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6th Grade News 3/25 – 4/5/19

HUMANITIES 

In ELA last week, we began our new unit on “Coming of Age.” Each student has chosen to read either The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt or Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead. Both books follow middle school-age kids experiencing normal, “tween” and teen challenges related to friendships, family, clashing emotions, and identity formation. Students are discussing their reading in small book clubs of 3-4, practicing their speaking, listening, and compromising skills while they converse. We’re using these texts as a lens through which to confront issues relevant to the kids’ lives, as they come of age and explore their own identities alongside the characters.

In Social Studies, we ended our unit on ancient Egypt with an exciting “Journey to the Afterlife” simulation. According to Egyptian mythology, souls of the deceased would face a series of challenges before being welcomed into the afterlife. To imitate this process, students created and attempted to pass ancient-Egypt related challenges in order to “make it to the afterlife” themselves. Enjoy the photos of our simulation at this link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/hfUYRbUybh7BNYyS9

Have a great weekend,

Naomi

JUDAICS

I am blown away by this class and their sense of wonder and need to question the Torah text so deeply! Every day another kushiyah is asked they makes the whole class erupt into deep philosophical discussions. Was Moshe humble or did he lack confidence? Why didn’t G-d just changed everyone’s feeling to understand G-de greatness instead of gardening Pharaohs heart and using so much violence. How can Moshe be a G-d to Pharaoh and  Aaron, isn’t there only one G-d? These are just a few of the amazing questions students brought up this week. We discussed Moshe as a hero and a leader and looked closely at G-de role in encouraging him along the way. We are now diving deep into the patterns of the Plagues and seeing what we can learn by looking at textual patterns. We will use this information in the joint Jeopardy project with Humanities. I recommend asking your child what they are thinking about Moshe, G-d and the plagues in our text. They all have beautiful reflections!
Shabbat shalom,
Laura

MATH

The 6th Grade has just finished Chapter 10, which focused on The Coordinate Plane. Coming up next, we will be learning about the area of plane figures. We will focus on and discover the area of rectangles, parallelograms, triangles, and trapezoids. Through the next chapter and the next few weeks, we will be talking a lot about perseverance and what it means to to persevere in the classroom. Our lessons will focus around students brainstorming and supporting each other when solving challenging problems, it’s gonna be a blast!

HEBREW HERITAGE

להורים שלום,
השבוע עבדנו על יחידה חדשה מלחמות ישראל המשתמשת כמבוא לטקס יום העצמאות. השנה יובילו תלמידי הירטג’ את הטקס אשר יכלול שירים וטקסטים קצרים לקריאה. התלמידים כבר החלו בהכנות כך שאם תשמעו אותם שירים אורחים לקיץ של נעמי שמר או את שיר הפלאפל של ניסים גרמה תדעו שזה לקוח מהטקס.
סוף שבוע נעים,
אילנה
HEBREW
Dear parents,
This week Hebrew 6K has finished practicing the future tense, and we started a new unit on pets. During this unit we will practice making rules (ASUR and MUTAR) and we will practice using adverbs.
Hebrew 6J has been practicing using adjectives in feminine forms. We will continue to practice describing cities using various adjectives and we will focus on Jerusalem. The students will also practice buying and selling things using adjectives.
I wish everyone a relaxing weekend,
Andreea 🙂

SCIENCE

Science has started the construction of unique informational disease games. Students are applying their research into the many aspects of their game. Working together, students are problem solving and improve on their game designs. We are at an exciting time of this STEAM project as we observe these games coming together.  In the weeks to come, we will continue to build these games and get ready for our STEAM event after the Passover break.


 

 

 

 

 

Mike Noll and Samantha Butwin

 

BAR/BAT MITZVAH – with Phyllis

The penny drive is going fine to a great start! The sixth graders had a great time this week collecting and counting coins for a mid-drive count. We also continued learning about the Bar/bat mitzvah throughout history. Did you know that the first Bat mitzvahs took place in Germany in the early 1800’s! Our next project will be creating a “How to” guide for a bar/bat mitzvah.