January 22nd – January 26th
Judaic Studies There were so many deep and insightful conversations in our JS classroom this week. I am in awe! Students translated the next 6 verses in Chapter 11 of Bmidbar/Numbers. They developed powerful questions about these verses, and shared interpretations with each other. The room was full of lively conversations about text!!! Here are some of the highlights: **The Torah says that Bnai Yisrael “cried to their families, each man in the door of his tent.” We looked at Rashi and Ibn Ezra’s ideas about why they cried to their families. As a class, we talked about the strangeness... Read More
First Grade News: Week of January 22nd
We had so much fun on our field trip to the Jewish Children Museum! The first graders learn about historical events throughout biblical times. Enjoy the pictures below! First grade writers have been working hard on their information books and writing even more pages. We started writing chapter books and learned how to add a table of contents. We learned some challenging sight words this week: how, do, she, their, and number. We practiced using these words in sentences. We continued to learn new reading strategies in our reading groups. In Math we finished our unit on addition and... Read More
Week 20: Monday, January 22nd – Friday, January 26th
Humanities: Literature and Writing: This week, students continued their work translating and analyzing Act II of Othello. At the end of the week, students were asked to explain how Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to develop a theme on the relationship between appearance and reality. History: In History, students prepared for our field trip this coming Monday to the Jewish Museum as we kickoff this year’s collaboration with them. Students previewed artworks from the museum’s permanent collection and the exhibition entitled Veiled Meanings: Fashioning Jewish Dress. Students will learn how artists and craftspeople use motifs in their work and will express their own... Read More
A Trip Back in Time
Dear Third Grade Families, What an experience we had, this past Wednesday, traveling back to the mid-1600s! On Wednesday, the Third Grade went on a field trip to The Wyckoff House Museum, in Brooklyn. It is the oldest standing house in New York City, built in 1652. During this year, Petrus Stuyvesant was Director of New Amsterdam, but Dutch and European Jews had not yet arrived in the New World. Before Stuyvesant, the people of New Amsterdam had already seen six Directors come and go, and they were working hard to prosper as a colony. By 1652, Pieter Wyckoff had... Read More
The Chinese Community, Friendship, and More!
Community: Kindness Puppet Show with Karen Karen and her puppets visited class on Monday to talk about the power of words. We saw an example of how teasing words, even when meant in a joking way, can be hurtful and powerful in a harmful way. Ask your child how Sir Quail’s words were powerful for bad, and then good. Social Studies In social studies we are beginning to focus on a new aspect of Brooklyn – Brooklyn’s immigrant communities. We began this study by learning about the Chinese community of Brooklyn. First, students brainstormed the many different cultures and immigrants... Read More
Musical “Beauty and the Beast,” Writing Fairy Tales and more!
Dear Kindergarten Families, We had a wonderful week in Kindergarten! As part of our “Fairy Tales” unit, we learned more about “Beauty and the Beast” and even had a chance to see part of the 8th grade Musical on Wednesday morning! In Math, we learned about counting by 5s and 10s. We also continued practicing using “tallies” and counting by 5. The children used craft sticks to create various amounts using tally marks. Ask your child to show you how to count using tally marks and how to count by 2s, 5s, and 10s. We also learned about coins and... Read More
January’s End
Hello Fourth Grade Families! It’s hard to believe it, but we are officially past the halfway point of the school year! Fourth graders have begun their social action trips to the Brooklyn Autism Center. Many thanks to our parent chaperons! We also enjoyed watching a rehearsal of the Eighth Grade production of Beauty and the Beast, which was performed at school this week. We are now looking forward to longer Fridays beginning next week, and the Tu B’Shvat fair on Wednesday! Shabbat Shalom! -The Fourth Grade Team PEEK AT NEXT WEEK: Monday, January 29 – Spring After School Programs Begin... Read More
6th Grade News: 1/15 – 1/19/18
HUMANITIES This week marked the beginning of a few new units in Humanities classes. In Literature class, students started reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor. Roll of Thunder tells the compelling and sometimes tragic story of a black family living in rural Mississippi during the 1930s, challenging readers to engage with important topics such as discrimination, violence, and prejudice. In order to prepare for this mature read, students began to learn about the the pre-civil rights era South. These discussions fit in nicely with Martin Luther King Day, and we’ll continue learning about race relations and other social justice issues... Read More
January 16 – January 19
Math This week, 7X started Unit 7 (percentage) and will be taking the unit test on January 24th. All Unit 6 HW corrections are due January 25th. 7Y will be bringing home their unit 7 test home today and I am happy to say that everyone did really well! It should be signed and returned by Tuesday (23rd) the latest. All Unit 7 HW corrections are due January 26th. Hebrew This week, both groups read short texts about the Kinneret and the Dead Sea. Students learned about the current water situation in Israel and about the Dead Sea “dying” out... Read More
5th Grade Week of 1/15
What a week! Our students came back from their long weekend, and did an excellent job as always of showing off their academic skills and love of learning! Please enjoy the updates below, and have a good weekend! HUMANITIES: It was a week of new beginnings in Humanities. We started Tuck Everlasting, while exploring big universal themes like immortality and family loyalty. We also worked on finding the meanings of words through context clues. In Social Studies, we started our China unit, learning about geography and the early civilizations in China. We also studied ancient and medieval Chinese inventions, and students came up... Read More