First Grade News

Hello Families,

This was our first full week and we were very busy!

In Hebrew we learned the letters mem and mem sofit and we were able to learn lots of new words which we added to our word wall like; menorah (lamp), melech (king), mechonit (car), matanah (gift), magafayim (boots) and michnasayim (pants). We also practiced reading and writing with the letters that we have learned so far.

In Tefilah, we learned the prayer mah tovu. We discussed what must happen in our classroom/home so it will be a good place. We also worked on the shema and the meaning of the prayer and we added more pages to our siddurim. Our siddurim are looking beautiful, and we cannot wait to continue to fill up our pages with prayers.

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 to Noah never to destroy the world again and we made our own rainbows and wrote our own promises.

In Music class, our First Graders have been reviewing the concept of steady beat through the Hicklety Picklety Bumble Bee game, where they learn about different voices (talking, whispering and magic) and share their names as they tapped a steady beat. They have also been reviewing Music Class expectations through the words and movement of our Music Rules Rap. We practice focus and mindfulness at the beginning and end of every class with our Tibetan Bell listening game. It has been such a treat to see your children again and to meet our new students!

In Reading workshop, we started learning about good first-grade reading habits such as taking a sneak peek, checking our sneak peek, and doing something at the end. We know after reading we can reread our favorite part of the whole book, retell it to ourselves, or think back over the parts of the book. We also chose just-right reading books for our in-school book bag. We are forming strong reading partnerships! In Phonics have met our friend Rasheed (our lion mascot), continued singing name songs, and started studying our names and what makes them special. Do they have long vowels, blends, tall letters, 2 syllables, double letters?

Reminder: No bus on Monday!

Shabbat Shalom,

The First Grade Team