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Class Blogs

Thirdgradia, Kid Edition.

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Hi.aviva-garden

We are the bloggers on the run and we write short things about school. We’ve been in school for almost a month but it feels longer. We’ve been doing DEAR time, it stands for Drop Everything And Read. Some kids call it SQUIRT. That stands for Silent Quiet Uninterrupted Reading Time. They are basically the same thing but different names, but some kids think we are better at DEAR than SQUIRT.

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In Thirdgradia we have a thing called Project Time. We make projects where we build using paper. Some kids do their jobs. Since I was the blogger, my job now is writing this blog that you are reading right now. Other kids during project time like to make a flag. We did lots of rough drafts and we combined all of them and made a big flag. It was cool because our class name is called Thirdgradia and just like the American Flag, now we have one too.

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In writing we have personal journals, but in Hebrew we have Hebrew Books where we learn songs in Hebrew and do writing. We play games that are fun. One game that was really fun was when Morrah Mills put on a song, and then by the end of the song you had to pick up one of the boxes. It was Awesome.

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In math we get to use white boards and Mr. Mirsky writes questions on the board so we can answer them on our white boards. We have worksheets sometimes, and sometimes they are double sided. The most fun we’ve had so far in math is tower building. We used base ten blocks to try to make the biggest building. Mr. Mirsky said before we started building we had to write how many blocks we were gonna use. It wasn’t that hard, except the first time.

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That is all from the Blogger on the run. The end. Check out our blog next time to hear about the other activities in our classroom. Thanks for reading our paragraphs.

4th Grade Buddies

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As members of the 4th Grade, it is our duty to share our academic knowledge and understanding of the word ‘community’ with the students around us. One of the ways we keep the values of JCSD strong is through our partnership with buddies in Kindergarten. Over the past few weeks 4th Graders have been mentoring Kindergarten students in the art of being an author, all while sharpening our own drafting and editing skills!

We’ve helped our Kindergarten buddies develop their ideas using the writing process we have learned in years past: brainstorming, drafting, editing, and publishing. This week, we worked with them to expand their ideas on paper by helping them practice their letters and sentences, as well as illustrate the pages of their books. Through this activity we are living the Jewish value that we have been studying this month in Judaic Studies: love your neighbor as yourself.

These new books already look like they are full of adventures ready to be enjoyed by our entire JCDS community!

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Second Grade Values

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At JCDS our goal is for students to view the manner in which they behave through a Jewish lens. Our tradition is steeped in important values about how to behave with kindness, generosity of spirit and caring. This year we have identified a number of values that we will explore in an integrated manner in both general and Judaic Studies.

Our first all-school value is “You should love your neighbor as yourself, V’Ahavta Lirayacha Camocha.” We explored ways that this value could be understood by second graders by asking the following questions: what does it mean to love yourself, how can you show love/respect for another person, and how can you be a good friend?

The second graders generated many answers to each of these questions. Our culminating project for this was to make a class collage of the speech bubbles that the students filled out with their responses.

Taking this one step further on Open School Night when parents came to hear an overview of the curriculum for the school year, they, too, had a chance to explore these questions and make a parent collage. The students loved comparing their parents’ replies with their own the following morning upon their return to school!

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Bruchim Habaim (welcome) to Hebrew with Rotem

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I love the summer, but it is great to be back teaching Hebrew to the 4th graders. This year we have two different groups for Ivrit (Hebrew) and I have the honor to teach six students of the class. Our method continues to be teaching Hebrew in Hebrew as a living language.

We started the school’s year talking about our summer. Mi medaber Ivrit bakayeetz? (who speaks Hebrew during the summer?) Mi metayel? (who travels?) Eifo? (where?) Mi mekabel matana? (who receives a present?) Mi holech le’machaneh kayeetz? (who goes to summer camp?) The students asked each other these questions and more, wrote their sentences and worked together to create a poster about ‘our summer.’ These students are busy working in our classroom.

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Lehitraot (see you again), Rotem

Dispatches From Thirdgradia, teacher edition.

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Welcome to Thirdgradia!  fourthgradians

This is a taste of the Morning Message that Thirdgradian’s respond to every day.  This way they start their day building community, expressing themselves, and thinking about sweets!img_20160912_093322895_hdr

 

Morning Message is usually followed by snack, then math.  In math we have been exploring place value, and building towers with base ten blocks (but not before counting each block!)

 

 

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After that, Thirdgradians have ELA, where they are being read books about civilization building (Roxaboxen by Barbara Cooney, Weslandia by Paul Fleischman) and doing the impossible (Emmanuel’s Dream by Laurie Thompson, and Rain School by James Rumford).  They have been reading, writing, and discussing at a high level.  They have especially enjoyed the spelling activities. They were able to draw comics, write stories, or make mini dictionaries as long as they used ALL their target spelling words. aviva-speling  ari-ella-spellingdaniel-spelling

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thirdgradians have also spent a lot of time brainstorming about what our civilization should look like.  We have come together and agreed on our civilization’s name, style, and core values.  Every Friday, kids get a full period of Project Time to take part in building their classroom.  Now that our first priority, The Thirdgradian Armory of Mythical Weapons, is completed, there are a slew of projects that need our attention.

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First among these upcoming projects is assisting our classroom bloggers in taking ownership of this space.  Tomorrow I will upload the children’s dispatch, and from here on this space will feature their thoughts, their pictures, and their perspective.  I will continue to add additional context and photos as needed.  Stay tuned!

Welcome to Gardening!

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All the grades have been working hard this month to start “putting the garden to bed” and helping out with some school-wide projects. We have started utilizing the compost barrels and learning all about decomposers, worms, beetles and other helpful critters. Pre-K and Kindergarten are going to be responsible for the beautiful Butterfly Garden, coming this spring. All other grades also have their own garden bed, where they are excited to plant some of their favorite vegetables. Fourth and fifth grade has been doing an excellent job being in charge of collecting the compost during lunch and helping to remind some of the younger students what kinds of food can be composted. First grade is exploring decomposing apples and second and third grades are exploring worms! jacob-g2

The whole school has been working hard on our big garden project for the year…planting wheat! The students are busy clearing a plot of land for the wheat seeds, which will be planted this fall and (hopefully) bloom this upcoming spring. If all goes well, we will harvest our wheat by hand, process it and turn it into flour to use for making our Challah bread. Wheat is a staple ingredient in many foods of Israel and one of the 7 species, so this allows for wonderful integrated learning experiences with Judaic Studies.

 

Kindergarten Presents…4th Grade Buddies!

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Last week the Kindergarten class got to have their first meeting with our awesome 4th grade buddies from Ms. Silva’s class! The buddies will now be joining us every Monday after lunch and spend our “rest time” with us. This is a wonderful opportunity for the buddies to read, write and relax together. Kindergarten is very excited that we just started reading the “Magic Tree House” series and will be starting a project to fill our own “tree house” (the loft) with magical books that we will write with the help of our amazing buddies. We hope to continue making wonderful memories with our buddies and inviting them to participate in some fun Autumn science experiments as the month progresses.

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Welcome to Kindergarten!

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Welcome to Kindergarten! The first few weeks of school have been filled with new discoveries, ex504citing games and lots of learning! In our play-based, student-centered kindergarten class, children learn and construct their own knowledge through discovery, investigation and hands-on projects. These first few weeks have been dedicated to building a strong classroom community through daily “Morning Meetings” and class games or projects. We completed an art project the first week of school, bringing our feelings to life through color. The students have also enjoyed honing their engineering skills while constructing awesome Lego structures.503

Stay tuned for more exciting posts regarding specific activities and information about fun Fall projects!

Love,

Mrs. Alison and Kindergarten

What makes a community a community?

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In first grade, we have spent the first weeks of school building a learning community. One activity included reading Swimmy by Leo Lionni. From the book we learned that a community is made stronger when it sticks together. Swimmy emphasized the meaning of community and how people, even fish, could collaborate to solve problems. After our reading, we worked together to designimg_5426 a class poster. Each student created a unique fish, and then we made one picture together. We reflected on community and how we could collaborate. The conversation started when a child said, “I will help others with their work.” One child added, “I will be a good friend.” Another noted, “I will be kind.” Others said, “We will help by sharing.” We are learning about friendship and common interests, and growing as a first grade community.

Teamwork in First Grade

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.