Hello 4th Grade Families!

General Studies with Mike:

We’re finished our math unit on estimation and number theory early this week. Towards the end of the week, we moved into whole number multiplication and division. Students should continue to practice their multiplication times tables through the number 12 at home. You can find multiplication games at timestables.com/games.

Students are really enjoying our read aloud, The Tiger Rising By Kate DiCamillo. Over the past two weeks, we formed opinions about our own independent reading books on various topics – defining characters with character traits, determining whether our main characters make responsible decisions, etc. We then used evidence from the text to support those opinions.

We connected writing to social studies as we began drafting our first pieces to be published: historical realistic fiction stories set during the Age of Exploration. Students have enjoyed the challenge of keeping their stories both realistic and historically accurate, all while including the other elements of story, such as a story arc and interesting leads. Students especially enjoyed using random name generators to give their character historically accurate Spanish and English names.

Judaic Studies with Margaret:

This week in Judaic Studies we studied the life of Hannah Senesh in preparation for our tekes on Wednesday. We learned about Hannah’s childhood in Budapest, Hungary and what life was like for Jews as they faced increasing discrimination in Europe. After her own experiences with antisemitism Hannah chose to learn more about Zionism, study Hebrew, and recruit others into building a Jewish homeland. At 18 Hannah moved to Palestine where she studied at Nahalal, an agricultural school. Though she always dreamed of being a writer like her father, Hannah worked tirelessly at Kibbutz Sdot Yam doing farm work. Hannah felt lonely at the kibbutz. She worried about her family, who were stuck in Europe during the increasingly violent times. Given the uncertainty of her family’s fate and the wave of antisemitism, she volunteered for a covert mission in the hopes of liberating Jews and allies. We learned of her capture by Hungarian police and her interrogation. Hannah wrote poetry from her jail cell. She never gave up her dream of being a writer. Our class illustrated Hannah’s diary entries and presented them at the tekes on Wednesday.

Hebrew with Ilana S.:

This week the fourth grade where busy working on there skits of the story that they learned “The Cup Of Eliyahu”. I sent the videos of the skits to the class email. Before the skits they practiced the vocabulary, worked on comprehension and writing a summery of the story. In addition, the students were excited to have the script of the Chanuka play. This year the 4th grade will lead the play. And next week we will start working on it.

Shabbat Shalom