Friday May 7 — Welcome to Half Group Central
Humanities with Hilary Dear Families, Can you believe that we have 22 more days of school, and we FINALLY get to feel like we’re a bit back to normal by having half groups?! Today was the big switch. In room 117, we have the 4A Fish Squad🐟🐠🐡, and in room 116 we have the 4B Bulls. There was definitely some nervous energy as they returned from lunch, and slowly went their way to their new (or the same) classroom. When asked how they felt about this change, some responses were It feels abnormal I feel happy It feels weird …... Read More
Kindergarten Blog 5/6/21
Dear Families, This week in Kindergarten, students began learning subtraction. We played a fun game where students pretended to be cows, and could be sent to either the barn (desks) or the field (floor spots). We told number stories about the cows (For example: there are 4 cows standing in the field. 2 of them go back to the barn. How many are still in the field?). Students had fun practicing subtraction and doing lots of moooovement. Each pod had a publishing party, at which they had the chance to read their stories to several classmates and two adults. The... Read More
First Grade Newsletter
Hello Families, In Hebrew, we continued traveling through the state of Israel and visited the city of Eilat. We spoke and wrote sentences about what so special about this city. At the end of our traveling the students made their own map of Israel. In yahadut, we learned a new prayer from the Amidah. That prayer does not have words. We spoke about how the Amidah is a time when we can have a private conversation with God and make our own wishes or prayers. During tefilah we leave a minute for each first grader to say their own prayer. We also spoke about Lag Ba’Omer. We learned that many years ago the... Read More
8th grade graduation is approaching! :'(
Humanities Students have chosen their final independent reading assignment for their 8th grade year: They are reading nonfiction books that range in topics from true crime to astrophysics, from historical pirates to DNA sequencing. Additionally, students are preparing for a big test taking place on June 2 that will assess their constitutional knowledge. Through reading excerpts in the American Constitution, students learn to identify 5 key concepts in American law: popular sovereignty, limited government, federalism, checks and balances, and the 3/5ths compromise. These thoughtful and critical 8th graders are excited to get a more intimate understanding of the foundation of... Read More
6th Grade News: 5/7/21
Humanities: In humanities class this week, we began discussions about our new class novel, The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman. The story tells the strange and spooky tale of a child raised by ghosts in a graveyard. Though his upbringing is anything but ordinary, the conflicts and internal struggles he faces as he comes of age are universal and relatable. While 6th graders experience the emotional and physical changes of their “tween” years, The Graveyard Book provides an engaging entry-point to conversations about gaining independence, building personal identity, and navigating our relationships to our homes and the outside world as we... Read More
Friday, April 23 — April Showers Bring ….
Hebrew Heritage with Tomer The 4th grade heritage strengthened their vocabulary and how to use keywords in past tense. We are also getting ready to Lag Bomer and learning about the history that led to that event. Judaic Studies with Phyllis After learning the stories about the upstanding communities in Billings, Montana (Not in Our Town) and Denmark during World War Two The fourth graders delved deep into the moral question of whether “good people’s silence” can be “as damaging as the bad people’s actions.” They reinforced their understanding of the vocabulary “perpetrator, victim, bystander and upstander” by creating visual representations of the different roles in a... Read More
First Grade News
Dear Families, In Hebrew, we continue traveling through the state of Israel! We traveled all the way to the mountains of Jerusalem and visited the Dead Sea (yam hamelach). As part of their stop in Jerusalem, each student made their own kotel (Western Wall) out of construction paper. They wrote notes, about their hopes and wishes, to put in their kotel. We spoke and wrote sentences about what so special about those places. In yahadut, we learned a new prayer from the Amidah called boneh yerushalayim. We saw pictures of how the city looked in the past and how it looks today. We spoke about the importance of the city of Jerusalem and what... Read More
Kindergarten blog 4/23/21
Dear Families, In Social Studies we are continuing to make maps. Ater making maps of their bedrooms at home, children made maps of imaginary towns that included streets that they named as well as places they wanted to have in their towns. This led to a trip out to the front of the building to make a map of Smith Street. We first looked at the buildings, noting their size and purpose (grocery store, pizza place, apartment building, coffee shop, offices, school). We then looked at the many structures on the sidewalk and talked about their functions (bike racks, parking signs, gardens, street signs, parking payment... Read More
Friday April 16 — Happy Birthday, Israel!
Humanities with Hilary Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel! We’re excited to celebrate you today 🥳 Fourth Graders have been learning a LOT since we last updated you 😱 In ELA, we have worked on: persuading an audience that one of the amendments from the Bill of Rights is THE most important most students chose the following amendments: First Amendment –> freedom of speech/protest/religion/press Third Amendment –> the assurance that the government or military will never force you to have the military live in your home Ninth Amendment –> the right for humans to have rights NOT specifically stated in the Constitution Tenth... Read More
Third Grade 4/19
Judaics: Celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut! (Israel’s Independence Day) Students dressed in blue and white on Thursday along with the rest of the school, to celebrate Israel’s 73rd birthday. We learned this week about the concept of Aliyah, which literally means going up, and is used to describe immigration to Israel. Students considered various push and pull factors that might make someone leave the country of their birth to move to a new country. We discovered the many different countries that Jews left to move to Israel and the changing immigration patterns over the years as this related to historical events. Students... Read More