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Sprinkling Spring Showers

Greetings Senesh Community,

As the mid-afternoon sun showers trickle down on the tender seeds our students have sown in our school garden, our second grade scholars have been applying their growing knowledge in many important areas.  Lag Baomer set the stage for our final academic push with a well deserved celebration of color, creativity and stewardship.  Our young learners had so much fun creating murals, and sidewalk art to support all the teams at Senesh and truly thrived in our adrenaline rushing relay races.  This is such an important and pivotal day for our learners to take a break from their diligent academic efforts, let loose and come together as a community which celebrates all colors, diversity and what it means to be unique.  Please read on below to learn more about specific developments in all content areas.

General Studies – Jacob

In the past few weeks, the second-graders have been building upon our earlier work exploring identity and race toward investigating immigration and culture. We began by observing maps of Brooklyn throughout time, noticing how our home borough has developed from small villages into the city we love today. We wondered why and how the city had grown in population size and considered why people move here. The children worked to understand how immigration works and through read-alouds reflected on the positives and negatives for people who chose to leave their home countries to come here. These conversations fueled an exploration of culture. We noted how no culture is better than another and that it is interesting to see and learn about the similarities and differences between them. Please see the pictures of 2C working together to look at images of This is How We Do It by Matt Lamothe to investigate the many cultures from around the world.

 

Math & Science – John

In math, our second graders have been measuring away like architects and city planners in centimeters, inches, feet and meters in our last unit on “Length”.  This week we also finished our new module on “Graphs and Line Plots” which offered creative opportunities to design tally charts, horizontal and vertical bar graphs and line plots using a number line.  Our mathematicians have had their first taste of the importance of analyzing and interpreting data and enjoyed making connections to the stock market and Covid-19 pandemic statistics.  Next week we will merge into our final thematic unit of the year with “Multiplication and Division” using arrays and times tables which leverage their previous well-developed fluency with skip counting.

Our future soil scientists have been working to save the world, as they put their final touches on their science journals, which include a collection of experiment record sheets, short essays and reading selections accumulated this semester.  We have learned how different plants respond in different types of soil in the classroom and in some of the most challenging environments on the planet.  If you are up for some light dinner conversation, ask your child what the difference is between a mirage and an oasis and how they form in the barren deserts of our Earth.

 

Hebrew and Judaic Studies – Ariana

In the past weeks in Judaic Studies we have been working on Chumash. We completed the sixth day of creation and reflected on God’s plan whenever creating the world.  We realized that the Sixth day is referred to as “Yom Hashishi ” and that at the end of creation, God recognized all was very good.  This helped us reflect on the beauty of creation and our responsibility to keep Earth clean and make it a safe, healthy place for everyone.

We also started practicing for our Chumash celebration.  We learned the Hebrew song “Toda,the song”Al Shlolsha D’varim” and the Hillel song. We are very excited to continue learning more songs for our big celebration on May 27th.  The children have also been practicing their speaking parts and we will continue to rehearse in the weeks ahead.  All the families will get a chance to select a Chumash for the children to receive at the event.   If you haven’t done so, please select a Chumash and complete the Google form that was sent.  We are excited and thrilled to receive our Chumashim!

Last Friday, we celebrated Lag Baomer. We had an amazing day full of fun.Each child created a 3D medura (bonfire).  We also learned about Rabbi Akivah and Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai.  The story of Rabbi Akiva is one that inspires us. Rabbi Akiva started learning Torah at the age of 40 and became one of the luminaries of the Jewish people. This teaches us that we need to pursue our dreams no matter the limitations. He also preached his students to love and respect one another. This is one lesson we want to highlight as it is still relevant today.

In Hebrew, we continue learning Yachid, Rabim, Yechida and Rabot (Singular and Plural for male and female forms).  We are also practicing new verbs such as: Roked, rokedet, rokdim, rokdot (dance), Kotev, kotevet, kotvim, kotvot (write), ochel, ochelet ochlim, ochlot.  We continue practicing Hebrew reading and writing, finding information in short paragraphs of our book Chaverim ve Ivrit and filling in the sentences.  We learned the story “Eliezer Ve Hagezer”. We are excited to answer questions about the story, dramatizing different parts and even learning a song based on this story.  We will continue learning more Hebrew classics.

We look forward to continuing learning together in the weeks ahead!

 

Music – Heidi

In Music, second graders are learning Hillel’s Song, which teaches them Hillel’s famous saying: “When people are acting inhuman, we must strive to be human.” Aside from learning to sing the song, students have examined the sheet music, further enhancing their music reading skills. They are looking forward to sharing this song with you at their end-of-year celebration.

 

Stay tuned for more updates later this month as the early summer days approach and our flower and vegetable garden really begins to burst with color and vitamins.

 

Warmly,

The Second Grade Team