“Cool Pants” prevent ticks on the trail
- Feeling proud of the hiking accomplishments!
Teva Day 3: We are pumped to be alive!!!
Class of 2015
Teva Day 2: Ecology
Afterwards we participated in morning shacharit, the morning prayer service.
- In their outdoor learning groups, students’ focus today was on ecology. Can you guess which local plant produced this cool effect?
Students journalled seriously 
And made serious mustaches 
The joy of discovery 
The impressive compost piles here inspire us 
Snacks are healthy and plentiful 
This group is super proud of their discovery of an edible mushroom. They even put it on the “cool stuff table”! 
- The teachers hit the trails too!
After a day on the trail, students were feeling pretty tired. Still, they regaled us with tales of fire building, cave discovery, and amazement over all the living organisms in the lake
During chofesh, or free time, frisbee was a popular choice 
It was gorgeous weather for outdoor play 
Students learned new tricks 
And others learned from their peers
Teva Day 1: Awareness
From Rotem’s Lashon class
On the last day of Sukkot we sat in the sukkah and learned about Ushpizin and who they are. We incorporated in our learning the skill of solving problems. Family Admoni is having guests for Sukkot and we had to organize the seating around the table (file attached for you to solve, ushpizin.)
We have started to learn poems written by the Israeli author Yehuda Atlas and have learned the poem הילד הזה הוא אני. There are two goals for the project: linguistically (ways to describe oneself) and artistically (ways to draw oneself based on an Israeli artist Hanoch Pivan. This part will be done in art class.)
We selected names for the groups. The smaller group chose for themselves the name “אין שם “ (no name) and the other group the name הפלאפלים (the falafels).
The group EinShem: We continue with our reading from the story Boy’s Prayer. This week we learned four new verbs from the story: קורא (read), שומע (listen), ,תוקע (blow the shofar), and אומר (say). We also have practiced to our first quiz and had it on Friday. This will be our regular routine from now on.
The group Hafalafelim: We continued with the topic “direct object” in Hebrew and expanded the number of verbs, which followed by the word ‘את’. We need a lot of practice in all skills because this structure does not exist in English. 
Native Hebrew speakers: The students design their own board game to practice verbs, and their correct form based on a story they had read in the book ‘מילה טובה’. We also started the workbook Eshkolit, which focuses on the structure of the Hebrew sentences.
Have a wonderful week
Lehitraot, Rotem
Jonah’s Post about Ecosystems
Last week we made our own food chains, and as a class made a food web. Some of the food chains were life in a swamp, ocean and mountain, and there were others also. In the food web we each picked an animal and learned what it ate and what ate it. Next we each said what our animals ate and what ate it. Then we connected yarn from one of us to another.If our animal ate theirs or if theirs ate ours. then we would drop the strings one by one as they got eaten or overpopulated and starved. This made me realize that if one thing dies out, other things do too.
From Rotem’s Lashon class
The room was filled with Hebrew, serious learning and excitement in the past two weeks. Each student made a huge progress. I am happy to announce that the Shaliach (Israeli emissary), Gilor (pronounced Gil-Or) will join our class every Thursday.
In Lashon we are using stories as a jumping off point for our learning. Ask your child about the story he or she read in class!
Regular group – We are reading ‘תפילה של ילד’ (Boy’s Prayer.) We learned three new verbs from the story: יושב (sit) לומד (learn) הולך (go/walk). We practiced building full sentences using these verbs in present tense to fit them to the person who does the action such as he, she, they, boys and girls.
Advanced group – We read stories about new beginnings of two girls. In class and at home we practiced the new vocabulary and talked about the stories. 
We have started our new workbook חברים בעברית Chaverim B’Ivrit. The group of verbs we are studying can appear in two ways in a sentence like in English 1) I like to watch movies 2) I watch the movie at night. We learned four new verbs and practiced more verbs that fit that group.
דוברי עברית Native Hebrew speakers: we have started our workbook מילה טובה. We are learning about verbs and what verbs can tell us.
Homework routine
I want to make it clear that All HW is a reinforcement of what we do in class. We started our HW routine this week. Here it is:
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HW given on Monday is due Wednesday – worksheet/ workbook/ writing assignment/ etc.
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Thursday’s HW is due Friday – reading practice. I will send an email on Wednesday evening to the students’ email addresses.
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Monday due following Monday – independent reading, which will start after Simchat Torah. I’ll provide more info when we get there.
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Friday – quiz, which will start after Simchat Torah
שנה טובה וחתימה טובה Shanah Tova and chatima tovah. Rotem
Jordan’s post about Social Studies
In Fifth Grade Social Studies we are learning about the Colonial period. We learned about Primary Sources, a first hand account, and how they can be used. In Social Studies we did a lot of projects about what and why we would and should bring to the New World. We learned about Jamestown and how they met the Native Americans. We also learned about the Starving Time. The Starving Time is when the Natives stopped growing corn and couldn’t feed the settlers. We started learning about what we wanted to learn individually. I hope to learn much more about the Colonial Period!
In our new year
From Mrs. Woods:
As I reflect on the start of our school year together, as we enter the new year, I am struck by the thoughtfulness and beauty inside each fifth grader.
Last week we thought and talked about the concept of loving ourselves. We always hear that we should treat our neighbors as we want to be treated. What if we treated ourselves as kindly as we treat others? What does this mean in terms of what we tell ourselves as we begin a test? Would we tell a friend to think that she or he would do poorly on a test? How might we treat ourselves with love in the context of our school work? Fifth graders practiced doing meditation breaths and positive affirmations before their first math test. They all rocked the test, demonstrating their understanding of the math concepts and their ability to carefully check over their work. Our brains are so very powerful, and when we actually believe in ourselves we always do better.
This week’s first morning meeting we did an activity that highlighted that there are many times when we each feel we can’t do something. At the same time, we all believe in each other. What would life in 5th grade feel like if we believed in ourselves more? What if we didn’t say, feel, or think, “I can’t”? This week the mirror reminds us to think, “Yes, I can!”
Yesterday we each wrote “I can’t” on a piece of paper.
Then we went to our garden plot and literally buried “I can’t”.
May 5775 be a year filled with fifth graders believing in themselves. We will learn and grow so much this year with our “I can do it” attitudes.
Shana Tovah! Happy New Year!
Tamar’s Post about Our Tree of Wisdom
This week has been so productive! On Thursday, we planned out the way we would display our rules. After almost an hour of creativity, we decided to write our rules on a paper or cardboard tree, to symbolize the garden, Teva, and how much we have grown and will continue to grow. Whenever we look at the tree, no matter how gray it is outside, we will always have a little piece of spring. We plan to call it our Fifth Grade Tree of Wisdom because if we follow these rules, we will learn more and become wiser.
Other things that we almost put our rules on were a pyramid, a quilt, a window, a book, an envelope, and every person writing and decorating a rule. Some name ideas were ‘The way we rule’ ‘Kavod contract’ ‘fifth grade rules’ ‘our classroom is built on…’ and many variations of our current name. Read next week’s post to see the final product!
From Rotem’s Lashon Class
It is wonderful, exciting and challenging to start a new school year with familiar and new students. We talk in Hebrew in Lashon and everyone is making a huge effort to participate and express themselves. Every Thursday we start the day with מפגש בוקר, which means morning meeting in Hebrew. At the first meeting we talked about our summers. It was nice to hear about so many friends that went to Israel during the summer and that so many of us love the sea (I am an Israeli Marine Biologist…..)
Class agreement:
A thoughtful and lively discussion about being part of a community led to the creation of our class rules. We are still in the process of internalizing and reinforcing them during our time together. To build a community is an important process.
For Rosh Hashana we explored a blessing for a good year, talked about the symbols, and with Elad the music teacher, learned the song ‘בשנה הבאה’, Bs’shana Ha’ba’ah, in the new year.
Lehitraot, Rotem