First Grade News

Dear Families,

In Math, we are learning about place value! Students played a game where they arranged unifix cubes on a place value chart, and challenged their partner to figure out the number by looking at how many tens and ones there were. In their math books, they also practiced counting and recording numbers in place value charts.

In Hebrew, we learned about the parts of our body (haguf sheli) and how to say them in Hebrew. We also learned more action words like: shar (sing for boy), shara (sing for a girl), nach (rest for boy) and nacha (rest for girl). We continue practicing our reading and writing.

In yahadut this week, we learned two new prayers from the Amidah. The first prayer does not have words. We spoke about how the Amidah is a time when we can have a private conversation with God and make our own wishes or prayers. Each student drew a picture of a personal prayer they’d want to share with God and during tefilah we leave a minute for each first grader to say their own prayer. The second prayer is Shomeah Tefilah. In this prayer we ask God to listen to our prayers. We talked about what it means to be a good listener and the importance of listening.

In Parasha, we learned about Parashat Tetzaveh. We spoke about the people who worked at the mishkan – the Kohanim and the Kohen Gadol and thought about a special job that we have, just like the special job of the Kohanim.

Music with Heid

In Music class, First Graders have begun their study of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals and tempo. This week they enjoyed listening to the Finale and watching it animated with flamingos. First graders noticed how the music and animation went together, each supporting the other. They are also paying attention to how music enhances the animations they watch at lunch time.

Art with Iviva
Students have been learning about symmetry in honor of 2/2/22 day for the past two weeks. First, we viewed images of plants and animals that have symmetry. We also noted how our own bodies have symmetry, by holding our hands together and seeing that they are mirror images of each other. This week, we practice scissor skills and symmetry. After folding our papers in half, we drew squiggly or jagged lines from a point connecting the top and bottom of the fold. We cut along the line, opened up our papers, and discovered the symmetrical shapes we created.

Shabbat Shalom,

Talia, Liz, and Ilana