First Grade News

Hello Families,

In Hebrew, we continued to work on our word dictionary. We also started learning about Tu Bishvat (the birthday of the trees) and spent time learning Hebrew words related to the holiday. We started to practice changing words from singular to plural tense using different parts of trees. The first graders made beautiful trees and we are looking forward to learning more about Tu Bishvat next week!

In Tefila, we learned two new prayers from the amida. The first prayer is called, shover oyvim umachniyah zedim. In this prayer we thank God for protecting us from danger. We spoke about who are the people in our lives that protect us every day.The second prayer is called, mishan umivtach latzadikim. We spoke about what it means to be a righteous person. We also share about the good things that happened to us when we are doing good things.

In Parasha, we learned about Parashat Bo, which is when Pharaoh tells the Israelites to leave Egypt and they pack up quickly and go. We spoke about why we thought that God chose to help the Israelites and what was so special about that time and Moses. The first graders especially enjoyed watching Parts of the movie “The Prince of Egypt”.

In writing workshop, we studied what authors add to nonfiction books to teach their readers. Kids have noticed jokes, graphs, and exciting beginnings in books they are reading and tried those elements in their writing! We also practiced adding arrows, labels, and zoom-ins to our pictures to give more information. We also are brave spellers when we add fancy words to our books. We break down long words into parts (syllables), stretch out each part, and make sure we add a vowel to each syllable. Next, we learn how to show comparisons and add examples to our writing. 

In reading workshop, we have practiced chatting to ourselves and others about nonfiction books.  We are focusing on stopping after reading a page, thinking about what happened on the page, and also thinking about what happened before and after. Then we share what happened in our own words. Readers are sharing details or making connections from the pictures that the author did not mention in the words. We are becoming aware of our inferences!  Please practice this at home.

In Music class, First Graders learned a little bit about Lunar New Year and learned the Korean song “Arirang.” They also looked at the music for Arirang and could read all of the rhythms! Arirang is in 3/4 time. Students also moved in 3/4 time to Rainbow Connection.

Check out our pics:

Shabbat Shalom,

Liz and Ilana