6th Grade News: 3/12/21

Humanities: 

These past several weeks in humanities have included mature and nuanced discussions about social justice issues in the past and today. As we wrapped up our ELA unit on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, we had open and honest conversations about how our country’s legacy of racism continues to impact our communities and world. We explored questions like: How do prejudices begin to form at a young age? How is systemic racism embedded into our institutions? How can we help prevent racism around us and within ourselves? I was so impressed with students’ thoughtfulness, maturity, and self-awareness during these important conversations. After reading Roll of Thunder and connecting it to our world today, I am hopeful that students will be more conscious of racial injustice and more ready to combat it in their own lives.

On a similar note, we are also exploring inequities that existed in ancient Rome among two distinct classes of people: the rich and in-charge patricians, and the less-rich and powerless plebeians. After a simulation activity that helped us imagine this power structure, we read about how the plebeians gradually gained more power and agency through strikes and negotiations. We incorporated more acting while learning about the various positions in the Roman Republic government; students assumed different government roles and introduced themselves to their classmates in our imaginary “Roman Forum.”

Lastly, 6th graders are also working hard on their ancient Rome research essays. We are just completing the first draft process, and soon will move on to editing, revising, and writing the bibliography. Students have learned valuable skills throughout this process related to research, finding and incorporating quotes, adding in-text citations, and more. As we finish our essays, I’ll invite the students to share their findings through a creative and hands-on project.

Shabbat shalom and enjoy the warmer days!

Naomi

Math: 

We have had a great couple of weeks in 6th grade math. The students have been working on finding surface area of three dimensional shapes. First they learned about the parts that make up the shapes, then how to find the surface area of them with formulas and by using nets. After we learn about the volume of prisms, we will get to put all of our hard work into practice with a few fun projects, including making and designing their own cereal box! I love this unit because it allows for so much hands on work! 

Hebrew Heritage:

להורים שלום,

אני מקווה ששלומכם בטוב.

התלמידים ממשיכים לעבוד על פרויקט ״ספורטאים ישראלים באולימפיאדה״, כל אחד מהם בחר 3 ספורטאים שזכו במדליות באולימפידה וערך מחקר אודותם. לאחריו בעזרת מקלדת בעברית הם החלו את כתיבתם במחשב. במהלך עבודתם התלמידים קראו קטעי קריאה אודות הספורטאים, צפו בסרטי תעודה וכתבו פיסקאות.

שבת שלום והרבה בריאות,

אילנה

Science:

During the past month, sixth grade students started to learn about their next body system. We started our exploration with the circulatory system. Students conducted an experiment to see what activities would have higher heart rates. Students also used simulation software to explore the parts of the circulatory system. Just this week in science, we talked about blood types and students did an activity to figure out the blood type of four artificial blood samples. They learned how to figure out O+ blood compared to AB- blood. We will continue our exploration of the circulatory system in the following weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Noll

Judaics:

Lining up nicely with International Women’s Month, we just finished our Rabbinics Purim unit about women reading the Megillah, as well as a Chumash unit honoring non violent protest by women around the world and our Torah. Student studied many responses to the question of women’s obligation to reading the Megillah and the implications that came with being obligated or not. They then wrote their own responses, including many categories including all gender identification, age and abilities. We also discussed the idea of obligation and what that meant to them as they approached becoming Bnai Miztvah.

In Chumash we learned about the women of Chile in 1970 under dictatorship. See here to learn more about their story and the usage of the arpilleras.

We addressed the questions: How do you find a voice when society censors you? How do you find a voice when, as a woman, you are not able to feel empowered by a very, very patriarchal society? How do you find a voice when you have been victimized? 

Students chose a heroine from our text and studied her actions closely in Hebrew. They then worked on asking text based questions about her heroic moment. After studying about her they created an arpilleras honoring their form of non violent protest and thinking about how that moment could inspire them and others. See their presentations below. I hope they all brought this art home as instructed and you will consider placing it on your seder table this year to spark conversation about resilience and non violent protest.

Videos of Projects

We will continue in Chumash thinking about how to bring our learning of the Exodus story to our seder. Students will also be learning a mishna for Passover with our student teacher Hannah.

Shabbat Shalom,

Laura

Hebrew:

After February break  in Hebrew class the students reviewed and enriched their vocabulary and grammar rules in Hebrew on the topic “ Jerusalem”. They described important sites in Jerusalem, like special streets, the library, the museum and the market. In addition, we acted out conversations in different stores and asked questions by using question words איזה? איזו? אלו?. We learn Hebrew through the Jewish tradition and Israeli culture. Therefore Israeli songs are an integral part of Hebrew class. The song that we learned  for this topic was “הכי ישראלי”.  Our new topic is  “יום יום ועוד יום”. We talked about a friend’s surprise birthday party and described the friend’s feelings before and after the party.  We learned together new words and expressions related to the topic. Moreover, the students described their situation when they were surprised. Now students can describe different moods, write greeting cards to attach to gifts and write thank you notes for gifts they received.