Our 4th and 5th graders are working on something special for Zimriyah this year! We hope to see you there on May 26th!
Getting ready for Zimriyah!
Month: April 2016
Rhode Island: Warmer and Cooler?
Third grade has learned so much about our own state of Rhode Island this year! From geography, to government, to people, to the Jewish history of our state, we have really become experts! We are now putting that kno
wledge to good use by creating travel brochures about Rhode Island. As a bonus, we have a real audience to whom to present these; they will be used as centerpieces at a conference at Brown University. This motivated the students even more to create the most interesting and accurate brochures. As a challenge, they designed their own Rhode Island logos for the front covers of the travel brochures, to replace the controversial “Warmer and Cooler” design.
We brainstormed all we learned about Rhode Island and researched even more to find out new things we were interested in. Then we went to work actually creating our brochures. I loved how unique each one was, from concentrating on the Rhode Island Red hen to the Pawsox, Del’s Lemonade, and coffee milk, each student included his or her own personality and joys of this state in his or her brochures! We had “experts”, the fifth graders, come in to critique our work, since they have 
already learned about Rhode Island.
Now our brochures are ready for the public. The students are very excited to be able to have them on display at Brown, but are sad to give them up. I don’t blame them after all the hard work they put into this project!
Promoting Peace & Understanding
JCDSRI’s partnership with the Islamic School of RI (ISRI) resulted in a wonderful performance on April 17th put together by fifth graders from both schools. Approximately 150 people attended the event, including Congressman David Cicilline, who tweeted photos of the “inspiring performances” by the students. The Providence Journal wrote about the event in Monday’s paper, including a photo gallery, as well.
For the past several months. students from both schools met twice each week at the Center for Dynamic Learning (CDL), getting to know each other and developing their dramatic skills. Students explored issues of identity, society, and friendship through CDL’s hands-on STEAMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Manufacturing and Math) theater program.
The project was funded through a generous grant from the Bliss, Gross, Horowitz Fund at the Rhode Island Foundation. Both schools look forward to continuing the partnership in the future.
JCDSRI Featured by YU School Partnership!
We are very pleased that our Head of School, Adam Tilove, was featured in a conversation about innovation in schools in the YUSP Spring 2016 Quarterly. While it was our billboard that caught their attention initially, JCDSRI’s reputation as a leader in STEAM and design preceded us: in fact, Mr. Tilove was mentioned in the YUSP Fall 2015 Quarterly, as well. Our commitment isn’t just to STEAM, though; we want our graduates to be good citizens, in both their local and global communities. That’s why we also have an ongoing partnership with the Islamic School of RI. We encourage our students to consider ideas from multiple viewpoints and to be respectful of different backgrounds and beliefs.
As the only school in southeastern New England with a Design Lab dedicated exclusively to elementary students, we believe strongly in a progressive curriculum that gives children plenty of opportunities to engage in authentic problem-solving. Our students, from Pre-Kindergarten through 5th grade, speak the language of Design Thinking: they employ empathy, they create prototypes, and they “fail fast” so that they can address the needs of a specific audience. Want to see our students in action? Call or email us and come for a visit!
Looking for Signs of Spring
The Kindergarten students set out to look for signs of spring! We enjoyed seeing how the pond has changed in the warmer weather. Outside all our senses were at work while we searched for clues to Spring! We stopped to investigate tree buds that we saw popping up on branches all around us. Other times we stopped to take a listen to birds. A woodpecker was busy tapping on a tree. We
enjoyed smelling the spring onions. The pond critters are beginning to emerge from their winter modes. The students were excited to see the ducks return. “This is awesome,” one student yelled. We looked for turtles and a muskrat. Magnifying glasses helped us to closely observe buds, dew drops, and new grass. We are grateful for the signs of the changing season!
Hello from Iowa!
The second graders were ecstatic about receiving letters from their pen pals in Iowa! They wrote to a group of second grade students at the Washington Elementary School in a small town in Iowa. Why? First and foremost, because of an amazing connection with our third grade students. The story began last year when our second grade students decided to donate their Read-a-Thon funds to an animal shelter in Iowa after months of research. This
sparked quite a bit of attention in both towns because our students cared immensely about saving animals that couldn’t be saved. It also began an amazing relationship with a community so different from our own, yet still so familiar. Our goal is to Skype and continue to correspond with our new friends. And…who knows what could happen next! 🙂
Welcome to the Shark Tank
For students in grades 3-5, the design lab has been transformed into a Shark Tank. The TV show Shark Tank, regularly aired on ABC, inspired me to challenge students to create something worth selling and that would convince sharks to invest in. While many students created prototypes, others, like Ezra, were billionaire investors (aka “sharks”). Ezra took it upon himself to interview the designers in his class in order to get an idea of their products, past sales, current locations, offers, and valuations prior to their pitches.
The following video is brought to you by students in the fourth and fifth grade. Cooper is pitching his product, Your Home Security. Welcome to the Shark Tank!
Who Is in My Heart?
When we learned the letters kaf and lamed, we were busy with Purim, but it was a great opportunity to connect it with this special holiday.
First we learned the three ways that we can use the letter kaf and its placement in words. The children are able to recognize the words ken (yes), keter (crown), kol hakavod, kesef (silver/money), katom (the color orange), kachol (blue), and kis (pocket) for the letter kaf. For projects, we filled khaf with masechot (masks) and filled khaf sofit with a drawing of a melech (king). We couldn’t finish learning about Purim without filling in our kaf with glitter in the color of kesef (silver) or katom (the color orange), and we made a keter (crown) for Achashverosh. Lastly, we discovered that the word kis means pocket in Hebrew. After the kis (pocket) project, the children got a chocolate kiss from my kis (pocket).
We had so m
uch fun learning the letter lamed. First we got our faces painted as leitzanim (clowns) and we learned the song “leitzan katan sheli” (my little clown).
Then we had a beautiful discussion about what’s in our lev (heart). We not only had fun making a project about it, but also sharing our thoughts with our friends.
Once we finished learning the letter lamed, we realized we could string letters together and read many words from our excellent vocabulary.
We are so excited!
The Mitzvah of Consolation
While I was out of school to take care of my Dad and then, to sit shiva (the seven day Jewish mourning period after a funeral), the students continued their academic learning. But they also participated in the very important Mitzvah of comforting a mourner. With teacher support, they talked about grief and loss and then used some time to write cards of consolation and support. When I returned to RI to sit for the last couple of days, many of the students came to my house to offer their condolences. Waiting on my desk in school was a stack of beautifully hand-designed and written cards that encouraged me to be strong and to look for the rainbows after the rain. I cannot begin to express the deep sense of gratitude and consolation that I derived from these gestures. They were incredibly meaningful and touching and underscored that the values that we are trying to impart through our curriculum and culture at JCDSRI are truly understood and being incorporated into the identities of our students.
This has been a difficult time for me but knowing that our students are truly living by the values which we are teaching has brought me much comfort and has filled me with a deep sense of gratitude and blessing that I am a part of this community. Thank you.
The Three Little… Prototypes
We’ve all heard the story The Three Little Pigs, but have you read The Three Little Javelinas? In PreK, kindergarten and first grade, we read The Three Little Javelina
s by Susan Lowell and talked about how the two stories are similar in some ways and different in others. In both stories the first house gets blown down very easily. The second house is a bit stronger, but not by much. The third house, however, won’t budge! In the design lab, we recreated the three houses that appear in both of the stories.
We explored different materials in the design lab and created our own houses that represent the three houses in the stories. Many of u
s noticed that by utilizing the Design Thinking tactic of rapid prototyping, we could create better, stronger structures. Rapid prototyping is used by both adults who use design thinking concepts in the workplace and children at JCDSRI! It means that we build things quickly in order to learn from our mistakes and to move onto the iteration and improvement stage of the process.
Next, we tested our structures by blowing a hair dryer on them. Of course, children gave fair warning by yelling, “I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house down!” Finally, we decided what types of characters (or objects) might be in our own Thre
e Little somethings stories!
In PreK, we decided that we all wanted our story to be The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Crocodile. One of our Lego structures had some interesting safety features, including a trap station to catch the crocodile and a lookout tower.
Kindergarteners decided that they wanted to create their own story titles. In the end, however, we noticed that we liked the titles of our friends. Eden, Millie, Ben, Eshel, and Meital created a story titled The Three Little Socks and the Shoe. Nathan, Bentzi, and Zemer titled their story The Three Little Scooby Doos and the Monster. Malcolm, and Aeden decided on The Three Little Monkeys.
First graders were proud to create their own individual story titles:
Naftali… The Three Little Ships and the Big Bad Star Destroyer
Maya… The 100 Little Army Ants and the Tilting Earth
Simon… The Three Little Snakes and the Lion
Elie… The Three Little Basketball Players and the Big Bad Basketball
Jude… The Three Little Leaves and the Grasshopper
Hannah… The Three Little Dwarves and the Giant
Moshe… The Three Little Squares and the Big Bad Triangle
Ella… The Three Cupcakes and the Cake
Maor… The Three Little Snakes and the Big Bird
Ayden… The Three Little Critters and the Big Bad Critter
Hadas… The Three Little Bunnies and the Cat