never cease to surprise us. Students are also learning valuable reading and decoding skills, including how to determine character traits from an author’s clues as well as the importance of symbols in classic stories and art. Soon, we will delve into the beautifully-illustrated graphic novel version of The Odyssey, by Gareth Hinds. I can’t wait to read about Odysseus’s adventures and delve into what it means to be a “hero.” Your child has copies of both this book and the D’Aulaires book of Greek myths at home, so feel free to take a look or even follow along as they read. Reading mythology alongside your child can be a great way to laugh together, discuss life lessons, and bond. 

Writing – For our first major writing unit of the year we are focusing on narrative writing. Students have practiced important skills as they prepare for their bigger narrative essay, including how to hone in on SMALL moments or anecdotes in order to bring their personal stories to life, how to SHOW instead of TELL when writing about feelings, and how to highlight the emotional impact of lasting memories. I’m looking forward to reading their larger pieces of narrative writing where they will unpack and find meaning in their personal stories.

Social Studies – In Social studies, we are currently learning how to be expert historians before we dive into the first major civilization we will study: ancient Greece. Students have practiced reading and understanding maps and timelines, analyzing primary sources, and closely observing artifacts in order to make inferences. In addition, we are also making time each week to focus on current events and the upcoming presidential election. We are learning about America’s two-party system, meeting our two presidential candidates, and assessing different policy proposals while deciding where we personally stand on the issues. I’ved loved seeing the students become engaged and curious citizens as this important election approaches.

As always, feel free to be in touch with any questions; my email is NForman@hannahsenesh.org.

Shabbat shalom,

Naomi

Hebrew: 

The last few weeks we focused on learning about city and moshav in Hebrew class. Students could combined their previous knowledge with the new vocabulary. We spoke about special places in Israeli such as moshav and kibutz, compared city and mochav /kibutz and described life there. After learning poems in class students wrote their own similar poems in Hebrew. Both in person and on zoom we used different ways to learn Hebrew such as quizlet, jeopardy and games with white board. In addition, students learned how to type in Hebrew and have already used their skills for completing tasks.

Hebrew Heritage: 

להורים שלום,
אני כל כך שמחה לראות וללמד את הילדים שלכם.
בשבוע שעבר עבדנו על סיפור קצר עם מוסר השכל שנקרא ״מעשה בסכין מקושטת״ על פי סיפור של יהודי קווקז. השבוע הקדשנו את זממנו להערכות התלמידים בתחומי שונים, כגון תרגיל האזנה, כתיבה והבנת הנקרא. זאת על מנת שיעזור לנו להעריך כיצד אנחנו יכולים לסייע לתלמידים.
חג שמח!
אילנה
Judaics:
We have jumped into our Mishnah learning this year with the holidays! We will back up a bit after and learn more historical context on the Mishnah once students have a solid example of what the text is like. I have been very impressed with students’ ability to look at the intention behind the rules. They are beginning to think about how they can practice some of the rituals in more personal and meaningful ways that feel rooted to our tradition. We are always asking ourselves, “what kind of society are the rabbis trying to set up with these rules?” This question also leads us to discussing our Senesh and family communities and what these rituals and traditions can bring to them. This is a very important topic we will focus on as pre Bnai Mitzvah students as we think about our growing role in our communities. In a week we will begin our Chumash unit and grow our text skills. This will help with writing our Dvar Torahs for our Mini B-Mitzvahs this year. (more to come on that next month!)
Chag Sameach and Shabbat Shalom.
Laura

  

Science

Students during our first couple of weeks conducted an activity that allowed them to think about scientific experiments. This allowed everyone to be creative and express their own interests within science. During the second week of science we started to explore the microscopic world. Students were introduced to the microscope and conducted a lab that helped them practice how to use the instrument. They were required to make a slide in order to see how the single printed letter “e” looked under the microscope. Then students explored cells in science. We created our own microscope slide in order to discover the different parts of an onion cell. With their foundational knowledge about how to manage the microscope they successfully created their own slides. In the coming weeks we will  in science discover cheek cells and compare the differences between these animal and plant cells. We will be continuing the exploration of this microscopic universe, making sure to be mindful of the science room covid procedures of not sharing materials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Noll