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Tu’Beshvat, puppet shows and a Crazy Cat in 1st grade!

 

Tu’Beshvat & The Puppet Show all in one day!

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Last Wednesday was quite a day for us in First Grade!

We started the day with a celebratory Tu’Beshvat snack of Majool dates and green olives from Israel.

Then we were off to our first and only dress rehearsal (thanks to last week’s snow day).

The excitement continued to build as parents filtered in……

and we were ready for the performance to begin!

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As promised, here is the video for those who were not able to join us. Enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/119386940

If you took pics of the show, please share with me! I was so busy with the performance that I took very little photos and would love to post them on the blog.

Thank you Leanna for reading us a fabulous book,

The Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

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and finally, let me introduce you to our new best buddy.

Meet Crazy Cat

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Why is there a cat in the homework folder? Crazy cat is a useful tool to help First Graders with penmanship.  Crazy Cat works as a fun visual aid to assist children in remembering where letters should sit between the lines and their sizing. It has been a huge hit with the kiddos.  You might find one in a homework folder every once in a while, so don’t be alarmed. He is very friendly!

Is it spring yet?

I am ready to be done with this snow. Here in Sharon, we have a record 5.5 inches of the white stuff.

 

Egg-connections and Double Sweet Special Visitors

 

Just looking at this photo makes me take a moment to marvel how fast these kiddos are growing up.  My serious students are crowded around a story about Rosa Parks and yet another way to use eggs in our lessons.  Why an egg you ask? The students were asked to observe the properties of two eggs. One with a white shell and the other brown.  My clever students quickly understood where I was going with the demonstration and got straight to the point.  “The different eggs are just like skin color but when we crack them they are the same!” One student reminded me to check for any blood spots because it wasn’t kosher if it did.  I reassured him that we were not eating the eggs, just observing their properties.  Now that is what I call a multi curriculum home run. We used science terminology to support a discussion on discrimination and a sprinkling of Judaic teaching.

 

Our Buddies visit and listen to the First Grade read from their ‘Just right’ reading baskets

 

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A double booking of our special visitors!
We had our first ‘oops!’ in 1st grade when I accidentally double booked Naama and Marshell to come to read to us on the same day and it was twice as wonderful!  Thank you again to all of my wonderful parents who have visited already and to all of those who are joining us in the future.

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Looking for a good book to buy? This is what Marshell read to the kids and I highly recommend it!

 

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Look what appeared on our surveyor board one morning!


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Our  weekly Mathematician  would like show you what was on the other side of the board.

Thanks Daniel!

Our personal gladiator will defend us through thick or thin!

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Thank you, thank you for all of these fabulous Double Chai gifts for First grade!

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Lisa was our Special visitor this week!

What is happening in Ivrit?

We celebrated with Ariyot’s daughter (a.k.a Rutie Adler, who is the schools Hebrew coach)

We completed our first workbook in the Ariyot program with ice cream sandwiches and lot’s of laughter!

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We are so excited to start the next workbook!

And finally…..

With all of this snow, please send in snow pants, snow boots, gloves etc. The school policy is… that all kids should have boots, hats and mittens as well as winter jacket. Snow pants and snow boots are required to play in snowy areas of the playground.  If students don’t have boots or snow boots then they will play during winter recess in the cleared out areas.

Wait….One more thing!

Check your email for the latest update for next weeks puppet show in your email.

My bucket is full!

 

 

Last week was our first full week back at school and what a busy week it was!

We read a marvelous book, How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Mary Rectmeyer  together.

IMG_5286This is a book that is appropriate for students from Kindergarten-Grade 2. This book explains that we all have invisible buckets of water over our heads. The negative actions of others toward us can empty the buckets, and our own meanness toward them can deplete their vessels, too. Positive actions reverse the process. Felix refuses to allow his sister to play blocks with him. When she angrily kicks over his tower, his grandfather explains that Felix dipped from his sister’s container. The next morning Felix actually sees a bucket floating over his own head, and during the course of the day, as he is alternately bullied and praised, he realizes what causes it to be empty or full.

This was a perfect book to read to our class and the kids quickly began to think about how we can use this in our classroom.

Ideas ranged from actual individual buckets to a class bucket.  Stay tuned to how we continue to talk about being aware of our buckets.

My bucket was almost completely full when we were joined by 2nd Grade for our weekly Tfillot on Thursday morning.  There is nothing sweeter then hearing all of their voices harmonizing together as they sing,  Ma Tovu. (one of the morning prayers that declares how happy we are to be in God’s house)

At the end of the week, students were challenged to think of at least one thing that filled their buckets this week. What a wonderful way to wrap up the week and welcome Shabbat and the weekend.

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Three-Dimentional Shapes!

“How many vertices are there in a rectangular prism?”

Answer:

There are 8 vertices in a rectangular prism.

(in case you need to be reminded…A vertex is where the edges of a shape meet. In other words, the corners of the shape)

Students learned  new geometry vocabulary this week and truly enjoyed creating their own  three- dimensional shapes out of cranberries and toothpicks.

Armed with their own small box of cranberries, they munched as they worked hard on their shapes of choice.

Check out the results of their work.

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Sneak peak for next week!

This week we are learning about Martin Luther King Jr in honor of his birthday.

In Math, students will learn how to use Ordinal Numbers (first = 1st, second = 2nd up to tenth = 10th)
and Positional Words.  (also known has prepositional words such as next to, on top of, between, to the  left and right of…)

The homework this week will reflect this learning!

1st Grade Reminders!

I am convinced that there is a Kippah monster living in our classroom munching shamelessly on our Kippot. (by the way, that same monster lives in my dryer and gorges on my socks as well which is how I explain  all of the single socks in my drawer.)

Please send in extra Kippot!!!

Hot Lunch Announcement

Please review with your kids the day they have hot lunch.  Some kids are either totally shocked to find out they have hot lunch or kids come up to ask if they have hot lunch when they do not.  It is very disappointing for the kiddos when they do not (although they have food in their lunch boxes).
Shavouah tov!
Have a great week everyone!

 

Hanukkah Science and History, Dreidels and Buddies!

Chag Samach First Grade!

The best part of my job is the cross-curricular freedom I have to integrate the Chagim (The Jewish holidays)into the science curriculum. Hanukkah was not spared and we had a science lesson based on light and fire. We watched the following video then we went outside and tested two of the experiments from the video.

Here is the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEF-oX2xpXE 

* I did not show all of the video as we would have run out of time, so feel free to do some cool Hanukkah Science at home.

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Here we are using a model moon and a lamp and observed the moon’s shadow as it moved around the sun. We even re-created a lunar eclipse!

Our Buddies came to visit!

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In Ivrit (Hebrew), students listened to the Hanukkah story then worked together to sequence the story through pictures, solved Hebrew Hanukkah riddles and played with Sivivonim (Dreidels).

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And finally, Ella and her dad just sent me this amazing discovery in Israel of a tiny Menorah found on a glass fragment that I just had to share with all of you. A Perfect way to end the festival of lights this year.

Thanks so much Ella and Adam!

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Culture/Antiquities-Authority-finds-1600-year-old-glass-bracelet-with-menorah-inscription-385497

Enjoy the vacation and can’t wait to see all of you when we return!

 

First grade visits the RISD Nature Lab!

To wrap up our Teeth unit, The First Grade visited The Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab at RISD. Where else can one find a Black Bear,  a Puffer Fish, the skull of of a Tamarin Monkey (which is really rare), a gigantic honey comb and dried pomegranates?

The cherry on the top? Students were able to hold and touch (almost all) every specimen in the lab.

The day before our visit I showed them this introductory video:

https://blog.etsy.com/en/2009/theres-no-place-like-here-edna-w-lawrence-nature-lab-at-the/ 

Together, we brainstormed all our questions and reviewed what we had learned about animal teeth and Human teeth. We were ready!

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And so, on the rainiest  day of the year, armed with the students sketchbooks from Art class, we arrived at the lab soaked to the bone and full of excitement.  We were greeted by Melita Morales who serves as the Lab’s STEAM Engagement Coordinator and our very own JCDSRI parent Rachel Atlas. (Rachel is one of the Assistant Curators of the lab.) Together they gave us a wonderful introduction, answered all of the children’s questions and time to explore, draw and write in this amazing place. It was a wonderful way to conclude our unit.

Here is the contact information if you are interested in visiting.

 The Edna Lawrence Nature Lab
Rhode Island School of Design
2 College Street
Providence, RI  02903

Located at: 13 Waterman Street, Providence, RI

Phone: 401-454-6451

 

Enjoy the photos.

 

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First Graders Are Bridge Engineers!

First Graders Are Bridge Engineers!

 

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First grade accepted the Science challenge to balance a dixie cup full of steal nuts on a  bridge made from  a single piece of paper and two plastic cups.  Our quick thinking students came up with several solutions and proudly displayed their discoveries with each other.

 

Preparation for  Kabbalat Shabbat.

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We are working hard for our Kabbalat Shabbat Celebration by practicing our songs and prayers and creating stain glass inspired Kiddish cups.

 

Tuna Fish Towers 

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The Tuna Fish drive is well on it’s way.  By Friday afternoon we had collected a whopping 144 (thanks to Yael who counted each one for us) cans of Tuna.  Way to go First Grade!

During our weekly Kabbalat Shabbat Assembly on Friday, Mr. Tilove held an open discussion  with the all of the students about the  objectives for collecting the cans for the Kosher Food pantry of Providence.  It was decided collectively that instead of a competition  between grades for the most tuna fish cans collected, the school now has been challenged to collect  1000 (of more) for the food Pantry.  The ice cream party will be for all the students if we meet the 1000+ challenge.

 

Special Visitor Thursday

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Thank you to Eli’s mom, Rachel for being our Special Visitor on Thursday.  Rachel brought in the English and Hebrew translation  of  The Cat in The Hat.

We both had a blast reading to the group each page in English and then in Hebrew,  what a wonderful idea!

Spontaneous teamwork at the end of the day.

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On Thursday afternoon after a long day, we made time for some Meditation and Yoga.

Afterwards these kids spontaneously organized themselves into a pyramid and asked me to take a picture of them.

This folks, is what I like to call Teacher’s gold.  A precious moment.

Shavouah tov!

Gratitude on Gobble Day

There is so much to be grateful for, Mr. Tilove has been emphasizing the importance of  Gratitude (Hakarat Hatov) and Responsibility (Achriut) during our Kabbalat Shabbat service together on Friday. The answers the students gave were so powerful, especially when some of the students answered “I am gratitude for my family or my dog or my toys.  Some said, plants, food, my sister, my brother, the world, our school and  our teachers.  It was so inspiring to hear each voice and it is those voices that have inspired my list of Gratitude.

I am grateful for my beloved ( and very) patient family, Antibiotics, Probiotics, my incredible colleagues who have stepped up and took such good care of my students while I have been out for the count, my thoughtful, kind and loving class parents and finally my resilient fabulous first grade students.   I can’t wait to give a hug to each and everyone of them! Thank you all for your well wishes and love.

Lego Parking Lot

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We did some fall Lego clean-up as supplies were getting low and a cleaned up of the Lego gallery was a must.  Now everyone works on one “ship” or “structure” at a time.  We created a Lego parking lot (labeled, reserved parking for all!) The kids asked me to take pictures of the structures before they destroyed them  and put back into the box for further communal use.  Enjoy!

First Grade Torah Scholars

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Our Torah study has evolved in magical ways.  We are using the medium of ripped paper to show our interpretations of the events in Bereishet (the first book in the Torah) Students are writing about their collages and many of their “I wonder” questions that they think of as they listen to each new Parasha (chapter). These writings will be included in their personal Torahs and be displayed at our milestone event.  Please see email for important information about upcoming events.

One Last Egg-experiment

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It was fascinating to discover that it was the apple juice that caused most damage to our pearly whites. The culprit being the natural acid that is in the juice.  I couldn’t resist and we had to do one more follow-up egg-spiriment and brought in two common household acids; White vinegar and Apple cider vinegar each containing 5% acidity. We wondered what would happen to a raw egg if soaked in vinegar.  Students were fascinated to watch the bubbling and slow disintegration of the shell.  It has been a while since we have checked them and will be interested to see what has become of them after the Thanksgiving break.

1st and 2nd Grade Daven (pray) Together

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On  Thursday mornings, 2nd grade joins us for T’fillot. It is a very special moment in the week as my students welcome 2nd grade into their classroom.  We all look forward to it and it is magical to close my eyes and listen to their sweet voices praying as one.  We share snack together where they have the time to socialize, listen to a good book or do a word problem..

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And speaking of word problems…..

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There Are Two New Jobs in First Grade!

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I was so inspired by the Literacy for All conference that I attended several weeks ago. I learned about the importance of the language of math in the classroom.  One of the tricks of creating as many opportunities to talk about math is to add two more jobs to our classroom responsibilities. The Surveyor is in charge of creating a daily class survey for each member to  vote on with their individual photos. (More photos to follow!) and the Mathematician who is in charge of a different number each day.

Here is Ruben,  our first Mathematician showing how many ways you can show the number 19.

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The 1st Grade declares the pomegranate myth-“BUSTED”!

710 seeds

 

It is traditional to eat this fantastic fruit during the high holidays because it  it symbolizes fruitfulness. Also, it is said to have 613 seeds, which corresponds with the 613 mitzvot or commandments of the Torah.

 

Here in 1st grade, we put this idea to the test and discovered that we were the proud consumers of a pomegranate oozing with mitzvot. We counted each and every seed together. It became a lesson that incorporated Math, Science, Chagim and collaboration. We also practiced showing Kavoad (respect) for each other (especially while waiting for each group to count  their seeds; kavod is a skill that we have been working on this month)

 

It was fantastic to see the sparkle in their eyes as they finished counting the last seeds and shouted “710 seeds!” In science we talked about the properties of the fruit both on the inside and outside. Below is a fun chart that I found while preparing for this lesson. According to this chart, 613 is the average number of seeds the data gathered from average sized Pomegranates from all over the world.(We counted a large sized fruit)  This is truly fascinating. Enjoy!

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Tashlich with the whole school @ India Point Park, RI

rope jungle gym

Our first school wide field trip took place on Erev Yom Kippur. At Indian Park,we formed a wide circle of teachers and students and reflected on our past year. Mr. Tilove challenged us to think of one thing we can try to work on in order to be a better person. Then we had the opportunity to apologize to each other for possibly hurting or insulting one another over the past year. the root of the Hebrew word Tikkun means “ to fix “

 

Many of the students were a little shocked with me, as I made sure to look each one of them in the eye and apologize. As a teacher, it is really important to  model the behavior we want to see in our students. I wanted to show them that everyone is obligated to participate in Tikkun – even (or especially!) grownups.

 

Then the students were divided into three groups and participated in three stations:

 

Station #1: Students played a Yom Kippur version of “Pass the Stick” and shouted out past indiscretions as loud as they could while running around a obstacles course and passing the stick from one to the other.

Station #2: To climb the fantastic rope jungle gym.

Station #3: We listened to a meaningful story told by Rabbi Goauze and then threw bird seed (instead of bread crumbs) into the Providence Bay to symbolize throwing away our sins from the past year.

1st Grade hard at work doing Guided Reading Word Work Activities and Math Number Lines

We went to the JCC!

1st Grade visited with Artist Jason Freedman spoke about his artwork in his show entitled Monsters Who Don’t Know They Are Monsters.  Our students had the opportunity to view the show in the gallery, and asked amazing questions of the artist and do an art project together.

jcc Artist visit

September Highlights

Mystery visitor!

We were blessed to have Nadav’s mom Gaby read to us, She chose It Was Only A Dream by Chris Van Allsburg  which is Nadav’s favorite book…ever!) It was a very special moment for all of us.

 

Unexpected Class Gift!

Every once in a while in my wondering, I stumble upon a toy or object that I have to bring to our class.  Last week I found a perfect gift that involves teamwork and engineering! Check out the great photos!

Suspend

 

In The Beginning….

We have had an action packed, intense two full weeks of learning.

Egg-cellent Science experiments and  Chumash (the study of Torah) were pushed to the forefront of our studies.

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Students learned a song to remember the names of the five books of the Torah, (to the tune of Adon Olam, the final prayer we sing in T’fillah (prayers))

 

We invited Rabbi Gouze to teach us about the Torah, then walked as a group to the Temple Emanu-El Chapel to pick up a Torah. Students sang

“ Torah, Torah, Torah” as we returned to our classroom in a procession.

With great fanfare, we unrolled the Torah and gave the students a chance to examine the Torah.  We used Daniel’s Yad( pointer) which he brought in with his miniature Torah to find the word Beershit (In the beginning) .  It was wonderful to hear and see the students excitement to having the the Torah in their classroom!

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Egg-celent scientific observations

 

We began our first experiment with our in-depth investigation of human and animal teeth. Our essential question for this unit:

What do human and animal teeth have in common?

Students were introduced to the anatomy of a human teeth and  key vocabulary such as: enamel, the crown, tooth decay, and gums.

 

The importance of brushing our teeth twice a day was driven home with our egg-speriment.

 

We compared the anatomy of a tooth and the anatomy of a chicken egg and discovered that the shell of an egg is very similar to human teeth. We then wondered what would happen if we smeared one egg with toothpaste and left another  without toothpaste and then soaked  both of them in sugary drinks over night.

 

Many students predicted that the egg with the toothpaste would get mushy or explode.  One student declared they would change color.

Students worked in groups of four. Each group was given three cups, three hard boiled eggs, a blob of toothpaste, water and one of the following liquids; Regular Coke, Diet Coke, apple juice and chocolate milk. The students labeled each cup, smeared one egg

with toothpaste and one without. There was also  a cup of water for the control group.

 

24 hours later, we observed our results then returned them to the liquids. After 6 days we took the eggs out again and recorded our results.  Students used toothbrushes to brush the egg shells  with

tooth paste and then washed them.

 

Below are the results of our experiment.

  • Apple juice and Diet Coke turned our eggs the darkest with a texture of “Venus”
  • All the eggs covered with toothpaste were significantly lighter.
  • There were no change in the eggs when soaked in water.
  • Chocolate milk eggs (though the smelliest) were the only eggs – after being brushed and washed – that returned to their original white state.

 

Conclusions:

  1. Don’t drink sugary drinks and go to bed without brushing your teeth or your teeth will turn brown (if you do it every day)
  2. The shells showed no change in consistency after one day but were easily cracked after 6 days.egg exspiriment

 

 

Highlights  in First Grade!

While conferencing privately with students at the end of the day, I overheard the sweet voices of a group of students singing the Hebrew alphabet and reading from the miniature Torah and using a yad (the pointer)to follow along. So Precious!

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Shavouah Tov to all!

(a good week)

Looking forward to meeting all of you on Tuesday!

Hey Now, You’re a Rock Star!

Brain breaks are one of the keys to success in First grade.  I have discovered that my kiddos crave this five minute break of dancing  to refocus themselves after a group discussion. Here are some snap shots of the kids boogying on down a dance video.  By the end of the week everyone was doing it.

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heck out the dance moves on these kids!

T’kiyah!!!! The Shofar was blown in First Grade

Rosh Hashanah was our main focus this week in Kitah Aleph. Student learned how to blow the Shofar and  welcome the new year.  They learned new Rosh Hashanah songs  by using the words of the song as props.

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For many students, it was their first time blowing the Shofar!

בראש השנה   אומרים   שנה טובה

Be yom Rishon

Highlights of the week:

Math Centers!

Students reviewed how to read a graph by looking carefully at the number of letters in their names and analysing the data. Conclusion:  Ruben wins first place for the longest name of 23 letters and  Yaniv a close 2nd place with 20 letters!

Students also reviewed the hundreds chart and skip counting.

 

 

 

Kindness and acceptance reigns in First Grade

This week we read two books related to kindness towards each other in the classroom; Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes an  The Family Book by Todd Parr. We had a meaningful conversation about how many families may look different but that all families share similar many things in common such as, their parents  love of their children.

Below is a student generated list of what all families share in common and our smoothed out (but still a little wrinkled) heart complete with bandaids to help heal a heart that had been hurt by mean words.

Kindness