September, 2016 - Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island

Creating a Peaceful Community in Pre-K

September 29, 2016 by lnoorparvar

This past month the Pre-K class has learned how to become a peaceful kehillah (community). In our Feelings Journals we have shared what makes us happy and where our peaceful places are. On Open School Night, our parents left us pictures of their peaceful places.

By covering our eyes while saying Shema Yisrael, we learned that we can “talk” to Hashem (G-d). We also discussed how special we are since we all have a “spark of Hashem” in us. Betzalem Elokim is being created in Hashem’s image. In order to give each other respect (kavod), we created class rules:

“use kind words” Ziva

“share” Eli

“don’t take anything (from friends)” Micah J

“don’t push anybody out of the way” Levi

“don’t pop people’s bubbles” Xander

“show kavod (respect) by not throwing wood chips or sand” Quinn

Our Kavod & Chesed Tree – Tree of Kindness and Respect – is filled with beautiful mitzvot (good deeds).

Ellie initiated the need for tzedakah (charity) boxes when she brought in coins before our Shabbat celebration. We painted and embellished 4 cardboard boxes for this purpose. We then spoke of how we could help people in need.

Welcome to Design Lab

September 29, 2016 by Naomi Stein

Shalom,

I am Rotem and I am so excited to teach Design Lab to JCDSRI students from PreK to 3rd grade (and learn with them!). We just ended our fourth week in Design Lab and I would like to share with you some highlights of our time together.

We began by asking: What do we do in Design Lab? How can we think like designers?

The students had great ideas: we build things, we create, we take something and make it into something different. Everyone loves to create and to explore the materials in the room, to build with Lego, K’nex, Lincoln logs, cardboard and more.

In Design Lab, we are learning about the process of Design Thinking. Design Thinking is used to solve problems and create change in our world. The first step in this process is to look for problems. While not an easy task, the students were still able to share some great problems they are interested in solving:

Keeping our hands to ourselves
How to keep our stuff inside our cubbies
Food spilling in lunch box / water leaking in backpack
During quiet time it is hard to stay quiet
Caring for the guinea pigs in 3rd grade
Losing things
The way people judge your work
Playing ‘Monkey at the Bat’ during recess
Being distracted while working in class

We also started practicing paying attention to details. In Hebrew the expression for being empathetic is Lasim Lev — “putting your heart,” meaning we make sure to look with our soul and not only with our eyes. We played different games in which the students had to pay close attention to small details.

For example, I asked students to change one thing (the way you hold your hands, tuck your shirt in, untie your shoelaces, etc.) and can your partner notice the change?

Another was a visual memory game – who is missing from the class? What color is their shirt?

A long journey is ahead of us and it will be an interesting one.

Lehitraot (see you again)

Rotem

Thirdgradia, Kid Edition.

September 28, 2016 by Naomi Stein

Hi.

We are the bloggers on the run and we write short things about school. We’ve been in school for almost a month but it feels longer. We’ve been doing DEAR time, it stands for Drop Everything And Read. Some kids call it SQUIRT. That stands for Silent Quiet Uninterrupted Reading Time. They are basically the same thing but different names, but some kids think we are better at DEAR than SQUIRT.

In Thirdgradia we have a thing called Project Time. We make projects where we build using paper. Some kids do their jobs. Since I was the blogger, my job now is writing this blog that you are reading right now. Other kids during project time like to make a flag. We did lots of rough drafts and we combined all of them and made a big flag. It was cool because our class name is called Thirdgradia and just like the American Flag, now we have one too.

In writing we have personal journals, but in Hebrew we have Hebrew Books where we learn songs in Hebrew and do writing. We play games that are fun. One game that was really fun was when Morrah Mills put on a song, and then by the end of the song you had to pick up one of the boxes. It was Awesome.

In math we get to use white boards and Mr. Mirsky writes questions on the board so we can answer them on our white boards. We have worksheets sometimes, and sometimes they are double sided. The most fun we’ve had so far in math is tower building. We used base ten blocks to try to make the biggest building. Mr. Mirsky said before we started building we had to write how many blocks we were gonna use. It wasn’t that hard, except the first time.

That is all from the Blogger on the run. The end. Check out our blog next time to hear about the other activities in our classroom. Thanks for reading our paragraphs.

4th Grade Buddies

September 28, 2016 by Melynda Silva

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!

Second Grade Values

September 27, 2016 by jdavis

At JCDS our goal is for students to view the manner in which they behave through a Jewish lens. Our tradition is steeped in important values about how to behave with kindness, generosity of spirit and caring. This year we have identified a number of values that we will explore in an integrated manner in both general and Judaic Studies.

Our first all-school value is “You should love your neighbor as yourself, V’Ahavta Lirayacha Camocha.” We explored ways that this value could be understood by second graders by asking the following questions: what does it mean to love yourself, how can you show love/respect for another person, and how can you be a good friend?

The second graders generated many answers to each of these questions. Our culminating project for this was to make a class collage of the speech bubbles that the students filled out with their responses.

Taking this one step further on Open School Night when parents came to hear an overview of the curriculum for the school year, they, too, had a chance to explore these questions and make a parent collage. The students loved comparing their parents’ replies with their own the following morning upon their return to school!

Bruchim Habaim (welcome) to Hebrew with Rotem

September 28, 2016September 26, 2016 by Naomi Stein

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.

Lehitraot (see you again), Rotem

Bruchim Habaim (welcome) to Hebrew with Rotem

September 26, 2016 by Naomi Stein

I love the summer, but it is great to be back at school teaching Hebrew to the 5th graders. Our method continues to be teaching Hebrew in Hebrew as a living language and these 5th graders rock!

During the first two months of the school year, the whole school is focusing on the value “Ve’ahavta Lereacha Kamocha,” (Love Your Neighbor as Yourself). The students made the connection to our Zimriya song, ‘Amar Rabbi Akiva,’ from last year which they love to sing. Our first story we are studying in Lashon (language class) is about this value and this song. After reading the story and analyzing its themes and characters, the 5th graders are ready to retell the story in their own words. Very soon they will present their storyboard to the school community.

The students already have plans to write a play based on the story…. Looking forward to see where they will take us!

Lehitraot (see you again),

Rotem

Dispatches From Thirdgradia, teacher edition.

September 26, 2016 by Naomi Stein

Welcome to Thirdgradia!

This is a taste of the Morning Message that Thirdgradian’s respond to every day. This way they start their day building community, expressing themselves, and thinking about sweets!

Morning Message is usually followed by snack, then math. In math we have been exploring place value, and building towers with base ten blocks (but not before counting each block!)

After that, Thirdgradians have ELA, where they are being read books about civilization building (Roxaboxen by Barbara Cooney, Weslandia by Paul Fleischman) and doing the impossible (Emmanuel’s Dream by Laurie Thompson, and Rain School by James Rumford). They have been reading, writing, and discussing at a high level. They have especially enjoyed the spelling activities. They were able to draw comics, write stories, or make mini dictionaries as long as they used ALL their target spelling words.

Thirdgradians have also spent a lot of time brainstorming about what our civilization should look like. We have come together and agreed on our civilization’s name, style, and core values. Every Friday, kids get a full period of Project Time to take part in building their classroom. Now that our first priority, The Thirdgradian Armory of Mythical Weapons, is completed, there are a slew of projects that need our attention.

First among these upcoming projects is assisting our classroom bloggers in taking ownership of this space. Tomorrow I will upload the children’s dispatch, and from here on this space will feature their thoughts, their pictures, and their perspective. I will continue to add additional context and photos as needed. Stay tuned!

Welcome to Gardening!

December 1, 2016September 26, 2016 by Alison Morrow

All the grades have been working hard this month to start “putting the garden to bed” and helping out with some school-wide projects. We have started utilizing the compost barrels and learning all about decomposers, worms, beetles and other helpful critters. Pre-K and Kindergarten are going to be responsible for the beautiful Butterfly Garden, coming this spring. All other grades also have their own garden bed, where they are excited to plant some of their favorite vegetables. Fourth and fifth grade has been doing an excellent job being in charge of collecting the compost during lunch and helping to remind some of the younger students what kinds of food can be composted. First grade is exploring decomposing apples and second and third grades are exploring worms!

The whole school has been working hard on our big garden project for the year…planting wheat! The students are busy clearing a plot of land for the wheat seeds, which will be planted this fall and (hopefully) bloom this upcoming spring. If all goes well, we will harvest our wheat by hand, process it and turn it into flour to use for making our Challah bread. Wheat is a staple ingredient in many foods of Israel and one of the 7 species, so this allows for wonderful integrated learning experiences with Judaic Studies.

Kindergarten Presents…4th Grade Buddies!

September 26, 2016 by Alison Morrow

Last week the Kindergarten class got to have their first meeting with our awesome 4th grade buddies from Ms. Silva’s class! The buddies will now be joining us every Monday after lunch and spend our “rest time” with us. This is a wonderful opportunity for the buddies to read, write and relax together. Kindergarten is very excited that we just started reading the “Magic Tree House” series and will be starting a project to fill our own “tree house” (the loft) with magical books that we will write with the help of our amazing buddies. We hope to continue making wonderful memories with our buddies and inviting them to participate in some fun Autumn science experiments as the month progresses.