What’s Happening in 5th- 3/12/21

Humanities: 

In fifth grade we are finishing “Wonder” this week. We have continued discussions about drawing themes from the book, and exploring how the book uses different character’s point of view to add to it’s narrative. We are looking forward to seeing what the students create for their final projects next week. We are halfway through our Argumentative Writing unit. Students have worked on their snow day issue essays to improve paragraph structure and learned to quote and paraphrase evidence from reliable sources. We will continue this unit with students writing an argumentative essay about a topic of their choice next week. In social studies, we have started to learn about the geography features that made Egypt a hub of ancient civilization. One of our favorite days from last month was being able to bake Hamantaschen during Humanities on Purim. If only every class could end with fresh cookies.

Shena and Milo

Math: 

We have had a great couple of weeks in 5th grade math! The students have been working hard on learning about operations with decimals. They created a menu  for their own restaurant, pretend dined at their own restaurant and their classmates! They had an introduction to tax and tip and even got to create a commercial for their restaurant, which were all amazing! 

Judaics:

Judaics has been filled with excited screams and cheers as we prepare for our Chumash quiz Monday using quizlett live. I have been very proud of the 5th graders and their excitement for learning vocabulary and grammar. They have already been able to see how exciting it is to decode a text in Hebrew with their new skills. We have continued our Chumash studies with Joseph and his story. We have had some very serious conversations around; why people do bad things, how we can be upstanders, can people change, mourning the loss of a loved one and what does it feel like to have God with you. The text has given us so many opportunities to explore these big topics in our own lives. We also acted as detectives and practiced picking up hidden details in the text by making crime boards (seen below) about who bought and sold Joseph.

We will be studying about the Four Children in preparation for Passover as well as learning the Passover Kiddush. I will be sending a family source sheet if you would like to bring some of your student’s learning to your seder or into at home discussions.

After Passover we will begin having 5th graders read Torah in their pods. I will send a video of your child reading Torah. Look out in your emails for the schedule for when your child is reading. Please help them remember to study their part.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hebrew Heritage:

להורים שלום,

אני מקווה ששלומכם בטוב.

התלמידים ממשיכים לעבוד על פרויקט ״ספורטאים ישראלים באולימפיאדה״, כל אחד מהם בחר 3 ספורטאים שזכו במדליות באולימפידה וערך מחקר אודותם. לאחריו בעזרת מקלדת בעברית הם החלו את כתיבתם במחשב. במהלך עבודתם התלמידים קראו קטעי קריאה אודות הספורטאים, צפו בסרטי תעודה וכתבו פיסקאות.

שבת שלום והרבה בריאות,

אילנה

Hebrew with Yuliya

In Hebrew class we have been continuing to learn life stories and last month we learned about Rabbi Akivah, famous actor Adam Sandler, famous singer Elvis Presley and famous blind and deaf writer Helen Keler. We learn Hebrew through the Jewish tradition and Israeli culture. Therefore learning and speaking about Purim in class we watched Purim Story and students enjoyed  listening Hebrew songs. In addition, they wrote stories about their favorite actors and performed them in the class. 

Science

In science, the students have been working on our 2nd physics unit which focuses on mass, weight, and density. This can be a challenging topic with confusing concepts and I am really impressed with how the students are doing. Over the last two weeks specifically, we have focused on density and how it affects an objects’ buoyancy. Students learned how to measure the volume of an irregular shape using displacement in a graduated cylinder. Then, after finding mass with a scale, students learned how to calculate the density of an object (density = mass / volume). After reviewing the chart of objects that sunk vs. floated students discovered a key fact- that objects will sink if their density is higher than the fluid’s density. This knowledge is currently being explored again via an online simulation in Explore Learning.