Snow Flakes, Happy Hearts and a New Year For Fruit

Dear Senesh Community,

As we approach our mid-winter president’s week break and the big white urban slopes melt away, our second graders have been busy planting new seeds, well-rooted in wisdom for our spring semester.  Tu B’Shvat marks an important time for our thirsty, young learners to to germinate and blossom with ripe new fruit for 2021.  Please read on to learn more about specific developments in all content areas.

General Studies – Jacob

These past couple weeks in second-grade we have been talking a lot about our school values. The children have been thinking about what they are, and also how we practice them in our lives. We noticed that the values sound simple to do, but it is not always that easy. Recently we focused on the value of openness and thought about how it connects to the book, The Dot by Peter H. Reynolds. After reading the book, we discussed how we can feel nervous when we try something new and worry about making mistakes. We talked about the importance of trusting ourselves, but we agreed that trusting ourselves can be very challenging. 

To help us practice trusting ourselves, the pods participated in an art activity. While listening to the same set of instructions, each student created their own design based on how they interpreted the instructions. The rules were simple: 

Trust yourself! 

By trusting themselves, the students created unique, personal designs and uncovered the possibilities of being open to new experiences.

Math, Science & Social-Emotional Learning – John 

In this last fortnight, our mathematicians completed their unit on Time and Money and enjoyed the opportunity to engage in hands on projects as well as simulated real-world problems using currency.  After we finished our paper clocks and practiced different scenarios using A.M. and P.M., we made change using bills and coins.  We also practiced sorting coins into different categories by value, shape, decade, century and type of metal.  Solving two-step, real-world, word problems, using tables, laid the the bedrock to support our new unit on using bar models for addition and subtraction.  This is a very important foundation which our scholars will use throughout their formative years both inside and outside of the classroom.  The detailed pictorial representations they create to demonstrate their abstract thinking will certainly support them as future problem solvers of the world.

In science, we began investigating soil by testing our predictions with observations of its components.  Students began to record their findings of organic and in-organic matter as they used their hand lenses for a close up look at this crucial resource of the earth.  We delved into learning the different layers of soil and their important functions as we prepare for our next live experiment making compost bags with our ultimate recyclers of the planet, red earthworms.

Our social-emotional unit on being your BEST; Body Language, Eye Contact, Speech and Tone of Voice, allowed our second graders to understand that the tone, volume and sincerity of our words can be just as powerful as the actual words we choose.  Making good choices also includes using the right speech.

Hebrew & Judaic Studies – Ariana

These past weeks we have learned so much in kita bet. We were able to learn about Tu B’Shevat.  We learned the story of Honi Hameagel, Honi, the circle maker. In the story, a wise holy man learned a lesson about the importance of planting trees. He did not understand why one should plant if one can’t get to enjoy the fruits the tree will grant. Honi learned first hand that it’s important to plant for the next generations.  We learned about the 7 ha minim the seven species that are characteristic to the land of Israel. The children made slideshows in Seesaw and also reflected about the lessons learned from Honi’s story too.

While on line, we heard two Hebrew stories weather related. One was Brrr Kar and the other Yesh geshem bachutz.  Both stories introduced us to vocabulary related to clothing and other elements. We learned the words magafaim (boots) mehil (coat), mehil gueshem(rain coat) Mitria (umbrella) and kfafot (gloves).  The kids also took pictures of their Mitriot (umbrellas) as they appeared in the story “Yesh geshem bachutz.  The children answer questions about the stories as well.

We are almost ready to finish our script books and we look forward to starting learning with our new Hebrew book, Chaverim ve Ivrit.  The children created a Jewish calendar with index cards to review the Jewish months.  We added the Jewish holidays of each month for future reference too.

Now, we are learning Chumash again. We learned new verses and are creating a vocabulary bag with index cards.  We learned the pesukim 11, 12 and 13. The kids did an amazing job finding the new vocabulary in the pesukim and understanding deeply the verses. We also split the group into two smaller groups to search for words in two different verses. We realized that there is a certain vocabulary that repeats itself in the Bible.  We also realized that God was pleased with his creation.  We are becoming experts and truly getting more comfortable learning the antique language that is classic to Bible studies.

Finally, we created a communal tree with all kinds of parts within our tree. We reviewed the parts of the tree in Hebrew and we wrote sentences explaining why we love trees using the form, “Ani ohev etzim ki”…

We look forward to continuing learning together in the next few weeks.

Music – Heidi

Now that Second Graders are getting more adept at reading rhythms, we have begun to learn about syncopation and time signatures other than 4/4. Last week, for Tu Bishvat, we read the rhythms of “The Green Grass Grows All Around” and split classes in half to perform the different echoing parts of the song. This week, we examined a song in 6/8 called “Little Snowflakes.”

Thank you, Senesh community for all that you do in supporting our scholars to be the best they can be.  May we all enjoy the blessed fruits of our our hard work as we prepare for another short reset with family and friends for mid-winter recess.  Stay tuned for our next blog, as we welcome March to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb.

Art with Iviva

Students have been learning about how to draw from observation versus what they imagine. For Tu B’Shvat, they drew flowers I brought into school, or trees outside the windows of their classrooms. While we were in Zoom school, they drew snow scenes outside their homes or created a still life from objects found at home.