March 25, 2022 — Purim and Celebrations and Learning
Judaics with Shira: 100 Years of the Bat Mitzvah This week students learned about the history of the Bat Mitzvah in America. We heard directly from a Senesh 7th grader who was featured in this NPR segment. Students were assigned to listen to a podcast about a girl who is blind preparing for her bat mitzvah for homework. If they did not get a chance to do the assignment last night, please make sure they listen this weekend. Humanities with Hilary **reminder — please bring in a shoe box by Thursday, March 31 ** ** reminder 2 — Monday is going... Read More
March 11, 2022 — Another Week Goes By
Judaics with Shira This week, fourth graders were joined by our JOCI fellow Tova. Tova shared their unique identity with students and invited them to create their own identity Venn diagrams. Students were eager to hear Tova’s perspective to share their own identities and experiences with their table mates. It was a very enlightening and respectful discussion and activity. Humanities with Hilary Dear Families, What a whirlwind of a week we have had. New mask rules; picture day; finishing our writing unit; the end of the Revolutionary War; the end of our second round of book clubs …. woah!... Read More
March 4 2022 — March has flown in like a lion …
Hebrew with Rimma Students continued to practice Past Tense in this unit within the context of talking about when they were born and where. We recapped the names of the Gregorian months and the Hebrew months and learned 4 digital numbers for the year. We began with their date of birth and ended up with a discussion around some important historical events in the past while practicing how to say the year when it happened. We practiced two and three digit numbers in a shopping role-play, practicing buying and selling items in a shop, asking how much something costs and... Read More
February 11 — C-c-c-c-c-changes!
Humanities with Hilary Dear 4th Grade Families, What a month it has been! The crew took their new groups in stride (and for some, with much excitement), as well as the new desk arrangements in Room 118. We have been doing so many mini-projects, and learning about all these different topics. Here we go! Reading Book clubs have finished, and students have created story quilts and wanted signs about their books. On the wanted signs, students picked a character (it could have been the “hero/heroine” or the “villain”), described them, and wrote about why they are wanted. What did they do... Read More
January 28, 2022
Judaics with Shira Students have started learning how to chant from the torah. In class we are learning the names of notes and how they look. We saw that some tfilot (prayers) that we know already have the torah tune, helping us to be familiar with it. Individual students have also had the chance to start reading from the torah in our whole group tfillah sevrice. They practice in class with our small torah. Hebrew with Rimma For the past two weeks students had a discussion about a school trip and... Read More
January 14, 2022 — We Shall Overcome
Humanities with Hilary These first two weeks back have been a WHIRLWIND of activity for these kiddos, and they have been up for the challenge. Our main goal, last week, was to film ourselves saying an excerpt of Dr Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” which he gave on August 29, 1963 at the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” Students rose to the challenge of being able to tape one another, and support group members in speaking with expression and — as Dr King says — with “the urgency of now.” As you saw during... Read More
December 17, 2021 — HAPPY NEW YEAR!
S.T.E.A.M. with Sammi I missed the last blog post, so here comes a big catch up! For a few classes, the 4th graders put their science work aside to focus on technology. Students worked through “The Google Slide Challenge” which involved learning and practicing 35 different Google Slide skills. They then put these skills to use in Hilary’s class to make the marvelous presentations you saw at the publishing party. Over the last three weeks, we have now gotten back into our “Scientific Community” unit where students work in teams to complete challenges. First, students built towers with spaghetti and... Read More
December 3, 2021 — Chag Sameach everyone!
Hebrew with Rimma 4th graders were so excited to rehearse and to present their play. They enjoyed singing it again and again at the end of every Hebrew class. If you missed our production that aired this morning, please click on the link below to watch it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06UxeXA58-w Some reviews seen and heard throughout the day: Fantastic performances all around! Its so funny and beautiful. So impressive kol hakavod!!! bravo! This is amazing!!!! ❤️ Mazel tov!!! Love it! This looks like a Broadway show! A+!! Amazing ❤️❤️❤️ Best costumes, best choreography, best delivery! Bravo!!! Amazing! Seeing the joy in preparing... Read More
November 12- Starting November off Strong!
Judaics with Shira Last week we studied about the holiday of Sigd which stems from Ethiopia and feel last Thursday. We capped off our studies with a Sigd Kabbalat Shabbat in the classroom, courtesy of Bechol Lashon. This week we began a new unit on Hannah Senesh, the namesake of our school. We focused on understanding important events in Hannah’s life through the format of a timeline. We asked questions such as How much time passed from one event to the next? How did this event make Hannah feel? How did this event lead to other events in Hannah’s life?... Read More
October 29, 2021 — Identity
Humanities with Hilary Dear 4th Grade Families, I cannot believe that this crew has finished their first piece of writing! We have been working hard since the end of September on this piece. We have made sure to include characters, who have dialogue with others as well as internal thinking. Students remembered to follow their story arc, to help give structure or a skeleton to their story. The 4th Graders referenced our list of unusable words (like “good,” “stuff,” “thing,” “nice” and more), to make sure that they used more descriptive and specific words in their story, all to help... Read More