First Grade News

In Hebrew, we learned the letter reish and we added more words to our word wall like: rakevet (train), raashan (grogger) and rimon (pomegranate). We also learned 3 new action words – raah (saw for boy), raatah (saw for girl), nach(to rest for boy), nacha (to rest for girl), shar (to sing for boy), and sharah (to sing for girl). The first graders were so proud to be able to read and write so many sentences.

InTefilah, we learned the first section of the amidah which is about giborim. We spoke about the meaning of the word gibor (hero) and the people in our lives that are giborim (heroes). We all agreed that our family members are our heroes!

This week parashais parashat Vayera. We read the story about Avraham and the three angels, who came to tell Avraham that he and Sarah will have a son. Avraham invited them into his house even though he didn’t know them. We discussed the important value of hachnasat orchim (welcoming guests).

As we approach Thanksgiving, we have started to discuss Indigenous Peoples and/or Native Americans and what makes their many cultures similar and different to ours. After exploring an indigenous map of North America, we read Fry Bread by Kevin Noble Maillard and discussed bread (Challah!) that is important to our culture and families. We also read The Water the Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and discussed how Indigenous People are still working to protect important land to them.

Reading Workshop taught us how to solve hard words as we read. Some strategies we have practiced are checking the picture (thinking about meaning), looking at all parts of the word (or breaking a word into parts), rereading our sentence and getting a running start, and trying vowel sound two different ways.

In Writing Workshop, we are starting a writing factory! First Graders are writing on paper with more lines and working on writing a whole story in one sitting. We are asking our questions of our partners to add more details and including the who, what, when, and where. We are also continuing to work on writing about tiny, tiny moments and stretching them out across many pages.