6th Grade News 5/20/22

Humanities: 

It’s been an exciting few weeks in humanities as we’ve started several new units. As I wrote about via email, we are currently in the midst of an ELA unit all about social activism. In small book clubs, students are reading and discussing middle-grade novels about kids their own age who are fighting for social justice causes. Simultaneously, students are planning and enacting their own mini social action projects. The projects are all somehow related to the three main topics of our books: Racial Justice, LGBTQ+ Equality, and the Environment/Sustainability. Students’ projects vary widely; some groups are making websites, fliers, or posters to spread awareness about certain issues, others are donating money to an organization of choice through a sponsored athletic event, still others are volunteering in person with local projects, and more. After a week at Teva and several lessons spent preparing for the ERBs, I can’t wait for everyone to actually get started on their projects! The students, too, are excited to work toward positive change, and I know they’ll be proud of their efforts in the end.

In conjunction with this unit, we’ve been lucky enough to hear from several inspiring speakers who are social activists themselves. We learned from a representative from the Ali Forney Center, an LGBTQ+ youth shelter and services organization; Ruth Messinger, a former local politician and a lifelong activist for a variety of social justice causes; and a few members of the Jewish Youth Climate Movement, who showed our class how even young people can fight for change. In addition, we’ll be heading to the Brooklyn Museum next week to learn about how art can be a powerful tool for social activism. As the year comes to a close, it’s been energizing and refreshing to thinking about how to utilize our voices for good.

Remember to ask your child about their social action project! I’m sure they’ll be excited to share their progress and plans.

Here are some photos of the students with Ruth Messinger:

Shabbat shalom,

Naomi

 

Hebrew:

The 6th graders led the tekes Israeli 74 Independence Day in school. They learned Hebrew song “Etzleinu ba chatzer” and sang it and  spoke in Hebrew and English what Jewish immigrants from different countries brought to Israel. Together we learned about contribution of Israel to the development of world technologies. Week before Israeli Independence day like each year we  learned  life’s story of people who survived in Holocaust and who defensed Israel. We watched video  in Hebrew and discussed difficulties that people faced there and ways how they handled it.

Last week students had  ” Avant Assessment”  which is an online proficiency based assessment to better understand students’ different levels. 

Shabbat Shalom!

Yuliya

Hebrew Heritage: 

להורים שלום,

התלמידים הכינו את טקס יום הזכרון לחללי צה״ל , למדו יפה את המשפטים שלהם ושרו את השיר ״דמעות של מלאכים״ של יוני רכטר. הטקסט היה מאד מכבד ומרגש.

השבוע התלמידים עושים את מבחני ״האוונט״ שבוחנים 4 מיומנויות למידה: קריאה, כתיבה, שמיעה ודיבור. המבחן בא לבדוק את הרמה האישית שכל תלמיד ותלמיד על מנת שנוכל להבין ולסייע להתקדמותו.

סוף שבוע נעים,

אילנה

 

Math: 

The 6th graders have been preparing for state tests between their overnight and day field trips and they are ready for summer! We will use the remainder of the year to learn about geometry and probability. Some fun activities the students can look forward to are using cubes to learn about surface area and volume.They will be making graphs to analyze data, and they will be looking at the difference between theoretical and experimental probability. 

 

Judaics:

After an exciting week at Teva students we settled back with watching part 1 of our Torah Movie Critic. We watched some of “Exodus Gods and Kings” on Amazon. This movie is very different from the Torah text of the Exodus! Students watched as Torah scholars looking for the major differences from the text. It was so fun to see students quoting p’sukim (lines) from the Torah that were clearly portrayed different or exact in the movie. They thought about why the director made certain decisions to change the original story for the movie. I hope these skills and excitement continue as they watch other movies based on the stories in the Torah in the future!

We are now focusing on our Pre-1948 Israel history. We have been studying the many agreements made by the British at the start of WW1 that led to the current conflict. We have been looking at the experience from many different sides and thinking about the productive ways to deal with conflict.

Shabbat Shalom,

Laura