October 15, 2021
HUMANITIES After weeks focusing on skills and ideas such as close reading and what it means to be a historian, we are starting two new units that integrate English Language Arts and Social Studies. We are starting the historical fiction novel, Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, a story told from the perspective of an enslaved girl living in New York City during the American Revolutionary War. We will discuss the different meanings of freedom while analyzing the literal and metaphorical use of “chains” in the novel. We are also starting a unit on Early America, centered around the Boston Massacre... Read More
October in 8th Grade at Senesh
Humanities Students have been working hard to write their own creative personal essays throughout the previous two weeks. In order to prepare, students have been doing intensive studies of both “master” texts from writers such as Jazmine Hughes, Alice Walker, George Orwell, and E. B. White, as well as from adolescent writers. The first drafts of their essays are due this Friday! Science Science has started strong with the discovery of what is an atom. Students created 3D models using beads and pipe cleaners. They needed to correctly position the three basic particles within an atom, namely the electron, proton,... Read More
October 15: And We’re Off!
Judaics: In Judaics we have learned our routine of beginning class with a Mindful Minute and then singing our blessing for studying Torah. We took some time to really study the blessing that we will say each day and thinking about how our translation also showed our interpretation. I am so excited that we are diving into the Joseph stories in Chumash. We will be working on some grammar skills that will help us unlock some important details in the text. We will also think about how this story relates to our own experience in life. From the start, Genesis... Read More
6th Grade News: 10/15/21
Judaics: It looks like a construction zone in the JS classroom this week! Students worked hard to translate and understand many Mishnayot (Rabbinic texts) about the Sukkah. The used this research to make a blue print to scale in order to then create a physical or virtual model Sukkah. They are also tackling the extra challenge of creating a sukkah that promotes something important to “dwell in” this year. I can’t wait to share pictures of this project soon! While working on this unit students have been asking themselves constantly, “what kind of society are the Rabbis trying to set... Read More
First Grade News
Dear Families, It was a busy week in first grade! This week in writing workshop we started our small moments unit. We are learning to think about true stories that have happened to us and finding a small moment in the story to tell about. We are finding the beginning, middle, and end of our story and working with a partner to plan our book. First graders have worked on sketching out their book, writing labels, and writing on the line to match their picture. *At home, have your child practice finding small moments (seed stories) in their day and telling the... Read More
10/8 Kindergarten Blog
Dear Kindergarten Families, Our fourth week in, and it was finally a full week of school! The children had their first music class, we continued with our Morning Meeting singing and getting to know each other, and are growing more and more accustomed to school! In Writer’s Workshop we continued working on information books. It has been exciting to see children begin to add letters to their work, usually labeling items that they have drawn with their first letter of the item. They are also beginning to add more details to their pictures. As mentor texts we read Where Do... Read More
First Grade News
Hello Families, This was our first full week and we were very busy! In Hebrew we learned the letters mem and mem sofit and we were able to learn lots of new words which we added to our word wall like; menorah (lamp), melech (king), mechonit (car), matanah (gift), magafayim (boots) and michnasayim (pants). We also practiced reading and writing with the letters that we have learned so far. In Tefilah, we learned the prayer mah tovu. We discussed what must happen in our classroom/home so it will be a good place. We also worked on the shema and the meaning of the prayer and we added more pages to our siddurim. Our siddurim are looking... Read More
October 1, 2021 — Wake Me Up When September Ends
Math with Justin Over the past two weeks, we have been focusing on place value up to 1,000,000, ordering numbers, comparing numbers as well as adding and subtracting six-digit numbers. Fourth graders also worked on filling in missing numbers in patterns, creating their own patterns, and identifying the rule that defines a pattern. The students are learning how to round to the nearest hundreds place and thousands place to enhance their estimation skills and number sense. Ask your fourth grader how they can round to the nearest 10, 100, or 1000! Science with Sammi Luckily for the 4th graders, we have... Read More
Sukkot and Buddies
In Ivrit we continued reading words with one and two syllables. In Judaic studies we add more Tefiliot to our personal siddurim. We celebrated Simchat Torah and learned about the differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazi sefer Torah. This week we also met our sixth grade buddies on the roof. There we played a few get-to-know-you ice breakers that entertained us all. We learned about what we have in common as well as what makes us different. The children discussed the meanings of being created by the Image of g-d as well. Dancing with the Torah in circles emphasizing the meaning... Read More
3rd Grade 10/1
It has been a short, but busy, two weeks! In reading, we are learning ways to become successful readers. First, we find a good reading spot which is quiet and free from distractions. Next we find books that we love or that are just right for us. We know they are just right books because we find less than 5 challenging words on a page, can understand and retell the story, and are interested in reading. Last week we looked through the classroom library to find just right books. We also keep track of our reading habits by recording the... Read More