April 8: Spring Rolls In
Humanities
In reading, we are moving onto a new class novel, Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman. I have taught Seedfolks for many years and love this book! It is a beautiful story about a diverse community who come together to build a garden in their worn-down neighborhood in Cleveland. As we read, we will focus on immigrant stories, lost languages, women in history, community leaders, and how each individual can make a difference. Your students will be tasked with charting each character’s background, motivation for helping the community, and the character’s struggle. They will also be given vocabulary assignments and quizzes.
In writing, we are continuing our argumentative research essay. I genuinely can’t believe how amazing the thesis paragraphs are that your students wrote! Ask them to share theirs with you! We are also busy organizing our research in preparation for writing the body paragraphs. In upcoming lessons we will talk about how to incorporate a quote, include and refute a counter-claim, and how to balance research with analysis. We can’t wait to share the final products!
Finally, in social studies, we are finishing up our study of Ancient Egypt. Our penultimate project has been to research a god/goddess and create a mask to represent them. Pictures are attached of the class working on the masks. I can’t share the *final* project with you just yet but I’m sure your students will do so after it happens! Our next unit will bring us to Ancient China.
Judaics (Written by Student Teacher Josh Less)
“Much I have learned from my teachers, more from colleagues, and the most from my students.”- Talmud Taanit 7b
Fractions, fractions, and more fractions!
We have finished our unit on multiplying fractions which will be followed up with dividing fractions! Students were able to play Jeopardy in a class and small group setting as a review. It was using real life examples within word problems to practice throughout the unit. I am really looking forward to putting all of our skills together for some fun activities after Passover break.
Hebrew Heritage:
להורים שלום,
בשבועיים אחרונים התלמידים עסקו ביחידה ״אוכל ישראלי״. התלמידים חקרו, האם קיים מטבח ישראלי? מה הם המאכלים שאנחנו רואים בהם כחלק מהמטבח הישראלי? מה התרומה של עדות בישראל למטבח?. התלמידים חקרו את מקורם של מה שנתפס כמאכלים ישראלים והגיעו למסקנה כי המטבח הישראלי הוא מרקם של מאכלים מעדות שונות שהשתלבו במטבח הישראלי. התלמידים עובדים על פרויקט בו הם כותבים על מאכל אחד שהם אוהבים.
סוף שבוע נעים,
אילנה