Spring has finally arrived in Providence and first grade is taking full advantage of our wonderful neighborhood. This week students learned about how we use earth materials such as rocks and water to build roads. The previous day in Science, we went outside to scour the playground for the different ways rocks are used to build a playground. Students discovered that cobbles (rocks as large as your fist), pebbles, gravel and sand are used everywhere including the sidewalk and street. We concluded this chapter by taking a short walk up the street to watch as construction workers poured blacktop and smoothed it down with a paver. How lucky was it to have our streets refreshed at the same time we are learning about paving roads!
We commemorated Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence day) with a whole school celebration which included a gigantic interactive map of Israel. The whole school played Israeli playground games, answered trivia questions based on facts about Israel, and iced an enormous cake depicting a map of Israel. Who knew that Mt. Hermon could look so delicious made out of marshmallows?
On Friday Hadas’s Abba (father) Shai, a marine biologist, shared incredible photos of his underwater research off the coasts of Australia and Malawi. Students looked at photos showing live and dead coral reefs, as well as several photos of sharks and other remarkable creatures of the sea. The enormous black duffle bag mystery (which was delivered early in the morning) was solved when Shai pulled out his well worn scuba gear to show the kids.
