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Sukkot in PreK!

Even though the last few weeks of school have been short, they’ve been filled with stimulating activities and great joy. We experienced celebrating (yet another!) chag (holiday) together; when the the leaves starting turning colors and the fall harvest season had begun, we knew it was time for Sukkot! A week before it began, and prompted by our reading of It’s Sukkah Time! in Design Lab with Ms. Guttin, we thought about the different ways we might design a sukkah. We then experimented building small huts with Legos, Lincoln Logs, and other manipulatives. Afterward, we admired the ornate, whimsical, and radical sukkot from Sukkah City in NYC (check it out at http://www.sukkahcity.com).

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Inspired by Sukkah City, as well as our experiences building prototypes in Design Lab, we decided to build our own sukkah in our classroom! With Peter’s help, we used electric drills to build our hut.

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Working collaboratively to build the sukkah, we honed our fine-motor skills, practiced communicating effectively, and utilized our mathematical & spacial skills.

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Once our hut was complete, we decided it was just too plain!

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We needed to make decorations . . . including a paper chain.

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After we made our paper chain, we were impressed with how long it was. We began to wonder if it would reach from one end of the hallway to the other. “Let’s try it!” everyone exclaimed.

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Some of us predicted it would be longer than the hallway; others insisted it wouldn’t make it past the entrance to the Design Lab. Ultimately, we discovered it was long enough to pass the first door to the Kindergarten! Later, we even experimented with measuring it using a yardstick!

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When our sukkah was finally finished, we were thrilled with the result. We have enjoyed our time playing in our structure.

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Last week we also enjoyed visiting the imPOSSIBLE DREAM Playground in Warwick, RI. Thanks to Val (Aeden’s mom), Kiara, and Gilor, (the Alliance’s Israeli Emissary), for joining us!

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The park is Rhode Island’s first integrated playground. It offers an environment that is play friendly for children of all physical abilities. The playground is filled with playsets of all sizes, swings of all kinds, playhouses of all shapes.

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We had a wonderful time exploring the playground . . .

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Afterward, we talked about what made the imPOSSIBLE DREAM Playground different than our playground at JCDSRI. Some of the children noted that there were lots of ramps in the Warwick playground, ensuring that people using wheelchairs would have easy access (unlike our playground that has steps leading up to it). Others pointed out that there were lots of different kinds of swings, as well as see-saws – enough so that both able-bodied children and children with disabilities could use (and enjoy) the playground equipment.

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We look forward to now having many full weeks of learning and play together!

Although our weeks have been short, we are continuing to engage in many activities!

To help us practice writing our names using an uppercase and lowercase letters properly, we created Dazzling Name cards. Each child wrote his/her name in pencil and then we traced their names with glue. Afterwards, the children sprinkled glitter over the glue to make their names dazzle! We will continue to use these cards to help us remember to use an uppercase letter for the first letter in our names, followed by lowercase letters.

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We practiced building the uppercase letter E with elastic bands on the geoboards. To help us write the lowercase e, we are using the following image/saying:

letter e

1) Start with the baseball

2) Hit the ball

3) Run around the bases

4) Slide into home!

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We also created our letter E card to add to our alphabet wall. The children drew pictures of elephants, exit signs, eggs, Ella, Emily, elevators, etc.

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We continue to enjoy reading together in our guided reading groups! The children have been working on taking turns reading and following along with their peers, identifying sight words, and making observations about the texts. They also read the books that they wrote to one another!

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This week, we will learn two new sight words:

the

little

These words will be added to our classroom word walk! We will also practice identifying these words in more stories and environmental print around our classroom and the school.

We have been practicing to differentiate between the use of the period, the question mark, and the exclamation point. This is a great activity to practice at home too! For instance, say the following sentence aloud using a period:

The puppy ran away.

Now say it using an exclamation point:

The puppy ran away!

Now try it using a question mark:

The puppy ran away?

Using the proper inflection in your tone as well as facial expressions make this activity fun for the children. It’s also helpful to use a visual of the marks, and this will continue to reinforce punctuation mark identification.

We started making our counting books! The children are using various materials to create these books including glitter, glitter glue, pom poms, feathers, popsicle sticks beads, etc. The children are working hard to select and glue a given number of objects on each page.  Ask your child to think about what page 8 of their counting book might look like…

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Mrs. Woods helped us make Limonana! (Mint lemonade)  First, we picked mint from our JCDSRI garden. Then we washed the mint, and mixed it with boiling water. We strained out the liquid and mixed it with lemon juice, cold water, and sugar. Everyone shared the same opinion: the limonana was delicious!

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This week we are reading Platypus Lost. This book is about a little girl who continually looses her stuffed platypus in different locations including the playground, the lake, and even the market!

We learned the following song about a purple platypus.

(To the tune of Baby Bumble Bee)

Oh I lost my purple platypus today

Searched around the market couldn’t find him anywhere

My grandpa peeked in a bag of groceries

Look! We found him!

We have been identifying the following “amazing” vocabulary words in our stories and songs this week:

market

around

lost

found

platypus

groceries

The children made self-to-text connections by illustrating pictures of their own personal stuffed companions. They drew pictures of stuffed sharks, rabbits, bears, lemurs, monkeys, and a blanket.  Some of the children even decided to observe their rest time snugglies to help them create their pictures!

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Together with our buddies, we went on a nature walk/scavenger hunt around the neighborhood! We spotted rocks, leaves, sticks, cloud formations, trees, acorns, pine cones, and much more. Many of our discoveries can now be found on our science table! 

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October News

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:

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  • 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).

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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

Jonah’s Post about Ecosystems

image image imageLast 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.

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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. Photo 2014-09-18 07.59.32

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.

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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

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.

Photo 2014-09-18 08.01.05IMG_0872

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. Photo 2014-09-18 07.59.32

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.

IMG_0873

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

 

Approaching the New Year 5775

The second and third graders enjoyed listening to the book, The Shofar That Lost Its Voice, a story about a boy named Avi who was planning to blow the shofar on Rosh Hashana and for some unknown reason the shofar would not sound. image     It turns out that the shofar was reluctant to let its sound be heard in our world since there are so many sounds here that are unkind. The students thoughtfully considered which sounds the shofar would be satisfied with in our world and which ones we should work hard to get rid of in order to improve our world.

Yes to the sound of helping
Yes to the sound of helping
No to the sound of arguing
No to the sound of arguing
Yes to the sound of laughing
Yes to the sound of laughing
No to the sound of bullying
No to the sound of bullying
Yes to the sounds of learning and playing
Yes to the sounds of learning and playing
No to the sounds of war
No to the sounds of war
Yes to the sounds of singing and praying
Yes to the sounds of singing and praying

In our learning about Yom Kippur, we focused on the custom of wearing white on the holiday as a way to get the image of a fresh new start for the new year. The second graders enjoyed our white clothing project while practicing some basic Hebrew vocabulary and conjugation of the verb wear!

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Weekly Update

First Stop: Video News

Quick note to parents: I send home school work to students throughout the week with hopes that you will look at it, learn about what your child is working on in class, and decide what is important enough to keep and what can be recycled.  It is my hope that through this work and through the classroom blog you get a window into what we are learning that week.

We had a busy week, as you can tell from our slightly hectic video news.  We are taking advantage of the few full weeks we have in October.

First I want to say thank you to all of the parents who were able to join us at Open School Night.  It was great to see familiar faces and welcome new ones.

We had a full week of learning in second grade filled with reading, writing and math.  In math, we are learning how to add large numbers vertically with and without regrouping.  Students got a chance to practice their math skills during our math center time with iPads, math games, and written practice.
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We also spent some time in the garden during science time.  We observed, measured, and diagrammed our pea plants.  Additionally, after learning the meaning of the word “germinate”, we used a high-tech microscope to look at a the process of germination in a pea seed.  

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In Design Lab, we used our creativity and teamwork to build a classroom sukkah!

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This week in Writer’s Workshop, we began working on our first long term writing project.  Students will be writing, editing, and publishing a “Small Moment Story” which is a true story about an important moment in their lives.

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We look forward to another half week of school!

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!

Reflections, Mistakes, and Teshuvah . . .

As we prepare for Yom Kippur, which begins at sunset today, our kehillah has had the opportunity to reflect on our behaviors, choices, and mistakes over the last few weeks and to think about how we might make even better choices moving forward. We have been practicing learning from our mistakes, remaining calm in the face of difficulties (using yoga and mediation!), and reading books that might provide us with guidance (like The Hardest Word and The Best Mistake Ever).

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Today, during Circle Time, we all considered what we might think about during Yom Kippur. Some of us shared that we wanted to be more helpful cleaning up at home or at school. Others expressed that they wanted to show kavod to those around them. Still others commented that they wanted to work on their listening and self-regulation skills. Check out our “Big Board” in the classroom for our specific comments!

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Over the last few weeks, we have also been working to create our classroom rules. We have been able to connect this experience to some of the conversations we have had about Yom Kippur, including:

  • How does our behavior affect other people?
  • Why do we have rules? What makes a rule a “good” rule?
  • What rules might we have in our classroom?
  • Who should make the rules? Who should follow them?
  • What happens when we break a rule or make a mistake? What action should we take?

 We then documented our thoughts (they are hanging on our chalkboard!):

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Wishing you all a meaningful holiday and an easy fast.