fbpx

Sarah Shay-Davidson

We welcome Sarah Shay-Davidson as our first grade teacher, who will teach both general studies and Jewish studies. Sarah graduated from The Rhode Island School of Design after attending Jewish Day School as a child. She worked in Israel as a textile designer for 15 years. Upon her return to the U.S., she found her true calling to teach in a Jewish Day school. Sarah worked at Kehillah Schechter Academy (KSA) for 7 years where she became an expert in center based learning, personalized instruction and uses educational technology in her classroom. Sarah taught in a multi age class (K-1) and oversaw the Math & Reading Buddies program at KSA. Sarah earned her Hebrew SPED certification at Hebrew College, and recently participated in a week long intensive guided reading workshop at Lesley College. Sarah was also an online educator at Hebrew College and Yeshiva University. She has lead many Professional Development workshops focusing on using technology in the classroom. We are all very excited to be working together!

First Grade Shadow Puppet Show

by

Karen and I noticed early on that every time we used the projector our students were fascinated by making shadow puppets (who isn’t?). We decided to use this to our advantage and do something never done before in first grade and create an actual shadow puppet show.

Our show, “Under the Acacia tree” – “תחת עץ השיטה” is the culmination of our cross-curricular unit on the Jewish value of שומרי אדמה, Shomrei Adama – Guardians of the Earth. It is also our first-grade research project. The show’s backdrop is an Acacia tree surrounded by the hills of the Negev desert. Students worked together to create this pastel masterpiece. We borrowed two overhead projectors and hung them from the ceiling for backlighting. The results were breathtakingly beautiful.

This English/Hebrew puppet show is based on our research on endangered animals of the Negev desert.  Together we learned about the plights of endangered animals, plus what we can do to make a difference. Each student researched one animal and created a poster about it. They worked very hard to research, take notes, and draw detailed illustrations of their animals.

After the performance, our students presented their research posters.  We are so proud of their accomplishments!

Being Jewish is a Gift

by

As part of our focus on Jewish Values, First Grade has worked very hard to create a music video that shows our Ga’ava (pride) in being Jewish and in going to a Jewish Day School. Together, we wrote a song based on discussions of what we are proud of.  This project has been a true collaboration with Mr. Mike, our music teacher, and Mr. Mirsky, our art teacher and resident videographer. The kids had a blast recording themselves in and around the school. First grade was proud to invite the entire school into our classroom for the premiere showing. The audience loved it so much they begged for an encore!

 

First grade Rockstars!

Check out our bulletin board outside our classroom which features the words and illustrations of the song.

Tefilah (prayer) Projects

by

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 

img_8712 img_8713 img_8714 img_8715 img_8716 img_8717

Aleph, Bet, Gimmel…

by

Music helps us learn Hebrew letters and vowels

If you walk past First grade, you might hear the sweet sounds of children’s voices singing. The Aleph-Bet song, the Hebrew months of the year or a medley from past songs from the Zimriyah (our annual Hebrew song festival) are all sung with First grade gusto. Integrating song and music into our daily routine has been instrumental in teaching to read Hebrew letters with vowels, sight words and comprehension.

As we approach the Thanksgiving break, students reviewed all of the letters, vowels and sight words introduced over the past three months.  Students categorized words by letters, illustrated a letter album and designed board games using the various letters and vowels. “Can we listen to the Zimriyah songs as we work?” is a common request from these creative thinkers!
word-album-1word-book-2word-book-3

Here is an example of the board games they are working on.

img_8691

Below are some very proud Lego designers

logo-1

Shoebox Required!

by

The holiday of Sukkot commemorates the 40 years that the Israelites traveled through the desert after fleeing Egyptian slavery. A Sukkah is a temporary structure which must have three sides. The roof must be sparse enough to see three stars while sitting in the Sukkah. It is our custom to eat all of our meals in the Sukkah during the 7 day holiday. There are some families who even sleep in a Sukkah! Welcoming signs, tables, chairs and decorations are used to create a warm and celebratory atmosphere to dine in and enjoy the holiday of Sukkot.

First grade students transformed shoeboxes into incredible Sukkot (plural for a Sukkah)  using sticks and leaves for schach (the roof of the Sukkah). We took advantage of the glorious Autumn weather to gather sticks and leaves from our playground. During Design Lab, with the help of Peter, students created these magical Sukkot.

sukkah-1 sukkah-2 sukkah-3 sukkah-4 sukkah-5 sukkah-6

Students took a “gallery walk” and spent time looking at their classmates’ work noticing interesting details. It was a special moment to listen to each student speak with genuine respect of each other’s work.

Chag Sameach (Happy Holidays) to all!

 

Tekkiyah!

by

screen-shot-2016-10-09-at-8-30-43-am

We kicked off our Family Workshop series last week.

Saba (Grandpa) Sam blew his shofar with gusto for First Grade then explained how he learned how to blow the shofar and how they are made. We watched a video which shows a Shofar Factory in Israel. Did you know that a Shofar needs to be heated emphasize the natural curves of the ram’s horn?

jonah-and-pom

We read the story of Jonah and the Big Fish, which is traditionally read in Synagogue on Yom Kippur. It is a story about how hard it is to accept the consequences of our actions by apologizing but even more importantly, to find ways to “make our sorry stick“.  One First Grader shared “The next time I play Legos with my brother, I will remember to let him use the action figures.” We call this T’shuvah in Judaism. Teshuvah is what we do to “fix our mistakes.” Yom Kippur is about second chances, asking for forgiveness and meaning it. Everyone makes mistakes – just like Jonah and the people of Nineveh. God gave them another chance to make good choices. Being a first grader can sometimes be hard, but these social and emotional developments are part of the whole wonderful package that are our six and seven year old children.

We have an annual tradition in First Grade to challenge the idea that there are 613 seeds in a pomegranate, which is also the same number of Mitzvot (commandments) a Jew should strive to accomplish. This year the final count was 626 which is the closest number we have ever counted in three years!

May we all begin the New Year with a clean slate and joy in our hearts.

גמר חתימה טובה

(May you be inscribed (in the Book of Life) for Good)

4th grade uses puppets to teach Jewish Values

by

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.

img_8462 img_8465

 

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

Teamwork in First Grade

by

porch-at-the-rabbis

How can we love our neighbor as ourselves?

First Grade has been working hard on practicing how to work as a team. And what better way to practice working together as a team than herding goats?!

We were invited to Rabbi Philmus’ house to learn how to care and shepherd two very clever goats named Kesef and Cinnamon.

We gathered on a porch shaded by a beautiful grape arbor. We sat on hay bales and woven mats and held objects that could have been used during the time of the Torah. Students were asked to find objects that were either made from plants or came from an animal.

hay-bale

Once Kesef and Cinnamon had their hay stashed in the goat barn, students learned how to care for the goats, which included a quick nail trimming, grooming, and adjusting the goat’s harness.

goat-harness

 

 

We learned the key elements of goat herding:

  • Stay together as a group.
  • Show them where you want them to go by walking behind them.
  • Sometimes it helps to shake a can of goat treats and walk in the direction you want them to go.
  • Best of all, you can use a shofar to signal what you want them to do.

We also used commands; for example, Tekiyyah = run! Tekiyyah gedolah= stop!

game-time

First Grade was able to herd the goats all around the large field, then we stopped for a story and a game featuring goats and mountain lions. The goats were content to nosh on leaves during the game.

walking-w-goats
It was time for snack, and students had to work hard to herd the goats back to the house. img_8413

Thank you Rabbi Philmus!

May we continue to work as a team and to build a classroom community which works as a team, shows kindness, and has fun together.

 What a wonderful way to begin the new year!

שנה טובה ומתוקה – May we all have a sweet new year! 

Herding goats from Jewish Community Day School RI on Vimeo.

Taking our learning outside of the classroom

by

Spring has finally arrived in Providence and first grade is taking full advantage of our wonderful neighborhood. This week students learned about how we use earth materials such as rocks and water to build roads. The previous day in Science, we went outside to scour the playground for the different ways rocks are used to build a playground. Students discovered that cobbles (rocks as large as your fist), pebbles, gravel and sand are used everywhere including the sidewalk and street. We concluded this chapter by taking a short walk up the street to watch as construction workers poured blacktop and smoothed it down with a paver. How lucky was it to have our streets refreshed at the same time we are learning about paving roads!

YH and asphalt

We commemorated Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence day) with a whole school celebration which included a gigantic interactive map of Israel. The whole school played Israeli playground games, answered trivia questions based on facts about Israel, and iced an enormous cake depicting a map of Israel. Who knew that Mt. Hermon could look so delicious made out of marshmallows?

On Friday Hadas’s Abba (father) Shai, a marine biologist, shared incredible photos of his underwater research off the coasts of Australia and Malawi. Students looked at photos showing live and dead coral reefs, as well as several photos of sharks and other remarkable creatures of the sea. The enormous black duffle bag mystery (which was delivered early in the morning) was solved when Shai pulled out his well worn scuba gear to show the kids.

What an amazing week this has been!

Passover in First Grade!

by

IMG_7602

An important part of our Passover curriculum is to focus on the Hagaddah, which is the prayer book we use at the festive meal called a Seder. At JCDSRI, starting in Kindergarten, our students each create their own pages of the Hagaddah. Each year they add new pages which represent their learning as they progress to 5th grade. The students worked very hard and were very excited to take their Hagaddah home to show to their parents. When reminded that they need to return them upon their return from Passover break, they are often dismayed that they can’t keep them.

“Why can’t we keep them?”

“Each year you will learn new things about Passover and add new pages to your Hagaddah. When you graduate in 5th grade, you will take it home.”

“I can’t wait to be a 5th grader!”

(The above photo is a group of First and Fifth grade buddies enjoying each other’s company before the break.)

IMG_7597

IMG_7598

Here are two of our proud students, each holding their representations of one of the Four Children: The Wicked child, The Wise child, The Simple child and The Child Who Doesn’t Know How To Ask. Students have been introduced to the idea that perhaps, we all have a bit of each of the four children in each of us.

IMG_1654
IMG_1655

IMG_1657Passover is also a perfect excuse to initiate a spring cleaning of the classroom. Students had a wonderful time scrubbing down our tables, organizing our supplies and library. The air was sweet with their efforts as they left for break, each clutching their special Hagaddah and bulging bags of collected detritus from their cubbies.

I can’t wait to see them all after break to hear all about their Seders and to observe how much each one has grown in just ten days!