Class Blogs – Page 26 – Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island

It’s finally May!

May 8, 2015May 2, 2015 by mkranowitz

I think we can safely say that winter is behind us. We had an amazing STEAM week with a lot of workshops from Brown and RISD students. The highlight of the week for many was a visit by Sam Drazin. He spoke about acceptance and loving ouselves despite our faults. You could have heard a pin drop when he spoke. He tied a lot of his struggles back to the book Wonder. He lived a life that had many similarities to Auggie’s life. His message was to be kind and that we are all in this together.

We also celebrated earth day last week. The weather was cooperating and we planted, weeded, raked and watered the soil. The fourth grade plot is ready to grow!

We continued experimenting with rocks and landforms in science class. We used water and force (shaking rapidly) to physically weather rocks. We also collected rock samples on our own playground and garden. We discussed terms such as acid rain, erosion and humus. The children are all very engaged in these hands on experiments. Next week we will explore chemical weathering.

Just a gentle reminder that all Newbery book reports are due Monday, May 11th. Have a great week.

Melissa

Our Slater Mill Field Trip

May 1, 2015 by Naomi Stein

Our visit to Slater Mill helped students think deeply about the birth of industrialization in this country. The fifth graders asked incredibly thoughtful questions about life during this time period.

Studying a piece of wool and thinking about the efforts it takes to go from sheering a sheep to making usable thread to make clothes. — Studying a piece of wool and thinking about the efforts it takes to go from sheering a sheep to making usable thread to make clothes

Carding wool made it easier to work with.

Only a wealthy family could have had a loom like this one in their home.

Beds were warmed up with coals under the sheets.

Taking the flax plant and readying it to made thread to make linen is quite a process.

Students were fascinated by all the machinery.

These machines were designed to fix machinery.

The cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry.

All Kinds of Families-Books K.White, Librarian

May 1, 2015 by Naomi Stein

Our school will welcome many family members and friends next Friday, May 8, our annual Special Visitors Day. It is such an awesome happy day! While reviewing books about families, I discovered some great stories that reflect the diversity of families. Families come in all shapes and sizes and are more diverse than ever before. Today’s picture books provide insight into interracial families, families with non-biological children, same-sex parents and intergenerational relationships.

Enjoy this thoughtful book list: http://bit.ly/1GAZASK

Some of our favorites: (NOTE We love Todd Parr’s books http://www.toddparr.com/index.html )

?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?

Field Trip to RRIE

April 24, 2015 by Naomi Stein

By Eliora, the 5th grader:

On Wednesday our class went to the recycling center. We went there not knowing anything that we wanted to buy, and left with everybody carrying at least one heavy bag (including Mrs. Woods and Peter.) We got so many materials that we will reuse in our sculpture. Our class got started on an abstract sculpture right away, and I was the official bottle cap holer (I put holes in the bottle caps.) We have wind chimes, bird feeders, and pots for plants on what looks like a plastic cupcake holder. In conclusion, we all had an amazing time collaborating this week.

Curious to know more about where we went? Click here: http://www.rrie.org/

We looked for materials that wouldn't get ruined outdoors — We looked for materials that wouldn’t get ruined outdoors

It's exciting to imagine what we'll create — It’s exciting to imagine what we’ll create

Discoveries at the Beach!

April 22, 2015 by akatzman

As part of our STEAM week learning – and in celebration of Earth Day – we went this morning to Conimicut Beach in Warwick, RI to see the lighthouse (a historic sparkplug lighthouse built in 1883) and go on a treasure hunt!

When we first arrived at the beach, we unfurled the treasure maps that our amazing friend and teacher, Peter, had created for us.

After locating the “x marks the spot” on our maps, we went searching (and digging!) on the beach for our buried treasures . . . .

. . . and we knew when our friends had found their treasure chests when we suddenly heard squeals of delight!

When we opened them, we discovered they were filled with pirate coins!

Afterward, we went exploring on the beach.

We discovered beautiful shells, driftwood, and even helped to carry a horseshoe crab back to the water (yes, that’s a picture of the children gently holding the crab by the tail!)

At the end of our adventure, we stopped together by the water and sang our morning blessings as a kehillah. As we watched the waves roll over the sand at our feet and listened to the gulls sing above us, we ended with a special prayer of gratitude (the shech’iyanoo).

Thank you so much, Peter, for creating such an exciting adventure for us. And thank you, Val (Aeden’s mom) for joining us!

Dig into Great Garden Books for Kids!

April 22, 2015 by Naomi Stein

Gardens have always been part of my life. In October of 2008, Jamie Faith Woods, Andrea Katzman and I attended a school garden program in Bristol, RI. That meeting was a catalyst for creating our beloved school garden. Kol HaKavod to Jamie Faith for all her work on our garden and school garden curriculum.

For several years, I conducted “Giggles in the Garden,” an outdoor JCDSRI preschool story time that resulted in a great garden book collection. In addition, I have created JCDSRI Pinterest boards on gardening with children, garden sensory activities, garden book for children and Earth Day books and activities. VISIT: https://www.pinterest.com/jcdsri/

Math Rope Trick Workshop

April 21, 2015 by Naomi Stein

By Jonah the Fifth Grader:

We the fifth graders, recently had a math workshop done by Ken, a Brown PhD Candidate. We learned about different ways to get from one to negative one. Ken showed this visually by having four of us at a time hold two ropes parallel to each other. Then we twisted the rope into a knot, and we untangled it without undoing what we did or just using our hands at the middle of the rope. The main objective was to untangle the ropes using an algorithm.

We learned all about negative reciprocals and how they work. We used fractions, negatives, and positives. I think that we all had a lot of fun doing this workshop and learned from it. We learned that when the knots are untangled the starting number is zero. When it is tangled we had to try to get back to zero. Twisting the ropes once increases the number by one, and rotating the ropes changes the number to its negative reciprocal. We learned that the algorithm we used was the only one in the world that has currently been discovered. Overall this workshop was extremely well done.

"I wish we could do math like this all day!" — “I wish we could do math like this all day!”

STEAM Workshop: Circuitry

April 21, 2015 by Naomi Stein

By Tamar the Fifth Grader:

In our circuitry workshop on Monday morning, we did two things. First, we made a little colored light go on. We did this by first creasing a small piece of paper, and placed a piece of copper tape ( a thin strip of copper that is sticky on one side) on both sides of the crease and put a battery on one side, and the light on the other end, so that when the paper was folded along the crease, the battery touched both of the pieces of copper tape, and turned the light on. It sounds simple, but it is very hard to make the copper tape meet in the right way to the battery and the light. The second part was a sort of free tinker time. We were told to make some sort of lamp or something like that, and those were the only major guidelines. Some of the things made were a heat lamp, a flashlight, and a few other variations on those basic subjects. I made a little light-up tube that lit up when you pressed it in a certain place. I learned that even the simplest of circuits can be very hard to make.