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!

The First Six Weeks of School

October 4, 2015September 22, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

What an exciting time of year it is, especially for first graders!

This is the year students will learn how to read and write. An unbelievable milestone for students which marks the first step to mastering the important skill of independent learning. To become an independent learner, the first six weeks of school are a crucial time to set a solid foundation of a safe, warm and welcoming environment. We have begun to work together to establish classroom procedures and to collaborate as a classroom community and in small learning groups.

Each student had the opportunity to present his or her personalized puzzle pieces to the group. It was wonderful to hear of everyone’s favorite summer activities. We are blessed with four new students this year, so it was especially exciting to learn about their interests and begin to get to know each other.

While our main focus over the next month and half is on classroom procedures, academics are slowly incorporated into our day’s routine. For example, I am a firm believer in kinetic learning. What better way to review counting to one hundred by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s and 10’s while exercising our bodies and our minds? We had so much fun taking a movement break while doing math!

1st Grade “Steps-up” to 2nd Grade!

June 11, 2015June 7, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

Every year around this time there comes a moment when I get that feeling that my heart might explode with pride. The moment when I witness my students taking giant steps of maturity and the hint of them as 2nd graders floats before my eyes. Wednesday was “Step-up Day” for First graders to visit 2nd grade and to spend one on one time with Mrs. Guttin. It is so important for First graders to have the opportunity to process what they can expect next year. Making time for them at the end of the year to get a taste of the year to come will help enormously in September when we begin the school year. We spent the past week writing letters and “Math about Me” booklets for this activity. Students wrote about themselves, how they learn best, their family, what they love about school and what they like least about school and other facts they want their future teacher to know about themselves. While each student was meeting with Mrs. Guttin, the other students spent the time exploring the 2nd grade classroom with the current 2nd graders.

Fill your bucket First Grade!

June 7, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

For our last field trip the First Grade went to Conimicut Point Beach on Friday .We had a fantastic time searching for beach objects. We divided up the students into teams armed them with clipboards and a list of objects they needed to find. Each student recieved a end of the year gift of a special colorful bucket with a very special message:

Fill your bucket First Grade

June 2015

A reminder to collect these moments like drops of water when they feel good about themselves and when they do something thoughtful and kind for others until their buckets are overflowing.

And yes, they filled their buckets!

The weather was perfect and it was a joy to watch our students jumping waves, digging, searching, singing, exploring…….

First Grade hosts “Kindergarten Buddies”

May 26, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

The roller coaster ride of May and June has commenced!

As the end of the year draws to a close, the Kindergarteners were matched up with our First graders for “Reading Buddies”. Every Friday, from now until the end of the year, K will come for a visit to our classroom which will give them a chance to taste a bit of First grade magic .

There have been so many moments which I have dubbed “Teacher’s Gold” in my past blog entries but this past Friday was the gem stone moment. The First graders were thrilled to be the older buddy and took their responsibilities very, very seriously. Each First grader was assigned a Kindergartener and given some suggestions as to what books might interest them. In preparation for their visit, they gathered books from our extensive library and decided where they wanted to sit with their buddies.

Ready, Set, Read!

I am in awe of my students and how much they have progressed this year both in their reading skills and their maturity in a multi-age environment!

Each student showed patience, gave encouragement and support to their buddies. We the teachers could not stop smiling!

Next week, it will be the First graders’s turn to “step up” to 2nd grade. We are busy preparing for our visit to 2nd grade in Writer’s Workshop and in Math by writing The 2nd grade teacher friendly letters about themselves and writing a “Math About Me” book. They will be presenting their work to her during our visit and have time to visit and experience a taste of what an incredible year they will have next year. (Sigh…..I am going to miss them so!)

Stay tuned for our 2nd Grade visit next week!

A very Special Friends and Family Day in First Grade

May 18, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

There was so much joy, love and fun to be had on Special Friends and family day. Work stations were set up and the students and their guests worked together to complete each one.

Center #1-

Students picked book from a huge collection of books about families or friendships then discussed and wrote an answer together to “What can you do to be a good family member or friend?”

Center #2-

Our guests helped the students make “Mom ROCKS” for Mother’s day out of beach stones, gems and pastels.

Center #3-

Students painted their rocks to give them an extra special shiny appearance and made Mothers’s day cards.

Center #4-

Students worked together to draw a Special Friends and Family Tree and their hands to create the leaves of the tree.

All of the work came together on our Bulletin board. Come check it out!

What a blessing it was to have our guests visit.

?הידעתם- Did you know? Yom Ha’atzmaut fun facts

April 26, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

We learned cool facts for Israel’s Independence day.

Here are some of the facts that some of the kids announced over the intercom.

Jacob-” Did you know that a favorite food of Israeli children is schnitzel? Which is kind of like a big flat chicken nugget.”

Ella- ” Did you know that at the end of the day in Pre-K, students eat Lechem ve chocolate which is a bread and chocolate sandwich.”

Ruben- “Did you know that in Israel the clock is based on a 24 hour system? So 3:15 is written 15:15.”

Ari Lev- ” Did you know that on Yom Hazicharon (Israel’s memorial day) all Israelis stop for 2 minutes of silence when a siren goes off to remember the fallen soldiers.”

Aviva- ” Did you know that on Pessach, the people of Israel can’t buy chametz in the supermarkets? The aisles are covered with fabric so you can’t buy it!.”

Yeal-” Did you know that in Israel, students go to school from Sunday to Thursday?.”

It’s STEAMy in First Grade!

April 26, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

It was so STEAMy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math (or Music) in First Grade last week!

Between our Siddur Ceremony, STEAM week and Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence day) the week flew by!

We began with a fantastic trip to Berger Recycling in Pawtucket. Adam Sinel was our tour guide throughout the center.

A bale of tin cans

Can you guess how much it weighed?

Math!

Happy kids surrounded by bales of paper.

Such a great day!

We took home with us three boxes full of recycled material. Then used them to Engineer their own musical instrument throughout the week.

Duck tape was a key material used this week.

Check out the cool spoons, and keys!

Next, we read a book about an African folktale about summoning the rain then we made our own rain makers!

On Wednesday the students learned all about Tensile structures which are a object that has at least two anchors with a flexible material that is stretched between the anchors. We studied Architecture by famous Architects such as Felix Candela, Antonio Gaudi, Santiago Calatrava and Frei Otto.

We made our own tensile structures using pipe cleaners, straws and my special bubble formula.

The highlight of the week was working with our Brown and RISD students to create our outdoor PVC pipe organ. It will be installed on the playground so everyone can enjoy the magic!

Ta Da!

It is finished! Our proud students are preforming on their instruments. Did you know that our music was recorded and will become the soundtrack of the KinderSTEAM video?

18 minutes of Passover in First grade

April 12, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

It is amazing what can be done in 18 minutes.

18 minutes is the time required to bake kosher for Passover Matzah.

8 months is what it took for our 5th grade buddies to design and build brick oven to bake our matzah. (They even made the bricks from recycled milk cartons!)

13 Haggadah binders were passed on to me when I arrived this summer to begin teaching. 13 treasures, which were my first hint of the amazing creativity and serious students I would have the pleasure to teach in September.

One student asked me why each page was laminated.

“It has to be laminated because just think of all the chicken soup that your children might spill on it when they use it at your own family Seder table.” Oh how their eyes became round as saucers at that idea!

Please! please! return these treasures on Monday so that I may add in their photos and put them back into the magical box to pass on to our 2nd grade teachers for next year.

I hope you have all had a wonderful Passover. I am so looking forward to hearing all about it from the kids. Especially the 4 questions!

Help! There’s a Wocket in my Pocket!

March 25, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

First grade celebrated a Reading Week by reading and studying Dr. Seuss and 5 of his amazing books. We began our week with There’s a Wocket in my Pocket where students created and wrote about different creatures living in their pockets.

We also read The Lorax and used our own voices to speak for different living things in our world. When we read If I Ran the Zoo, we learned about an imaginary zoo and we made masks to create our own “First Grade Zoo” filled with many different made up animals!

On Thursday when we read Bartholomew and the Oobleck, we made oobleck in our classroom and discussed if it was a solid or a liquid. Finally, we read Oh, the Places You’ll Go! and we wrote about the different things we wanted to do and see when we get older.

The first Grade brought in their favorite stuffed animals to read to

Come in and check out our bulletin board outside our classroom. It is amazing to see how much they have progressed in their writing!

Purim happenings in First Grade

March 15, 2015 by Sarah Shay-Davidson

The holiday of Purim is every kid’s perfect holiday. We dress up in fantastic costumes, eat delicious goodies and a whole day of school is devoted to celebrating with your friends and teachers.

Here is how we began our day with a coded morning message.

Purim was a fantastic day of fun. The entire school participated in the reading of the Migillah (The story of queen Esther) then all the kids were divided into three groups and enjoyed Purim stations of painting masks, Dramatic play , and made Hamentashen and cards for Mishloah Manot (Gifts of food).

We delivered with the 2nd grade to the seniors at the JCC on Friday afternoon!

The energy and joy in which the students gave their gifts was wonderful to observe. With paper Hamentashen hats and snow pants, students sang, danced and chatted with our seniors. Everyone had a wonderful time.

Check out the amazing costumes!

and finally, the Purim Puppet show was a smash success! First grade invited Pre-K and K to our special performance. First graders were so proud to host the younger students.

Our classroom was transformed into the city of Shushan, Persia!

A job well done!

Now it is time to get ready for Passover…….