Preparing for our Performance on June 2 @ 9am

Dear Families,

Please make sure that your students are practicing every night for this performance. There are songs both in Hebrew AND in English. We want to make sure that the songs are memorized. As well, each student has a line that they are saying to introduce the songs. Please have them memorize that line as well. An email was sent to you with the script and lyrics. Those plus the Blues song tracks can be found on Hilary’s google classroom page.

Thank you!
Rimma, Heidi, Tomer and Hilary

Math with Justin

Fourth Graders finished the year learning about customary and metric measurement. Our students learned the different units for measuring weight, length, volume, and temperature. We also learned about some of the different prefixes from the metric system (micro-, milli-, centi-, kilo-, mega-, etc) and how they are used with different base units. Did you know the metric system makes it easy to convert between the measurement of distance and volume?

In the metric system, 1 cubic centimeter of water weighs 1 gram and has a volume of 1 milliliter. To heat 1 milliliter of water 1 degree Celsius it takes 1 calorie of energy! Pretty easy, right?! In the customary units system, 1 cubic inch of water weights 0.58 oz, and has a volume of .07 cups. To calculate how much energy is needed to heat that water 1 degree Fahrenheit, you probably need a calculator and bachelors degree in science (it’s 0.036 BTUs aka British Thermal Units).

We also finished up the year reviewing important concepts from earlier in the year such as multiplying fractions, multi-digit multiplication and division, fractions, decimals, and strategies for solving word problems.

Humanities with Hilary

We are moving and grooving with these research papers! Students have written biographies about events, specific people, or a group of people. These biography drafts include the most important parts of what happened, and some students have included fun or interesting facts. We have thought about timelines, and how to create them. We started by writing timelines for ourselves, and then moved onto our research focus. For students who wrote about battles, they did more of an hour-by-hour breakdown of what occurred. For students who researched historical figures, they include the births and deaths of the person, as well as at least 5 other important moments in their life. The class made sure to focus on the person, not events happening around the world. For students who researched a group of people, they chose to make timelines of what was happening in the world during that time. Today, we started to create portraits or pictures to represent what happened or who the people were. All of this will be put together in a poster, which you will be able to explore on June 2 at our performance.

In Social Studies, we have been exploring slavery and the cause/effects that led to the Civil War. The class as a whole has been making really insightful comments about this, making connections to other historical figures or events we have talked about. For instance, when talking about the reasons the Confederates were fighting in the Civil War vs what the Union was fighting for, one student made a connection to the conflict in Ukraine, comparing the Confederate States of America with Ukraine and Russia with the United States of America. There were comparisons made between Ulysses S Grant’s life to the life of: Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and Anthony Johnson.

Another great discussion we had was about what home means. We learned that President Abe Lincoln wanted slavery to end but also wanted all Black people to return to Africa. At first, students were fine with that, because they could go home. Yet we started talking about what home means, and what that means to someone whose family has lived in America for generations — where is home? How would WE feel if our “home country” told us we had to move to a country we have never lived in or experienced? Do we think it’s right to make a person or a people do that? This conversation was very rich.

4th Graders are thinking really deeply about justice and equality, and these conversations should definitely continue at home!

Here are some team spirit boomerangs from our Lag B’Omer BQE Park experience yesterday: https://photos.app.goo.gl/Hs8UzZYp2BJkUqb77

Judaic Studies with Shira

After completing their Visit Israel projects the week of Yom Ha’atzmaut, students got a chance to present their projects to each other. Most students used the application Canva to create digital posters with many different features including drone videos, photos of famous sites, and catchy slogans. Later, we were visited by 8th grade students who had just returned from Israel. After learning about Israel for Yom Ha’atzmaut, and following the 8th grade Israel blog. It was great to hear personal anecdotes about the trip from the students themselves. They even mentioned some of the sites that 4th graders had learned about, like the shuk and western wall in Jerusalem. They showed us pictures and videos, shared highlights, and answered the fourth graders’ questions. The fourth graders are now all so excited to go on an Israel trip in eighth grade themselves!