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Class Blogs

Watercolors

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Second grade students completed beautiful nature-themed watercolors with specific direction from our art teacher, Mr. Mirsky. He introduced students to a number of techniques including using salt to create a marble effect and using a straw to spread the paint into thin lines. These paintings have been paired with Haikus that the students wrote during their poetry unit. They are on display in our school’s main hallway. Visitors are in for a treat!

It’s great to have life
Fresh air water crunchy leaves
Fit peace in your life

 

Good smelling flowers
Blue jays flying in the sky
Bright stars in the sky

 

 

 

 

 

   

Stars are in the sky
Bees pollinating flowers
Sheep in their warm wool

The mountains are cool
Rocks are different colors
Climb the steep mountain

    

 

 

 

 

Hanukkah – a busy and joyful time!

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Pre-K students have been very busy learning about and celebrating Hanukkah. After decorating their classroom, they learned the Hanukkah story as well as many songs in both Hebrew and English. Students created their very own Hanukkiyot (Hanukkah Menorahs) and were excited to bring them home to light during the holiday.

Expanding upon some of the themes of the holiday (oil, light and darkness), the class did experiments using oil and water and learned about people who are visually impaired. Children even learned about the Braille alphabet, wrote their names in Braille and created a class Hanukkiyah in Braille.

The celebrating continued for 8 days with cookie decorating, treats of Sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), and, of course, more singing! Children created beautiful drip mats using Popsicle sticks, glue and glitter (their favorite!) to go under their Hanukkiyot.

Pre-K students were able to perform some of their new songs in front of the whole school at one of our school-wide Hanukkiyah lighting assemblies. On the last day, families and friends will join the class for a special holiday party.

Learning the Aleph Bet

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Our kindergarten students learn the Hebrew alphabet right along with the English alphabet. They practice proper letter formation, learn the sound each letter makes and master sight words.

They were recently introduced to the letters resh and gimmel.

Students were quickly able to recognize the letter resh in the words Rakevet (train), Rosh (head), Rimon (pomegranate), Ru-ah (wind) and Regel-Raglayim (foot-feet), and the letter gimel in the words Gamal (camel), Gadol (big), Gezer (carrot), G’vina ( cheese).

For a listening activity for the letter resh we read the story The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss in Hebrew (translated by Datya Dor). The students had a great time making the letter resh with their own raglayim (feet).

For the letter gimmel we heard the story Eliezer Vehagezer  (Eliezer and the Carrot). After we listened to the story, we spread g’vina (cheese) on crackers and wrote the letter gimmel with gezer (carrot). It was fun to eat the letter gimmel.

For the letter resh the students created a rakevet (train) in the shape of a resh and filled it with words that start with the letter resh.

When we discussed the shape of the letter gimmel, the students discovered that when they put two gimmels together, they can make a gamal (a camel).

We ended our study about resh with the rakevet song.

Meet our new school social worker, Meghan Cavanaugh

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Meghan Cavanaugh joined JCDSRI’s faculty in September as our school social worker. Meghan has over a decade of experience working with children and families in schools as well as in home-based and office settings.

When asked about her impressions of JCDSRI, Meghan said that our school community is “positive and supportive — teachers reflect to students their strengths and talents, and model how to solve problems effectively and resolve conflicts fairly. Students are encouraged to think independently, create solutions to problems, and grow as learners.” She goes on to say that she is “most excited about helping students and teachers further integrate social-emotional learning into classrooms.”

Meghan is already making an impact focusing on four main areas:

  • Teaching students ways to manage their feelings at school so that they are ready to learn
  • Teaching teachers skills to help students pay attention, cope with their feelings in class and calm their bodies
  • Supporting JCDS families when their children meet challenges at school
  • Creating a team with teachers and staff to ensure the success of all students

Meghan is thrilled to be a part of the JCDSRI community and her presence is already felt. She is helping teachers further develop their developmentally appropriate, social and emotional curriculum and helping students learn mindfulness techniques to help them regulate their wiggly, squiggly selves in the classroom.

Genius Hour… when passions come alive

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Fifth grader Ella Sinel won the SEEDlings student design challenge at StyleWeek Northeast this fall! In fact, the idea to open up the event to youngsters came from Ella. According to founder and CEO, Rosanna Ortiz, Ella “was very persistent in getting a hold of me because she wanted me to look at her sketches because she wanted to be a StyleWeek designer,” Ortiz said. “It was funny because this little girl was emailing every email address for me she could find. At first, I thought it was a joke.”

Ella’s passion for fashion designing was encouraged last year by fourth grade teacher, Melynda Silva, during Genius Hour — a year-long project that allows students to identify and pursue a personal passion.

Read more in the Voice and Herald below:

 

 

Working on social and emotional intelligence in kindergarten

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What kinds of social and emotional skills are we working on in kindergarten?

In kindergarten we…

  • use our Peace Table to strengthen communication and peacemaking skills.
  • use feelings charts, journaling, projects and role-playing to recognize social cues and solve social dilemmas.
  • practice yoga and meditation to support calm, focused and flexible bodies and minds.
  • take responsibility for classroom jobs and routines that support our community and our space.
  • build a classroom community (kehilah) based on respect (kavod), kindness (hesed), and peace (shalom).