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The Glueless Forest

  

Children have completed their 3-d design unit and have created a variety of structures and figures.  To earn the privilege of using glue and tape, kids first had to show they could build things using different attachment strategies.  Even after glue and tape were given to them, students continued to build small creatures and plants using their newly learned attachment strategies.  I decided to put all of their creations together in a display that we call “The Glueless Forest.”  The results are impressive and speak for themselves.

  

Scientists Come in all Shapes and Sizes

How do you separate a mixture of dry materials?

Fourth grade scientists have been working for weeks on mixing and separating mixtures, both wet and dry. Before we left for winter break, these special students accepted a mystery challenge. Separate a mixture into four materials: salt, diatomaceous earth, gravel, and a mystery substance using a filter, screen, water, and a magnet. The scientists broke into small groups and got straight to work. Each team was responsible for designing, executing, and editing their experiments using design thinking and engineer practices.

Would you believe that each team was able to complete the task independently?

What will we separate next? How can we apply this new knowledge to the world around us? We are about to find out!

Tefilah (prayer) Projects

Creating B’samim (aromatic spices)

The secret sauce of teaching T’fillot (prayer) to tired 4th graders at the end of the day is tapping into their creative juices. Our 4th graders are an incredibly talented and sentimental group of students.

Last week, we were inspired by the 5th grade TEVA theme to “Renew and Re-purpose” whenever possible. With this heightened sense of environmental consciousness, 4th graders poked dozens of cloves into 4 leftover etrogim (plural for one etrog, the citrus fruit used during the holiday of Sukkot) . They created their own B’samim (a mixture of aromatic spices) to be used during our Monday Havdalah service. The Havdalah service marks the end of Shabbat and sets a joyous tone to begin a new week. Some Rabbis say that the items used in Havdalah — the special braided candle, aromatic spices and wine (or grape juice) — are used to awaken our senses of smell, taste and sight in preparation for the week ahead. Our students were very proud to share these little sweet smelling and prickly creations with the rest of the school.

Project Mizrach

This week, 4th graders were introduced to an important tool used by Jews, the Mizrach (lit. means east). A Mizrach is a decorative sign that marks the direction of Jerusalem, which is east (for us). Jews traditionally face east/toward Jerusalem when they are praying. After seeing many examples of Mizrachim (plural), we used a compass to find the eastern wall in our classroom. Once that had been established, we went and checked the architecture of our chapel and Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is an amazing space. If you stand in the center of the room directly under the dome, the echo is amazing. Of course, we spent some time enjoying this architectural wonder when something unexpected happen. Some of our students remembered a sweet memory of Mrs. White, our beloved retired Librarian hosting “Tea Time” in a special spot above the Torah ark, where the organ is played.  It was a great sentimental adventure to find this special spot then back to the classroom to immediately begin designing their own Mizrach.

Let’s call these photos- Day 1 of Project Mizrach 

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Rhythm Words!

What started as a new way of practicing rhythm turned into a unique way to put together a piece of music! Using words and syllables like “POW” and “ChuggaChugga,” students have been gaining a stronger understanding of rhythm and note value.  We then took our new rhythm words and used them to practice reading short, one measure phrases.  Later we began layering the phrases on top of one another and came up with some great sounds. Check out our 4th graders demonstrating below!

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4th Grade Presidential Election

How does a president get elected?

Why do we need a president?

What better way to find out than to hold your own election? The 4th grade has decided to hold their own election and discover first hand! Seven presidential hopefuls threw their hats into the ring and entered the primary election of the District of 4th Grade. After wonderful speeches, registering to vote, and “visiting” our polling place, seven hopefuls became the final two.

What comes next? Time for a debate and creating a campaign trail for the Panda Party and the Golden Party. Stay tuned for the final results of the Presidential Election!election-poster

Perspective

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One unseasonably warm day in early October I started our fourth grade art class with a vote.  They had been learning about the election and consensus, and I told them we could go outside, but only if everyone agreed.  After some impassioned speeches, we got everyone on board. I talked to the kids briefly about framing and how beauty can be found anywhere if you get the right frame of reference.

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We brought out actual empty frames so students could work on their composition.  I encouraged them to zoom in and out to find the best image.

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Some kids found more creative uses for their picture frame.  With the addition of a simple binder clip, a lesson on composition morphed into an installation art workshop.

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4th grade uses puppets to teach Jewish Values

ואהבת לרעך כמך

V’ahavta Lereacha Kamoacha -Love your neighbor as yourself

At JCDS, each class is responsible for teaching this value to the rest of the school. In order for 4th grade to teach it, it was important to break down the meaning of V’ahavta Lereacha Kamoacha.

How do we work together?

How can we bring this Value to life?

These two questions guided us in our journey to truly understand what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. “Treat others as you want to be treated” was a common answer during our discussions. It became clear that showing what this meant would be key in teaching it to others. This is a very special group of students who delight in performing in front of others. With this in mind, our 4th graders were introduced to Brown Paper Puppets. (click on link to see Master puppeteers teach how to bring these puppets to life)

The puppet requires three puppeteers to bring it to life. Three people must work as a team and maintain 100% focus on the puppet throughout their performance. This forces the audience to only focus on the puppet and not the puppeteers.

With the introduction of this technique, students began the long and hard process of learning how to create the puppets together then negotiate how the puppet and it’s puppeteers will move together in order to make the puppet come to life.

Using a text from Pirkei Avot 5:10 (Rabbinic writings from the Mishna titled Ethics of the Fathers), students wrote a script which portrays in Hebrew and in English, some of the character traits of human beings: a righteous person, a selfish person, an average person and an evil person.

Throughout this process, students were asked to write their reflections on each step of the project. After their performance, students wrote a final reflection which is on display in the lobby of our school.

By writing a script together then working in small groups to bring the puppet to life, students answered our essential questions. “We had to listen to each other.” “If we worked together, the puppet would stand up straight and look alive.” 4th grade successfully made this value come alive and taught the rest of the school what it means to love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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The following video is the Wednesday morning performance debut of the paper bag puppets:

4th Grade Buddies

As members of the 4th Grade, it is our duty to share our academic knowledge and understanding of the word ‘community’ with the students around us. One of the ways we keep the values of JCSD strong is through our partnership with buddies in Kindergarten. Over the past few weeks 4th Graders have been mentoring Kindergarten students in the art of being an author, all while sharpening our own drafting and editing skills!

We’ve helped our Kindergarten buddies develop their ideas using the writing process we have learned in years past: brainstorming, drafting, editing, and publishing. This week, we worked with them to expand their ideas on paper by helping them practice their letters and sentences, as well as illustrate the pages of their books. Through this activity we are living the Jewish value that we have been studying this month in Judaic Studies: love your neighbor as yourself.

These new books already look like they are full of adventures ready to be enjoyed by our entire JCDS community!

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Bruchim Habaim (welcome) to Hebrew with Rotem

I love the summer, but it is great to be back teaching Hebrew to the 4th graders. This year we have two different groups for Ivrit (Hebrew) and I have the honor to teach six students of the class. Our method continues to be teaching Hebrew in Hebrew as a living language.

We started the school’s year talking about our summer. Mi medaber Ivrit bakayeetz? (who speaks Hebrew during the summer?) Mi metayel? (who travels?) Eifo? (where?) Mi mekabel matana? (who receives a present?) Mi holech le’machaneh kayeetz? (who goes to summer camp?) The students asked each other these questions and more, wrote their sentences and worked together to create a poster about ‘our summer.’ These students are busy working in our classroom.

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Lehitraot (see you again), Rotem