November 20, 2020 — Chilly Weather Reminder

REMINDER

As it is getting colder, it is important for students to bring in their jackets, mittens/gloves, and/or hats EVERY. DAY. It is easier to bring it with you and either unzip it or take it off during outside time, than it is to be outside shaking and shivering from the cold. Please support your student by reminding them to wear it when they come to school. As well … the windows are open every day, so cold air does blow in

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Judaics Studies with Phyllis

This past Monday was Sigd, the holiday of Beta Israel or Ethiopian Jews, that falls 50 days after Yom Kippur. The fourth graders learned about historical theories of how the Beta Israel arrived in Ethiopia and the story of their return to Israel with Operations Solomon and Moses. Did you know that before their return to Israel the Beta Israel only celebrated holidays that appear in the Torah? To conclude our mini-unit the fourth graders researched and created illustrations of holiday traditions of the Beta Israel. This week we also began the read aloud, “Daughters of the Ark” which tells two stories -the story of Aleesha who travels from Jerusalem by caravan to Ethiopia in 939 BCE and the story of Debritu who travels from Ethiopia to her ancestral home to escape religious persecution and famine in 1984.

Thursday was also an important date on the Jewish calendar – the yarzheit of the former Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzchak Rabin. In fourth grade at Senesh we begin to expose our students to some of the more challenging moments of our history, such as Rabin’s assassination in 1995. The fourth graders had many questions about how and why the assassination happened. We learned about Rabin’s life in the military and focused on his message of peace by reading and discussing his famous quote that begins “I, military ID #30743, retired general in the Israel Defense Forces in the past, consider myself to be a soldier in the army of peace today.”

Finally, the students are progressing in their Chumash work. We are learning about Torah verbs and last week students began working in chevrutah (partnerships).

Math with Justin

Fourth graders are almost finished with their multiplication and division unit. They have learned about prime and composite numbers, factors, and multiples. They also practiced several different multiplication and division methods and their bar modeling skills when approaching multi-step word problems. These foundational concepts and skills will be used all year, especially in our next unit on fractions that we will begin shortly. Parents will have their own chance to learn about bar modeling at our Bar Models 101 class this coming Tuesday at 7pm. The students were also introduced to an online math game called Prodigy this week. Prodigy adapts to each students’ level and it is a fun way to practice math skills while at school or at home

Hebrew Heritage with Tomer

In 4th grade heritage we started talking about “My Family- המשפחה שלי) and the students learned new question words so they will be able to articulate questions to their family members. We started reading “דירה להשכיר” and discuss the meaning of the story.

Hebrew with Rimma

Hello Fourth Grade Families!

It’s hard to believe we are fast approaching Thanksgiving.

In Hebrew we have been enthusiastically exploring our unit about food. We created our own menus and learned what people eat in different countries. Everybody can have his or her personal preference and people are not arguing about the taste. “There’s no accounting for taste” teaches us this Hebrew proverb: על טעם וריח אין להתווכח !! Additionally, we have fully immersed in learning past tense and how to use it correctly.

In our class “ Israel “ we researched great Israeli inventions that have changed world for better.

Shabbat shalom!

Humanities with Hilary

Writing

We have begun our research projects, for our Publishing Event (being held on Wednesday, December 17 — check Hilary’s email from 11/19 to see your child’s time)!

Each student randomly chose one of the 13 Colonies to research. We are using a mixture of books and Hilary-approved websites to learn information. Students are taking notes based on different categories, such as geography/landforms, schools, occupations, slavery, games, agriculture, and social classes. The students were VERY smart, and had more categories to add like clothing and food.

Reading

Books Clubs are running smoothly, where some groups are almost finished reading it! One job students have been working on every week is illustrator, because drawing pictures is one way to show your comprehension. Another job we’ve been working hard at is word wonderer, where students work together with their group, to define words using context clues.

Social Studies

Over the past two weeks, we have been learning more about life in the colonies. We’ve delved into daily life, games, agriculture (farming or exports), and occupations! Below are some pictures of students playing with the Bilbo Catchers we created in class. Next week, we will be making horn books and pomander balls, and students will be bringing home Colonial Cook Books 🤩

4A pretending to be the Statue of Liberty with their bilbo catchers

Science with Sammi

Music with Heidi

Fourth Graders have been working on the intro, verse and chorus of their original songs in edu.bandlab.com. This week we talked a bit about workflow and how best to set up our files so we can work with each sound individually. So many wonderful creations!