Starting to Feel a Lot Like Spring

Dear Senesh Community,

As March rolls in like a lamb instead of a lion, we take great comfort in the sunny warm days to ease our burden during these challenging times.  The ice banks have melted, our days have lengthened and our curious and industrious second grade scholars continue to thrive at Senesh.  Please read on below to learn more about specific academic developments across all content areas.

General Studies – Jacob

In the past months, the second-graders have been engaged in significant and meaningful conversations about identity and discrimination. We considered all the different factors that shape our identities and discussed the similarities and differences amongst us. While learning about the Civil Rights Movement, we also discussed how parts of an identity can be used to discriminate and treat people unkindly. We were inspired by the brave and heroic activists who worked to make change and realized that their work continues today. Inspired by the brave individuals who stood up to injustice, the second-graders created protest signs advocating for the causes they care about. Their signs advocated for protecting the environment, ending racism, and preventing the spread of coronavirus.

Hebrew & Judaic Studies – Ariana

We have been learning so much in the past weeks.  With Purim behind us we are currently turning our full attention to Passover. We started remembering the story of this holiday and we are so excited to get deeper into our learning.

This week we learned that Passover has four names, Chag ha Aviv (The Holiday of Spring), Chag Ha Matzot (The holiday of Matzot), Chag Ha Cherut (The holiday of freedom) and Chag HaPesach (Passover). We spoke about the meaning behind each name and discussed that we also have multiple names and nicknames just like this holiday has.  Over the next few weeks we will be learning all about the traditions and important details of Passover, stay tuned.

In Chumash we have learned so many new pesukim, we finished learning about Yom Shilshi (the third day of creation) and Yom Revihi (The fourth day of creation). We created a vocabulary bag for the new words we are learning in each pasuk.  We learned that the Torah has a special way to describe the sun, the moon and the stars.  These are called the “Meorot, the Maor ha Gadol is the sun, The Maor ha Katon is the moon and the Kochavim are the stars.  We made up a chant to remember these new words. Feel free to ask the kids to sing it for you.

“ Shemesh Yerach ve Kochavim” (3 times)

“Yom Revihi” (1 time).

We are currently learning about the 5th day of creation.  We look forward to continuing learning Chumash together and more about Passover as well.  In Hebrew, we have been working on Chaverim Be Ivrit, our new book.   We are learning all about Tamar and her family and friends.   We also created a vocabulary bag (milon) to review new words.

The new units include the members of the family (Ima , aba , ach achot, tinok, kelev chatul), Yesh Li and Eyn Li (i have and i don’t have), vocabulary related to birthdays (uga, nerot, sukariot, hazmana, yom uledet)..

We are practicing to discuss our age and ask people how old they are as well (ben kama ata?/ Bat kama at?.  We are also learning ze and zot. We are currently practicing our conversational skills with our friends in the class. For example: Ze Ethan, Zot Ariana.  We are also adding a few new Teharim (adjectives) such as: Gadol/gdola, katan/ktana, smaeach/smecha.  We are choosing words in our vocabulary bag to formulate simple sentences.

The children are reading in Hebrew beautifully and writing in script with confidence and accuracy.  We look forward to continuing learning together in the weeks ahead!

Math & Science – John

Our future mathematicians and scientists have been keenly developing their problem solving competencies and quenching their thirst for scientific discovery as explorers who draw deep connections with how we can save our planet by conserving one of our most precious natural resources. Soil.  Our thematic units this month have been structured with a plethora of hands on activities designing bar models to represent our abstract problem-solving of two-step real-world problems.  Our mathematicians write their own problem sets using content vocabulary from a word bank and then solve them with the four-step problem-solving method; Read, Draw, Write & Check.  As they interpret what is asked in each problem set, they then plan how to represent the part-whole relationship with well-defined, shaded diagrams supported with addition and subtraction number sentences.  These skills set the stage for project-based learning which will begin to utilize multiplication and division in the upcoming months.

Our future scientists have been so excited about their compost bags as they check-in on the progress and hard work of their red earthworms after one month munching away on decaying vegetable scraps and plant matter to create moist, vitamin-rich humus for healthy plants to grow.  We have also been examining the three different components of soil; clay, sand and humus through a series of hands-on experiments which observe how different characteristics change with and without water.  By moistening fine dry, hard clay particles with liquid droppers and then mixing them with small wooden sticks, our scientists experience how they can sculpt clay into soft, sticky slippery balls.  After three days, they observe how the balls have hardened and dried and then crush them into fine dust to start the cycle again just as in nature.  We look forward to Passover and the coming of spring to continue growing in these important inquiry-based areas of learning.

Music – Heidi

In Music, Second Graders have been reviewing/learning about the four sections of the orchestra (Strings, Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion) by listening to Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. This week, they played sticks along to the rhythm of the recurring theme (originally written by Henry Purcell) that appears throughout the piece. And they learned the term Fugue, the musical structure of Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.

Thank you Senesh community for being such an integral part of this journey (masa), as we march together guiding our early childhood learners to be the best they can be.  Stay tuned for our next blog in early spring.