First Grade News

Hello Families,

In Hebrew, we learned the letter alef as well as a new vowel, which makes the “Ee” sound. We also went over all the letters that we have learned so far and realized how much we have learned in such a short amount of time! Then we practiced our reading and writing. We were able to read and write lots of words like; aviv (spring), kir(wall), ima (mom) and kara (read).We added more words to our word wall like: aryeh (lion), aron (closet), ohel (tent) and arnav (rabbit).

In Tefilah, we started learning the Amidah. The Amidah has 19 parts, and we are going to learn all of them. Our first graders are definitely up to the challenge! During this prayer we need to stand, by standing we show respect (kavod) to god. This week we learned the introduction to the Amidah, “Adonai Sefatai Tiftach.” which we ask god to open our lips and mouth in meaningful prayer.

In parasha (the weekly torah portion), we read the story about Noah’s Ark. We learned the Hebrew names for a bunch of the animals that Noah took with him on the ark. We also spoke about how God sent a rainbow to show that he promised Noah never sent a great flood to earth again and we made our own rainbows and wrote our own promises for our grownups.

In social studies this week and next, 1st graders are learning about what it means to be a citizen, the importance of voting, and the voting process.  We read “Duck for President”, “What does a citizen do?”, and “Election day”. We held a mock elections to discover what happens when people “oops” and don’t vote and also held an election to choose class names!  Students experienced and reflected on the process and their feelings around being a part of community decisions. We are excited to find out our results this Tuesday when our electronic and absentee ballots come in!

In music with Heidi, first graders have been practicing reading, saying and playing quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes and quarter rests. They creatively organize them within a four-beat measure to build new rhythmic patterns. This musical play enhances their math curriculum as it offers them practice in understanding how parts make up a whole. They are also playing with a mechanical metronome to learn about tempo.

In science, we continued learning about the water cycle. We observed clouds breaking and precipitating by making our own clouds in a jar and manipulating it to rain. As well as created our own water cycle in a bag. It was fun to explore and watch. Can’t wait for what we do next!

Shabbat Shalom,

The First Grade Team