April 26, 2013

The Gefen class is buzzing with activity and excitement. All of the students are becoming experts on their "countries." Each day they look forward to country study time. This week we have just about completed our research and now we are beginning to prepare our presentation boards.

We learned the five parts of a letter: date, greeting, body, closing and signature, and how to set up a letter properly. Then, everyone wrote a practice letter to a friend or relative and we also pretended to be "Dear Abby" and offered our advice for some tough problems through letter writing.

For Torah we read and discussed the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors. We talked about bragging, jealousy and what it would be like to grow up in a family with many siblings.

We had a short introduction to our unit on Ghana this week. The children were put into groups and did a small amount of research about culture, clothing, sports, the language, etc. just to get a taste of what is to come. In our research we discovered that the cacao bean is Ghana's number one export so we will also be doing a unit on chocolate!

Our planting unit was introduced this week as well. We saw a short video about how planting is done on a farm and we generated a list of what we know about planting. And, then, with the help of Alyssa's grandfather who is an avid gardener, we planted sunflower seeds.

Filling our cups with soil.

Learning about sunflowers.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

Reminders:
On Monday, April 29, we will be celebrated a belated Lag B’Omer Field Day
with Color War events including races, freeze dance, knockout, etc.

All students have been assigned to teams: white, blue, green, and red.

On Monday,
All students must wear sneakers.
Each student should wear his/her team color.
Each student must bring a water bottle.
Parents should apply sunscreen before school (we are not permitted to
apply sunscreen at school.)
 
This Tuesday school is out at 11:45 due to the remaining conferences.

Also, please send in the name and address of your child's special visitor who will be joining us on May 10th.

April 19, 2013

Dear Gefen Families,

What a busy week!

On Tuesday we celebrated Yom Ha'aztmaut and the kids had a blast! They were entertained by a clown named Rami Salami, learned some Israeli dances, made Israeli salad, tried lots of new Israeli foods, sang songs and even ate a cake in the shape of Israel.

Being entertained by Rami Salami.

Cutting tomatoes for the Israeli salad.

On Wednesday we celebrated Art Day. The first and second graders admired and were inspired by beautiful spring flowers as they used oil pastels and then watercolor paints to create their own flower portraits. They also made symmetrical art in math and created butterflies for our science fair board.

Creating flower portraits using oil pastels and watercolors.

On Thursday we did our final preparations for the science fair. Our question: Will this caterpillar turn into a moth or butterfly?

Butterfly or Moth?

In Torah this week we discussed the story of Jacob and Esau reconnecting. We focused on forgiveness and why it is so important.

Next week we will begin our final two social studies and science units; Ghana and planting. We will be doing them at the same time, spending two class sessions a week on each. Below is a picture of our Ghana groups. The students will be doing their own research using the computer and Ipads. If you are able to find any information that will help your child in his/her research, please send it in.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

Ghana groups

April 12, 2013

Dear Gefen Families,

We had a great time at The Butterfly Place! The students were asked to observe three different butterflies as well as notice what butterflies need to survive. They also completed a butterfly scavenger hunt. Now, we have caterpillars in our classrooms and we're waiting to see
what happens!

Doing some butterfly research.

Recording an observation.

Preparing to see the butterflies.

Checking out our new caterpillars.

"What do you notice about my caterpillar?"

In math we began our unit on place value. We started by looking at ones, tens and hundreds. For example, when we see the number 392, it really means 300 + 90 + 2. What happens if we want to add 10 more? One more?

This week in Torah we read the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel and having his name changed to Israel. We talked about all of the Jews being descendants of Jacob and where the name "Children  of Israel" came from. Then, we did some research on the Israeli flag. It was a perfect connection to Yom Ha'atzmaut which is coming up next week.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

Reminders:
No school on Monday.
Please have your child wear blue and white on Tuesday for our school-wide celebration of Yom Haatzmaut.


From Hamorah Sefi:

Israel Celebrates 65!

MWJDS will be celebrating Israel Independence day on Tuesday April 16th with many classroom and school-wide activities. We are very exited about that! 

Please have your child wear blue pants and white shirt so we can all be Degel Israel (The Israeli flag).

Essential Questions

When you ask your child what they did in Hebrew, do you often get “I don’t remember?” 

Ask students these questions to help guide a discussion about what they really did in Hebrew.

Can you tell me something about Hertzel? He had a very special idea, what was it?

Can you draw Semel Ha-Medina (Israel state symbol)? How old is Israel?

With your help, and encouragement  your child can become more and more comfortable reading Hebrew. Please ask your child to read nightly and please contact me with the first signs of reluctance.

Parent teacher conferences are coming up soon, it would be great to show and tell you about your child's progress in Hebrew. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Sefi

Working on our Country Study with one of our volunteers.

Getting ready for our Civil Rights Museum

April 5, 2013

Dear Gefen Families,

It was great to come back to school this week and see all of your wonderful children!

For math we continued with our review of addition and subtraction with carrying and borrowing. All of the students are doing a great job! Next week, we will move on to our unit on place value.

In Torah we continued our discussion about Jacob being tricked into marrying Leah. We tried to decide if he deserved it because he tricked his own father. We also discussed how Leah must have felt knowing that she was Jacob's "second choice."

We began our country study. There is such excitement in the classroom. We are using books and Ipads to research about our countries. Some of the things that we are trying to find out are:
foods, language, population, a typical school day, sports, and attractions. If you are able to find info on these specific things, please print and sent it in!

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

Reminders:

Our field trip to The Butterfly Place is this Tuesday, April 9th.
Book choices are due Wednesday, April 10th

Enjoying art class.

Working together to solve three digit subtraction problems.

Art class.

Doing a Mad Lib to practice parts of speech.

Working together.