MLK, Tzitzit, Bingo, Tu B’shvat

Community Building

With the new year underway, we have been working on building our community and embracing our fresh groups. We started discussing about the different ways that we speak to each other, and how it can make the other person in the conversation feel. We learned about three different ways we can speak: aggressively, passively, or assertively. Second graders brainstormed what these three ways of speaking would look and sound like. With our new stuffed animal friends, Davey the dog and Beth the bunny, we role played scenarios that have happened in the classroom using aggressive speech, passive speech, and assertive speech. By learning what these types of ways to communicate sound and look like, we are recognizing when we employ different ways of speaking and how we can change it so that we get our message and feelings across in a polite and respectful way. We also practiced being the recipient of these manners of speaking, and agreed that when spoken to in an assertive manner we each felt the most respected and able to receive the message.

At home, role play a scenario that happens in your household and have your child practice using assertive speech to solve the problem.

Social Studies

In social studies we began by thinking about how we celebrated the new year and studied how other cultures celebrate new years. We learned that many cultures celebrate the new year at a different time in the year, just as the Jewish people celebrate Rosh Hashanah in September/October, and that many cultures have foods and customs associated with bringing good luck for the new year. In the book Shanté Keys and the New Year’s Peas by Gail Piernas-Davenport, Shanté goes searching for black-eyed peas which her grandmother makes to symbolize good luck in the new year. As Shanté searches through her diverse neighborhood, she learns the different ways her neighbors celebrate the new year. We decided to use the grandmother’s recipe and cook her Hoppin John’s black-eyed peas as a class! We made a wish  for the new year on our black-eyed peas, as we cut onions, celery, and garlic. When finished we enjoyed our black-eyed peas and felt proud of what we made together. These second graders are awesome chefs!

If you are interested in making this at home with your child, follow the recipe below:

Writing, Reading, and Social Studies

Over the past few weeks we have been preparing for our Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tekes, which provided a wonderful opportunity to integrate writing, reading, and social studies. In reading groups we read nonfiction books about Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks. We delved into The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, a story about a six year old African American girl who bravely enrolls in a school designated for only white children. We studied the cover of this book to gain information about what this book will be about, and to already begin thinking about the author’s message. We used a chart as we listened to take down notes or draw about what we were learning and what we want to learn about these brave leaders. Second graders asked thoughtful questions such as, “Why was there so much separation when they could all be friends?” or “Why didn’t more people say that this is unfair?”

After reviewing the actions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ruby Bridges, the second graders brainstormed and selected a few big words to describe qualities of great leaders. Then, they chose a quote from a recent read aloud that felt particularly important to them. Over the next few days we turned these planning sheets into gorgeously detailed ‘story quilt’ squares made with marker, construction paper, colored pencil and textured scrapbook paper. Students carefully arranged their big words and quotations on the square, arranging them with drawings and symbols of freedom, peace, friendship, love, bravery and equality. Next, each child worked to create a detailed, quilt-like border, inspired by Faith Ringgold’s art.

Keep your eye out for our beautiful quilt on the 2nd bulletin board!

Below is a video of the improv dance moves the Cherries added to the song We Shall Overcome that we sang at the tekes.

We Shall Overcome Part 2 from Jessica Dalfen on Vimeo.

We Shall Overcome Part 3 from Jessica Dalfen on Vimeo.

Hebrew: Playing Hebrew Bingo in Honor of 75th day of School!

We played Bingo in honor of the 75th day of school last week. Second graders have become experts at Hebrew counting since we count each day by one, twos, fives, or tens. Ben had the idea to count by twos on the odd number days, starting with one, so that we could also practice the odd numbers.

Yahadut: The Mitzvah of Tzitzit and Havdallah

We’ve incorporated two new rituals into our prayer service: reciting havdallah on Mondays, and wearing tzitzit for the chazanim.

Ask your child how the tzitzit can help us think of the number 613, and why that number is significant.

 

Tu B’shvat

To prepare for Tu’b’shvat we read Hebrew books about tu b’shvat and worked on our Hebrew vocabulary of fruits and tree parts. Today we attended a STEAM Tu b’shvat fair with our buddies.

Musical Kabbalat Shabbat

In thsi week’s parsha, the Israelites pass through the splittting sea and Miriam leads the women in celebration with musical instruments. To honor this celebration, we had a musical Kabbalat shabbat in class!

Art with Iviva:

Second graders have been using art to express what they know, think and feel about both Tu B’shvat and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Tu B’shvat projects included making flower and leaf pipe cleaner crowns, which students wore joyfully, and making elaborate drawings of the seven significant plants, barley, wheat, fig trees, date trees, pomegranate trees, olive trees and grapes. For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we focused on his positive messages of fairness, justice, kindness and peace. Viewing peace symbols, students drew their own versions, emphasizing friendship, kindness and togetherness. This activity and related conversation helped us think about how we embody school values of kindness and openness.