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November 11: Fall Updates

Humanities 

We’ve been really busy in humanities! During reading we are over half-way through Wonder. Along the way we have tracked character development, made connections to our own lives, and continued to practice answering reading comprehension questions using complete sentences and examples from the text. As we read Jack’s chapters, students chose a project to complete. Many chose to do a reader’s theater performing some of the chapters we read. We loved seeing each groups interpretation of the conversations they performed.

During writing, students are working on a short essay about the history of their name. I hope you enjoyed sharing the story of how you chose your child’s names with them.  Using the information from that interview, they will write about the story of how they were named, reflect on their own feelings about their name, and explore if they feel any connection to the meaning of their name. In the coming weeks we will peer edit, revise, and publish the essays for sharing.

Finally, in social studies we are wrapping up our unit on early humans. We’ve learned about several species of hominins and the capabilities which allowed them to survive such as the invention of tools, ability to use fire, and living in small communities. In partners, the students chose a hominin we have studied and created a super-hero poster showcasing all they have learned. As a final project for this unit, the students will get to choose from three topics relating to early humans- the migration of hominins out of Africa, the discovery of an Ardipithecus fossil, and learning more about Neaderthals-  and will present their findings to the class.

 

Math

Hi families. We have officially moved into division. Students are using a variety of methods to determine quotients of multi-digit dividends and divisors. Using the process of estimate, divide, and check – Students explain why division methods are the same regardless of how many digits are in the dividend or in the divisor. As our numbers are getting bigger, students are developing fluency with estimation. They can use estimation to help them get started with division and determine whether a quotient is reasonable. Students know that if an estimate is too high, the number of groups of the divisor does not fit into the dividend, so they must remove at least one group. If an estimate is too low, there are more groups of the divisor that fit into the dividend, so they must add at least one group.

As students have become more comfortable with division, they have been applying their understanding of division to solve multi-step word problems. Coming up next, students will be challenged to solve multi-step word problems by using all four operations and they will notice there are multiple ways to draw a model that represents the same problem.

Judaic Studies

In Judaics this month, we finished the High Holidays by learning a midrash connecting the four species to body parts and another connecting them to different parts of our Jewish community. We examined how our sukkot practices reflect our values of inclusivity and responsibility through personal journaling. We next turned our attention to Torah and began our examination of the story of Joseph. We learned about how his brothers hated Joseph for being the favorite and receiving a special gift. We thought about big questions like: “What causes hatred?” and asked “How does our past affect our future?” when thinking about the difficult relationship that Joseph’s father, Jacob, had with his own brother. This week we have been studying the story of our own Hannah Senesh, focusing on what her beliefs were. The fifth graders wrote short essays discussing their own beliefs – the things that give their lives meaning. We will have the opportunity to hear a few of these essays read aloud during Kesher Day! 

Hebrew Heritage

,להורים שלום
אנחנו עוסקים ביחידה ״המדריך למטייל בישראל״, כשהמטרה היא להכיר את תעודת הזהות של ישראל, כמו כן אתרים מעניינים בה.   ענייננו הוא בים המלח כמקום יחיד ומיוחד במינו על כל היתרונות והבעיות הנלוות אליו בשנים האחרונות, כגון הבולענים. במהלך היחידה התלמידים נחשפים לאוצר מילים חדש תוך לימוד על האזור. לשמחתי הרבה מספר הורים התנדבו להגיע לכיתה ולספר לתלמידים אודות ים המלח, מצדה ואתר קומראן ובכך להרחיב את היריעה אודות הנושא.
מטרת היחידה היא להקנות לתלמידים את הכלים הנדרשים לכתיבת ״מדריך למטייל״ משלהם על מקום מיוחד עבורם בישראל או מקום שהיו רוצים לטייל בו ולהציגו בכיתה.
,מאחלת לכם סוף שבוע מהנה
אילנה
Hebrew with Tamar

5F 

In Hebrew we are working on the past tense through biography readings. We started with Hank Greenberg and Omri Casspi, reading about their achievements, their lives and backgrounds. We are using a biography booklet and enriching it with language games and assignments. The students will have an opportunity to work on a research project about a famous Jewish or Israeli person, using present and past tenses and the infinitive form of the verb. They will create a presentation to share with their classmates, and speak about the person they researched about.

It will give them an opportunity to practice language these language proficiencies – writing, reading

and speaking. I’m looking forward to seeing and listening to the presentations!
5E
In Hebrew we are working on strengthening all four language proficiencies. The students are working in partners interviewing each other practicing the verbs like, want, read, eat, play, draw, dance, sleep and the pronouns I and you. We are also using a booklet to practice reading and writing these verbs. Next project will be to create a short presentation of themselves talking about a talent or a hobby they have.
Science

We’re back in science! Now that the Jewish holidays have finished, we are able to have science twice a week again and really get to work. This month, students worked on their first engineering project, cotton ball catapults. Sorry if you have had items flying around your homes! This first project allowed students to get back into an engineering mindset and began our thinking on the forces involved in flight. 

We are now into our second flight-based engineering project, paper airplanes. We learned about the four forces at play during flight–weight, drag, lift, and thrust– and are thinking about those as we choose our designs.

For this project, students can use one piece of paper (either construction, printer, or lined) and no other materials. The first step was to make simple planes out of the 3 types of paper and test them so students could choose their building material. Next week we will continue with designing and testing.