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Weeks 28 and 29: Monday, March 25th – Friday, April 5th

Hebrew

This week the 8th grade has finished reviewing the Future tense and we have starting preparing for our trip to Israel. The students are all enthusiastic and excited! Next Tuesday, the students will have a culminating quiz on the Future tense.
I wish everyone a relaxing weekend,
Andreea

Heritage 

להורים שלום
השבוע התחלנו לתכונן לטקס יום הזכרון אשר במסגרתו התלמידים לומדים על מלחמות ישראל. במסגרת הטקס התלמידים ילמדו את השיר “זה הקיץ האחרון שלי” של הלהקה שפיות זמנית.
סוף שבוע טוב,
אילנה

Humanities 

ELA: Students have been reading Night by Elie Wiesel.  We have been discussing how trauma shapes identity and looking at the ways the concentration camps reversed all moral standards.  As historian Gideon Grief once wrote, the camps constituted “‘another planet,’ a place that functioned on different, unknown principles. . . . Auschwitz constituted a reality that had never before existed and had never been known, let alone experienced.” As a class, we are grappling with decisions that were made by the characters in Wiesel’s book so that they might survive just a little longer. 

In the next weeks, we will continue to explore the moral complexity of the decisions made by Eliezer, his father, and other prisoners in Night. We will also look at what resistance might look like in these harrowing conditions.

Social Studies: We have been studying the Bill of Rights, and in particular, Supreme Court case law and precedent related to the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments. Students have been given the facts of real cases heard before the Supreme Court and asked to decide how they would decide the outcome of famous cases like Miranda v. Arizona, Baston v. Kentucky, and the District of Columbia v. Heller.

In the next weeks,  students will be assessed on their ability to apply their understanding of the cases and exceptions we have learned about to new hypothetical cases.  They will need to understand the holdings of the various cases we have discussed and apply them to scenarios that seem similar or explain why the case before them should be distinguished from previous precedent.

Israel 

Today the 8th graders had the opportunity to Skype with former Shinshin, Itay Gilboa. Itay grew up in a kibbutz on the border of Gaza, just outside of Sderot. He is currently in the IDF and stationed on the Gaza border. Last week Andreea prepared the students for speaking to Itay by teaching about the history of Land Day – a day of commemoration for Palestinians which became well known last year as the first day of Palestinian protest on the Gaza border.  Students asked Itay questions about serving in the IDF, living through the Israel-Gaza conflict in 2014, Land Day and the recent incidents of fire kites from Gaza.
We are getting excited for next week’s Hackathon with the IAC (Israeli American Council).  The program will begin with an inspirational talk from an Israeli entrepreneur in the field of technology or communication.  Students will then be divided into teams and given a “task” (for example, creating a tourist video for an El Al flight).  Using a dynamic problem solving method, teams are encouraged to think creatively to design an original product. Each team will work side by side with a successful Israeli mentor and professional.  We are grateful that Noam Engelberg (parent of Iddo – 1st grade), Yael Amit (parent of Lily K – Kindergarten) and Ran Cohen (parent of Evia – 2nd grade) have agreed to join us for this incredible initiative. We hope that you will join us for the final presentations at 1:30 next Friday, 4/12.  We have ordered a pizza lunch and snacks for all 8th graders, so no need to pack a lunch!
Phyllis and Andreea

Judaic Studies 

To conclude our study of Purim, the 8th graders looked at various Jewish texts about drinking and alcohol. Why do we start so many holidays and rituals with kiddush, blessing wine?

Math

8X is coming up on the tail-end of quadratic functions before exploring other functions such as absolute value functions and exponential functions. That is what 8Y has been up to as of late, in addition to exploring real-world applications such as exponential growth and decay. They’re also learning about how to make wise financial decisions via the exploration of simple interest versus compound interest and how the amount of times interest is compounded affects how much money is made on an initial investment. On the horizon is the most difficult type of function in Algebra 1, the piecewise function.

Science

Science continue their exploration of physics. These past few weeks we have been exploring the concept of momentum. Students used simulation software to see the differences between kinetic and potential energy within a roller coaster system. Then they conducted an experiment using a force meter to see a direct correlation of momentum and impact force. After this experiment, students had to again create their own custom experiments to continue their personal explore of the concept of momentum. For example, some came up with experiments that explored how many layers of different materials is required to stop an object’s motion. Throughout this unit students have been engaged and creative with the physic concepts we have explored. Next in science we will start investigating the forces of physics by explore the physics of bridges.