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26 Sep 2019
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September 26, 2019

Advisory

In advisory this week, students met their buddies and read a story as a group, The Empty Pot. Great fun was had! On Friday, October 4th, students will be reading the same book to the kindergarten and first grade classes of Brooklyn Landmark Elementary School as part of their Guest Reader Friday program. Literacy is an essential component to the year-long Social Action Project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hebrew 

One group learned the topic of “How does music influence us?” The students read different research, learned about the influence of music on people’s behavior, and wrote about their experiences and thoughts.

The second group learned how to organize a surprise party, what to say, and how people feel. The students discussed these special days in our lives.

We also started working on units “For Hebrew” website and learning new words through on line interactive activities and games.

 

Humanities 

In ELA classes, students have been reading and analyzing Julius Caesar, digging into the language and trying to determine who is responsible for the fall of Caesar. We’ve been listening to an audio version of the play, as well as reading it aloud. Our vocabulary study is moving along; we are currently at week 3, which includes words like redress, unassailable, oration, and reverence.

In social studies, we’ve been thinking about the factors that lead to the development of the Roman republic. To make sense of this chapter of our history book, students used an alphanumeric outline to summarize the main ideas. This is a foundational note-taking skill that will assist them in their future academic careers. In the next chapter, we investigate the factors that caused Rome to transition from a republic to an empire and the reasons for its fall. To make sense of this chapter, we’re focusing on the skill of writing clearly about history. How can our writing be clear, effective, and historically accurate?

 

Math

Factors, Multiples, Prime Numbers, oh my! 

The 7th grade has been hard at work using what they’ve learned about Prime Factorization to find the Greatest Common Factor and Least Common Multiple of large numbers. Finding the GCF and LCM of 3 and 6 is easy, but what about larger numbers like 3120 and 4200? Our 7th graders can do it easily by using Factor Trees and Continuous Division aka Factor Ladder aka The Factor Shelf™ (Michael Schneider, 2019). They’re also using these techniques to figure out the square roots and cube roots of large numbers without using a calculator. How interesting that a technique can be utilized in so many different ways. It can be a challenge sometimes, but it’s still a lot of fun!
Judaic Studies
It’s been a powerful and fun 2 weeks of learning texts about Rosh haShana with the 7th grade! Students learned Rosh haShana songs and traced the evolution of this holiday from Torah til today. Did you know that the Torah says nothing about the 1st of Tishrei being the start of a new year? That idea doesn’t appear in Jewish texts until the Mishna, redacted in 200CE. Is it troubling to think that Jewish holidays evolved over time? Ask your 7th grader what he/she thinks! And get ready to admire some gorgeous Rosh haShana cards, created as a final project to celebrate and demonstrate the learning we did together in this unit.
Shana tova!

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