First Grade Blog

Hello Families, In Hebrew, we learned the letters pey, fey and fey sofit (final fey) and a new vowel that makes the “Eh” sound. We added more words to our word wall, like parpar (butterfly),pil (elephant), pitriya (mashroom), perach (flower), patish (hammer), and parah (cow). We also spoke about the life of Hannah Senesh and enjoyed singing a song she wrote called “Eli, Eli.” In Yahadut, we continued working on our siddurim and learned a new prayer from the amida called hael hakadosh, which we thank God for the holy thing (siddur, mezuzah, etc.) and times (Shabbat, chagim, etc.) in our life. We also spoke about the Sigd, an... Read More

Hello Families, In Hebrew, we learned the letter reish and we added more words to our word wall like: rakevet (train), raashan (grogger) and rimon (pomegranate). We also learned 3 new action words – raah (saw for boy), raatah (saw for girl), nach(to rest for boy), nacha (to rest for girl), shar (to sing for boy), and sharah (to sing for girl). The first graders were so proud to be able to read and write so many sentences. InTefilah, we learned the first section of the amidah which is about giborim. We spoke about the meaning of the word gibor (hero)... Read More

Dear Families, In Hebrew, we learned the letters mem, mem sofit (final mem), lamed, and a new vowel, which makes the “Ee” sound. We added lots of new words to our word wall, like menorah (lamp), melech (king), mechonit (car), matanah (gift), magafayim (boots), michnasayim (pants), misparayim (scissors), lechem (bread), lashon (tongue) and lev (heart). We also continue to read and write with all the letters and vowels that we have learned so far. In Tefilah, we started learning the Amidah. The Amidah has 19 parts, and we will learn all of them. Our first graders are definitely up to the challenge! During this prayer, we need to... Read More

Hello Families, This week first graders were excited to meet Shoshana Nambi , the author of the book “The Very Best Sukkah – A Story From Uganda” visited our classroom. She enthusiastically shared about her book and we had a chance to ask her questions! In Hebrew, we learned the letter kuf and added new words to our word wall like: kasdah (helmet), kipod (porcupine), kobiyah(cube) and keshet (rainbow). We also wrote our first sentences in Hebrew using the action words kana (to buy for a boy) and kanta (to buy for a girl). In parasha (the weekly torah portion), we read about... Read More

Hello Families, We so enjoyed celebrating Sukkot with you and our buddies in the Sukkah this week! In Hebrew, we learned the letters nun and nun sofit (final nun) and added new words to our word wall like nachash (snake), namer (tiger), naalayim (shoes), ner (candle), and nemala (ant). We continue to practice our reading and writing with all the letters that we have learned so far. In Yahadut, we learned about the holiday of Simchat Torah, which is when we finish reading the Torah, and start from the beginning again. We looked at different kinds of Tora’s and practiced singing the... Read More

Hello families, This week in Hebrew, we learned the letter samech and we added lots of new words to our word wall like sira (boat), sus (horse), sulam(ladder), sal (basket), and sefer (book). We also went over all of the letters that we have learned so far and realized how much we have learned in such a short amount of time! The first graders were so excited to be able to read and write so many words. In Yahadut, we learned about the holiday of Sukkot. We spoke about the four species and how they are similar in shape to parts of the... Read More

Dear Families, In Hebrew, we learned the letters bet and vet and their sound when we add the “Ah” sound. Then we practiced our reading, and we were able to read and write lots of words with the letters that we have learned so far like; bat (a girl), ba (to come for boy), baah (to come for a girl), abba (dad) and at(girl)/ata(boy) (you are). We also added more words to our word wall – bakbouk (a bottle), batzal (onion), bayit (house), balon (balloon) and barvaz (duck). In Yahadut, we spoke about Yom Kippur and that it is a day when... Read More

Hello Families, We had a very exciting week in first grade! We went apple picking and celebrated Rosh Hashanah together, eating lots of apples and honey:)  Also, Rabbi Menashe came to visit our classroom and gave us a live demonstration of how to blow a shofar.  In Hebrew, we learned the letters hey and we added new words to our word wall like: har (mountain), hege (wheel) and hadas (myrtle). In Reading workshop, we started learning about good first-grade reading habits such as taking a sneak peek, checking our sneak peek, and doing something at the end. We know after reading we can reread our... Read More

Hello Families, We have had a wonderful start to our year! First grade has focused on creating an inclusive, kind community as we get to know each other better.  We are discussing our identity and what makes us similar, different, and special. We read “The color of us”, “I don’t want curly hair”,  “The skin you live in”, and “We are all welcome here” to explore this topic further and start rich discussions.  In reading, we practiced finding syllables, rhymes, and words we know in our names through the rhymes “Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee” and “Willaby Wallaby Woo”. And in... Read More