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23 Jan 2020
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January 24, 2020

Advisory 

HS Information Update from Mike Dorfman: 

Dear 7th Grade Parents,

Thank you so much for coming to High School Night last week at Hannah Senesh!
It was great meeting you, and I hope you found the session informative and helpful. I wanted to follow up with some links and info from what was discussed:

1) Please find the HS Night Powerpoint here (the first link under “General Information” that says ‘High School 2020 Winter Presentation).  

1a) Many of you mentioned it would also be helpful to see the High School Timeline: that is on the resource page as well.

2) Here is the link to the HS Resources Web Page: There you can find more information about schools, tests, and tours.

3) We are looking forward to you beginning the conversation with your student about high school (and hope you are too!)
I’ll be presenting last night’s presentation to 7th graders in the coming weeks. Please fill out the High School Interest Form (with your student) by Monday, 2/3/2020.

4) Schedule a meeting with me starting the week of 2/10/2020 to begin one on one conversations regarding high school placement. Meetings should include students unless otherwise requested.

5) Save the Date! April 4th, 2020 (5:30-7:30) at Brooklyn Waldorf School will be the Brooklyn Independent High School Fair. This is a yearly event designed only for 7th grade students and families currently enrolled in a Brooklyn based independent school. Some of last year’s participating schools included: ‘

Bay Ridge Prep
Berkeley Carroll School
Brearley School
Brooklyn Friends
Browning School
Calhoun School
Friends Seminary
Fusion Academy
Hewitt School
LREI
Packer Collegiate Institute
Rudolf Steiner School
Saint Ann’s School
Trevor Day School
UNIS

Feel free to reach out with any questions! I’m always to happy to help: mdorfman@hannahsenesh.org
Best,
Mike

 

Israel class with Phyllis and Ilana NB
Over the past few weeks the 7th graders have been learning about the mass immigration of Jews to Israel from Europe and Arab countries following the country’s birth. Did you know that over 700,00 Jewish refugees made Aliyah between 1948-1952, more than doubling the Jewish population of the country. This number mirrors the 700,000 Palestinians who became refugees during the War of Independence. Questions such as “Who should have been responsible for the Palestinians?” allowed us to explore the complexity of the situation. Special guest Tomer Gekler (our new Brownstone Brooklyn Shaliach) visited 7X on Wednesday and will visit 7Y on Monday. He spoke about the maabarot or temporary housing camps where his family and many new immigrants lived upon arriving in Israel. He ended by giving the students a challenge – imagine a million immigrants arrive in Brooklyn and you are the experts in charge of integrating them into society- what is your plan?
Service Week
The seventh graders made a delicious meal of lasagna, salad and fruit salad for the homeless shelter in Bed Stuy through CAMBA. They also read about the stories of two homeless children from a New York Times article in November whose headline shockingly shared that 114,000 students in NYC are homeless. A big thank you goes out to Daniel and Marianna Rosen for delivering and serving the dinner.

 

Science

Students have been exploring how diverse our environment is on Earth. We quickly studied water pollution and its effects on the environment. This allowed us to build a foundation of knowledge in order to start our next project. Students in Judaic studies explored the holiday of Tu Bishvat and consulted some text. These conversations were then applied in science to form Tu Bishvat informational booths. Students are working hard in preparing for their Tu Bishvat event on Monday 2/10. They have quick started the creation of interactive components based on their foundational text. We are looking forward to continuing working on this event in the next few weeks in science.

 

Math

The 7th grade is almost done with textbook A as they move on to learning about Ratio, Rate, and Speed. After that, they will tackle Percentages before moving on to Linear Inequalities in textbook B.

The units on Rates and Percentages are especially fun for 7th graders because they involve a lot of real world concepts and applications. It’s always enjoyable for students when they are finally able to apply math concepts that seem abstract to their everyday world.
Judaic Studies
In 7X, students were responsible for choosing a grammar skill to teach their classmates. This included making a google slideshow to teach the skill; creating an activity to help students practice the skill; and writing a test to assess the skill. Students taught each other what they learned this week and everyone’s grammar abilities have improved!
In 7Y, we translated the next 5 psukim in Chapter 11 of Bmidbar. In addition to learning new grammar skills (the hey hasheila) and vocabulary, students looked at mefarshim (commentators) and raised and responded to their own kushiyot (text-based questions). In addition, we were introduced to two tools for literary analysis: mila mancha (“leitwort” or key word) and intertextuality. Students applied both of these new tools brilliantly to the psukim (verses) we are studying.
Shabbat shalom!

 

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