Kindergarten Newsletter
Hello Families, This week we fancied up our books to prepare for our bookstore! We learned how to make our books even better by re-reading our words closely and revising using special colored pens. We added punctuation, uppercase letters, more sentences, and crossed out things we want to change. We also colored and added covers to our books. Our Piggie and Elephant journal was started by Aviv and Boaz last weekend and will be continued by Brandon and Asher this weekend. We all enjoyed hearing their adventures they had and were impressed by how hard they worked on their writing!... Read More
March 5
General Studies with Dawn Fourth Graders have been busy and very engaged with the Revolutionary War, decimals, and our service project at the Brooklyn Autism Center. Read on to learn more! Once again writing and social studies are integrated as each student is writing a report about the Revolutionary War. Each report has four sections. The first section is an overview of the war, the second section is about an important person or event in the war or leading up to the war, the third section zooms in on an aspect of that person or event, and the last section... Read More
Happy Purim from 8th Grade!
Humanities This week in ELA, students are beginning our 8th Grade unit on Elie Weisel’s Night. Throughout the next 5 weeks, students will explore the essential question “How do one’s circumstances and experiences of trauma shape their identity?” Using the idea of the Universe of Obligation, students will work through the difficult terrain of choice in the face of absolute horror and devastation. I must admit that this is a particularly difficult text to teach, but as always, I am impressed with the 8th grader’s sensitivity and nuanced understanding of complex readings. In Social Studies, students are exploring key concepts... Read More
First Grade News
Dear First Grade Families. There was much excitement in first grade this week. We had a celebration for Adar with pajama day and for the 100th day of school. Students were full of joy! In Reading we continued our exploration of “Charlotte’s Web”. A new character named Charlotte came into the story and the students were eager to hear that Wilbur had a new friend. During word work, we continued our exploration of silent e. The students learned how to make a short vowel word into a long vowel word and played a game of “Go Fish”. We matched words... Read More
100th Day, Pajama Day, and Purim Prep!
What a week back from school! So many fun activities. 100th day, pajama day, and Zsuzsi’s birthday celebration! A fun way to return to school. At Kabbalat Shabbat we shared reasons we were happy to return to school this week, and students had much to share! 100th Day Math and Pajama Day For the math station of the 100th day the second graders had a puzzle of a 100 chart they had to fill out. However this puzzle was super tricky! Only random numbers were given in mixed up boxes. We talked about the patterns on a 100 chart: every... Read More
First Grade News
Dear First Grade Families, First graders this week have enjoyed spending time with other grades in school-wide events. They especially enjoyed spending time with their buddies. We started out the week going to a lower school fair for Tu B’shvat with their buddies where they planted seeds, ate special fruits for the holiday, and did science experiments. We continued by doing activities for Yom Ivrit with the 8th graders. The middle school was incredibly welcoming as we learned dances, made Hebrew letters out of legos, and even took pictures in a photo booth! The week ended with the Talent Show... Read More
Tu B’shvat and Finishing Perek Aleph!
Tu B’shvat We celebrated Tu B’shvat on Monday with activities inside and outside the classroom. In the classroom we have been playing games, doing puzzles, and learning vocabulary all connected to the holiday. We had a guest reader, Jed in fifth grade, who visited our class to read us a Tu B’shvat book that his grandma wrote. The second graders loved participating in the discussion that he led! Outside of the classroom we visited a Tu B’shvat fair in the gym with our buddies, and went to four stations of different Hebrew and Tu B’shvat related activities on the middle... Read More
A Four-Step Approach to Increasing Diversity in Jewish Day Schools
By Nicole Nash Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools As a JTA article from May 2019 reported, many Jewish day schools are looking to address diversity in their communities. The article states that there is “a growing effort by Jewish day schools across the nation to educate students and community members about people from different ethnic backgrounds. While Jewish schools in America remain overwhelmingly white and Ashkenazi, schools increasingly are looking for ways to welcome Jews of color and other Jewish minority groups while sensitizing students to the wide cultural milieu outside the schools’ doors.” Read the rest of the article here.
Chumash and Nonfiction Writing
Writing We have kicked off our next writing unit and delved into information writing. Second graders brainstormed lists of things they are experts at, and it was great to see all of the things that we can do so well! We shared different hobbies like rainbow loom, baking, swimming, and sports as well as experiences we have that make us experts- like taking care of a pet. We have made a table of contents to organize our writing and have started our introductions where we write about what we want to teach our reader. We have enjoyed seeing what we... Read More
February 6
General Studies with Dawn We are deep into our study of the American Revolution. After learning as a whole group about the Stamp Act and The Boston Tea Party, students researched other events leading up to the war and taught their classmates about them. This included The Intolerable Acts, The Boston Massacre, The Townshend Acts, and the Battles at Lexington and Concord. Students have a good understanding of the frustrations that led up to the war and especially “Taxation without Representation.” After an overview of the war, students will choose a topic about the war and write an informational book.So... Read More