Seventh Grade Blogger

Judaic Studies Students completed amazing and creative projects to synthesize our learning from Chapter 11 of Bmidbar/Numbers. Students were asked to choose a project, and then to create their own rubric for how it should be evaluated. The class produced incredibly accomplished work – take a look!   Math 7X finished a challenging unit, “Number Patterns,” this week and will be bringing home their unit test. I am happy to announce that everyone did really well! It should be signed and returned by Tuesday, February 27th, the latest. 7Y started a new unit this week, “Inequalities,” and have been learning to understand... Read More

Math 7X have been working on a challenging unit this week, “Number Patterns.” They will be taking their unit test on Tuesday, February 13th, and will begin a new unit starting next week, “Coordinates and Linear Graphs.” In this unit they will learn to construct the Cartesian coordinate system and state the coordinates of points on it, plot a graph of a set of ordered pairs, draw the graph of a linear relationship, define linear relationships between two variables, and find the slopes of linear graphs. 7Y have been working on a new unit, “Coordinates and Linear Graphs.” Apart from... Read More

Judaic Studies There were so many deep and insightful conversations in our JS classroom this week. I am in awe! Students translated the next 6 verses in Chapter 11 of Bmidbar/Numbers. They developed powerful questions about these verses, and shared interpretations with each other. The room was full of lively conversations about text!!! Here are some of the highlights: **The Torah says that Bnai Yisrael “cried to their families, each man in the door of his tent.” We looked at Rashi and Ibn Ezra’s ideas about why they cried to their families. As a class, we talked about the strangeness... Read More

Math This week, 7X started Unit 7 (percentage) and will be taking the unit test on January 24th. All Unit 6 HW corrections are due January 25th. 7Y will be bringing home their unit 7 test home today and I am happy to say that everyone did really well! It should be signed and returned by Tuesday (23rd) the latest. All Unit 7 HW corrections are due January 26th. Hebrew This week, both groups read short texts about the Kinneret and the Dead Sea. Students learned about the current water situation in Israel and about the Dead Sea “dying” out... Read More

Science  Students this week started their unit about the properties of water. This week’s laboratory was hands on activities to discovery the concept of surface tension and cohesion. Students used pennies to see how many water drops can stay on top of the penny. Next they placed the penny in a soapy solution in order to discovery if this affects water surface tension. Then students conducted an experiment in order to discover the interaction of water with different liquids. We all had a great time learning these concept through hands on experimentation. Next week we will continue discovering properties of... Read More

Judaic Studies The 7th graders began our second unit on the book of Bmidbar this week. Students translated the first 3 verses of chapter 11, developed kushiyot (text-based questions) about them, and looked at answers from mefarshim (commentators) including Abarbanel, Rashi, Sforno, and Ramban. Our goal for this unit is to practice developing and answer excellent kushiyot, and to explore how the mefarshim deal with difficulties in the text. We began by looking at the word כמתאוננים/ like complainers. Why are Bnai Yisrael described as “like” complainers? What are they complaining about? Why doesn’t the Torah tell us what they’re complaining... Read More

Math This week, 7X students started unit six and learned to solve problems involving ratio. After winter break, they will continue with the unit and learn to find rates, average rates, and speed. 7Y studied and reviewed to solve problems involving ratio, rate, and speed. They completed the unit with a worksheet instead of taking a test on Wednesday. After winter break, we will be going on to Unit 7: Percentage. Have a wonderful break! Judaic Studies After Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai was smuggled out of the besieged Jerusalem in a coffin, he made his way to Yavneh, where he... Read More

Judaic Studies Your 7th graders blew me away this week! We hosted our conference on the Future of Judaism: Perspectives from the Year 90. Students presented the thoughts of their historical group about whether Judaism could continue after the destruction of the Beit haMikdash. Using technology to express their ideas — including Instagrams, websites, and powerpoints — students argued passionately and challenged each other, all in character. We celebrated their hard work by designing (and then eating!) cookie coins for each group, modeled on the Roman coin issued after the defeat of Judea: 7th graders visited with their 3rd grade buddies,... Read More

Hebrew This week the seventh graders wrote conversations and later on filmed them. The conversations were written based on “life situations” that were assigned to them using vocabulary from our unit. A situation for example: “You have tickets to a concert you are unable to attend, you need to try to sell the tickets to your friend convince them the band is worth going to see”. The students wrote creative conversations memorized them and filmed them. Shabbat Shalom, Yehuda Judaic Studies Students worked hard this week preparing their presentations for Tuesday’s conference, titled The Future(?) of Judaism: Perspectives from 90 CE. The... Read More