Class of 2016

Although I usually highlight the fourth graders and their academic achievements each week, for this post I wanted to just focus on their character and perseverance.  On Tuesday we met with our kindergarten buddies to participate in an outdoor scavenger hunt. They worked together to collect items such as leaves, stones, pine cones and grass in the neighborhood surrounding JCDS. While they laughed and strolled with their younger buddies, I took note of all that was happening around us:

• A fourth grader held her buddy’s hand and carefully helped her across the street.
• A fourth grader bent down to pick up all of the items that had spilled out of the bag and returned them to his buddy with care.
• A fourth grader made sure his buddy made all of the decisions about what they colored on the front and back of the bag.
• A kindergarten student sat quietly and safely on her buddy’s lap while she was listening to the directions for the activity.
• A fourth grader helped his buddy carefully cut and glue all the materials for the project.
• A fourth grader was giving her buddy constant support and encouragement as they worked on the project  together.
• A fourth grader made sure her kindergarten buddy was all zipped up in her winter coat so she would be warm enough when we ventured outside.

While none of these things surprised me, they did amaze me and made me feel so proud of them all. These relationships are so special and so significant for both age groups.

The fourth graders had another opportunity to shine. On Wednesday they led their second school wide assembly with Rotem (part of the school-wide design challenge). This assembly was a bit more challenging and the kids had to constantly readjust their original plans on the fly. I was so impressed with how they worked together and encouraged each other to keep on going even though it did not turn out as they had originally planned. They learned the tough lesson that when things don’t go as intended, you can always learn and do better the next time. The important thing is to work as a team and to never give up:)

I read this quote on a blog post this week and it made me think of this very special fourth grade class. They really are all A+ human beings. Have a great weekend.

“The world needs good human beings more than it needs scholars and over-achievers – and the tragic thing is, we just don’t hand out nearly enough “A’s” for loving, and living, well.”

By JD Lester

After reviewing my plethora of photographs, I realized I was way overdue for a blog post. Even with all of the holidays and the short weeks, we have packed in a lot of learning. Here are some highlights:

• We attended a memorable Tashlich service with the entire school at India Point Park.
• We researched facts about a new class pet to adopt in the classroom to accompany the Bearded Dragon.
• We wrote and shared our persuasive pet essays with the third and fourth graders.
• We dissected owl pellets and discovered bones, skeletons and fur (oh my)!
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• We researched The Snowy Owl, Barn Owl, Grey Owl, Elf Owl and Great Horned Owl and created an art project to incorporate our facts (check out the 3/4 bulletin board).
• We created advertisements for a child centered business and shared them with our classmates (inspired by the Lemonade War).
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• We read and discussed the first few chapters of our new amazing class novel, Wonder (We hope you have started to read along with us).
• We played math games in cooperative groups such as multiplication concentration and dice multiplication roll.
• We started a new math unit on multi-digit multiplication using the “magic zero” to solve problems.
• We listened to a guest speaker from RI Center of The Book as she shared an exciting nation-wide book letter contest that we will all be entering in January.
• We planned and conducted our very own 4th grade assembly for the entire school (Thank you Rabbi Gouze).

Upcoming Dates:

October 22nd=Picture Day

October 22=Field trip to Petco

October 29th=Field trip to Audubon Society

November 19th=Field trip to Tap-in (food bank)

December 3rd=6:30 p.m. Wonder Book Talk

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:

• HW given on Monday is due Wednesday – worksheet/ workbook/ writing assignment/ etc.

• Thursday’s HW is due Friday – reading practice. I will send an email on Wednesday evening to the students’ email addresses.

• Monday due following Monday – independent reading, which will start after Simchat Torah.  I’ll provide more info when we get there.

• Friday – quiz, which will start after Simchat Torah

שנה טובה וחתימה טובה Shanah Tova and chatima tovah. Rotem

What a busy and exciting week!  The fourth graders were beyond thrilled to reunite with their kindergarten buddies. They shared picture books and illustrated their favorite scenes from the book together. These relationships are so heartwarming to witness.

The third and fourth graders worked diligently to decorate and personalize their writer’s notebooks. They included photographs, words, magazine pictures and stickers. We will be using these journals all year during writing.

The two classes also collaborated to research some fascinating facts about owls. Do you know what owls eat? Do you know what the largest type of owl is called? Ask your child for the answers.

Speaking of animals, the fourth graders wrote lovely tributes to our beloved bearded dragon, Gili. These will be buried with Gili in his final resting place. The students also used the design thinking model to brainstorm ideas of what to do with Gizmo in an emergency situation. We posed the question:

How might we take care of Gizmo if an emergency happened at JCDS?

You can check out their responses on our design thinking bulletin board. They are a resourceful bunch! They also researched animals to adopt for a new class pet. They are using their research to write a persuasive essay to convince us to purchase an additional pet for the classroom. (I am secretly hoping it is not a snake:) We will keep you posted…..

In math, we are continuing to study place value, rounding numbers and estimating. We also practiced the Singapore Math bar modeling method to solve word problems. If your child ever struggles with math homework, please write me a note. Homework is never graded, it is only based on effort. The kids also experimented with splash math on the ipads.

We are more than half way through our class novel,  The Lemonade War. The children are thoroughly engrossed in the story and they learned many business terms such as underselling and entrepreneur. I am sending home the reading responses in the Friday folders. The children are learning how to restate questions in the answer and how to provide text evidence and examples.

Finally, we are so excited to see all of you at school for the parent breakfast on Tuesday, Sept 23rd and at Open House on Wednesday, October 1st.  I also would love you to mark your calendars for Wednesday evening, December 3rd for the parent-student book talk. I will explain this in detail at Open House. Have a wonderful weekend.

Melissa

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