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6th Grade News: 10/23-10/27/17

ADVISORY 
Dear parents,
We are excited to let you know that this week we started a mindfulness program in advisory. The program is comprised of once a week meetings.
The Program Goals:
  • Provide students with the tools to create a space between stimulus and response and manage high school process more effectively.
  • Help students to distinguish between reality and their own thoughts and foster an ability to observe and label their own thoughts without judgment.
  • Discover roots of mindfulness within Jewish Text and Values
  • Cultivate caring community members
  • Create a time and space of quiet reflection.
We hope the children will benefit from the program and it will provide them with meaningful life skills!
BAT/BAR MITZVAH CLASS
Over the past few weeks the sixth graders have looked at primary sources to learn about the history of the Bar/Bat Mitzvah.  We learned that halachically (or legally) a boy becomes obligated to mitzvoth (or commandments) at 13 and a girl becomes responsible for her vows at 12 years and one day.  The students engaged in incredible conversations about the discrepancy in the Mishnah between boys and girls.  Some students argued that the Mishnah is sexist, while others felt that girls and boys can have different roles in Judaism but still be considered equal.  Questions were raised about a range of topics, including how this applies to different gender identities and whether 13 is an appropriate age for taking on adult responsibility.  I was truly amazed by this groups’ ability to articulate opinions and respectfully listen to others.  After learning more about how different customs developed to mark coming of age in the Jewish community and the specific mitzvoth (commandments) that are taken on upon becoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah, the students will be creating their own Bar/Bat Mitzvah guides.

HEBREW

Dear parents,

This week students in HaKbatza Aleph continued to focus on the difference between life in the city and life in the country. Students in HaKbatza Beyt continued to practice describing what is and what is missing in different places.

In addition, this week, the middle school started a proficiency-based online assessment. 

We use this assessment twice a year (beginning & end) and look into all four skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.
As this is a proficiency-based test, there is no need to prepare for it. There are two main goals for this test: The first is for the school to assess students’ progress through the year as well as across grades, and the second is to see patterns of progress which will help us adapt our curriculum and instruction as needed. The results of this assessment are ranked according to ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) standards. The test does not affect students’ grades. The students will continue to take the test next Monday and Tuesday.
Shabbat Shalom,
Andreea

HUMANITIES

This week in Humanities classes, students worked on several projects and writing assignments. Now that they’ve finished the famous hero story The Epic of Gilgamesh, students are writing their own original stories that follow the “Hero’s Journey” pattern, or “monomyth” (a plot pattern that shapes many ancient and contemporary adventure stories). When they finish writing, they’ll transform their stories into digital presentations using the iPad app Adobe Spark Video. This morning, students had a great time exploring the app and thinking about how best to share their tales using voice recordings, digital imagery, and music.

In Writing class, students began learning about literary essays. Using the simple fairy tale “The Three Little Pigs” as our practice story, we learned how to craft and defend an argument about a character. We moved onto more complex stories after, as students collected textual evidence about Ishtar– a mythical goddess from their Gilgamesh books. Now, students are in the midst of writing argument paragraphs about this controversial character, and next week, we’ll write a longer essay.

Lastly, the 6th graders were excited to begin reading The Giver in Literature class. We’ve already begun holding deep discussions about the meaning of “utopia,” and I can’t wait to see how students’ thoughts evolve while we read.

Shabbat shalom,

Naomi

 

JUDAICS

Antonia

“This week we began our Sukkah project where we had to create Sukkahs at a smaller scale that are kosher and unique in some way. Some kids made a sukkah that seemed from first look that it wasn’t kosher. But halachically (according to Jewish Law) it had all the requirements. We looked in the mishnah and the more modern laws found in Shulchan Aruch. Other kids made digital Sukkahs on the chrome books. Some made sukkahs that had a specific meaning or lesson to teach people who saw it. Each group was given four days to create a model of a kosher sukkah based off of text we learned together. It was a really fun project and it was difficult at times, but overall it was really exciting and fun. Next week I look forward to presenting our sukkah to the class and explaining our building plan.”

Cy

“This week we planned out designs for making model sukkahs and then built them! We thought of our plans and then we used a document on google classroom where we had to answer questions about our design based on mishnah text that we had to translate. I learned so many different rules that the mishnah has about how to make a sukkah kosher and saw that there are many different opinions between Rabbis. I really liked building the models because projects where we build things are really fun!”

 

 

ART

Sixth grade students are working on sustainability and recycling posters that will be used around the school. As part of this assignment, they have learned to cut letters freehand and are have been looking at old propaganda posters and discussing the art of persuasion through graphic design.

Susan

SCIENCE

Students this week in science continued their exploration of cells. Building on microscope skills formed last week from discovering cheek cells, they started working with plant cells. They created their own slide from a sample of onion and attempted to make science discoveries. From their cheek cell knowledge last week, they refined technical skills to successfully discover these plant cells. Next week we will increase their knowledge of the internal cells parts.

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Mike Noll