Friday, October 25, 2013

Dear Families,

Each week, in addition to my blog, we are now going to have a guest blogger. This week it is Dafna.

"The best part of school this week was Under the Sea because we did a lot of fun things like make a game about the ocean food chain and paint with salt water. In math we learned about fractions. A fraction is something that makes equal parts. "

Today we wrapped up our Under the Sea unit (even though the kids asked if we could do it all year!). All work was sent home. Please check backpacks. Our next unit starts Monday and it is about building bridges.

My math group is finishing up our unit on fractions. Next, we will review regrouping and then move right into a unit on money.

Reminder: please send back your field trip form if you have not yet done so.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

Painting with colored salt water.

Fun in second grade!

Coloring ocean animals.

Fall Fun in First Grade

Fall fun abounds in First Grade! 

Math is all around us. We are using the changing leaves as inspiration in our morning message to begin graphing and charting. 

We have also been playing a fantastic new game that began as 20 Frame, and we are building up to 30 Frame, some are on 50 Frame, and there have been requests to have a marathon 100 Frame game day! Students take turn rolling dice and placing the corresponding number of counters on their frame until together they add up to 20, 30, or 50. 

On Thursday, Nov. 7 Kindergarten, First, and Second grade are all going on a field trip to the New England Aquarium! Click here for permission slips and be sure to return them by November 1st. 

Finally, here is Zalmen's summary of the highlights of this past week. 

October 18, 2013

Dear Families,

This week my literacy group learned about verbs. We also focused on creating better sentences. How can we add detail to make them more interesting and exciting?

In math we continue to work on fractions of groups. If there are 12 pencils, how many are in 1/4? 1/2? 1/6? 1/12? The students need to make different groups out of the pencils to find the answer.

For Under the Sea this week we learned about the coral reef. The students used pictures to figure out the names of different types of coral. They also used different clues to figure out what types of animals live in a coral reef. Next, the students were put into groups and given a fact sheet about a particular ocean animal. They were asked to create a fact page to share with the rest of the class. All of the pages will be put together into a class book which will come home at the end of the unit.

Learning about the coral reef.

More learning about the coral reef.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

First Grade Week In Review

What a wonderful week we've had!

Please remember to support your student by checking to see what homework they have each night in their homework folder. There will be 1 page per night on Monday - Thursday. Please remove the completed work (it will have a check and a sticker). If there are things that need to be fixed on homework I will send that home as well with a note explaining what fixes need to be made.

First a huge Kol HaKavod to our first graders for leading Mah Tovu at all school Tefillah these past 2 weeks.

In Fundations we have now mastered 23 letter / sound connections and we have been applying them to our reading. We truly put the FUN in Fundations with all of the different ways we study the letters; we write them on white boards, we skywrite them with our hands, we draw them with our entire bodies, and manipulate them as tiles on the magnetic boards.

Who knew math could be so much fun? Here are some pictures of students playing Make a Train Race. Try to play the game at home!

Make a Train Race

You will need:

• unifix cubes (You probably don't have these at home! You can use anything small that you have a reasonable quantity of, i.e. paper clips, pretzels, coins, baby carrots as long as they are all about the same size) 
• a precut piece of yarn (about a yard) 
• dice

Directions:
Play with a partner. The first person rolls a die and makes a train with that many cubes (or available object). They lay the cubes on one side of the yarn (at the end of the yarn.) The next person repeats and lays the cubes on the other side of the yarn. The child repeats, adding the cubes to his/her side of the yarn and saying out loud the numbers they are adding together. The winner is the first person to get to the end of the yarn.

This has been HaMorah Jaime's Week in Review, and now I would like to share Nir's Week in Review:

Shabbat Shalom,

HaMorah Jaime

October 11, 2013

Dear Families,

This week in my literacy class we finally finished our introductory Marc Brown Arthur books and packets. Now, each student has been placed in a reading group according to his or her level. The books we are using are Bertie's Picture Day by Pat Brisson. It is a cute story about a boy named Bertie who needs to get his school picture taken. But, before that happens, he ends up with a black eye, a bad haircut and a missing tooth. The other book we are using is Arthur's Funny Money by Lillian Hoban. In this story Arthur has to figure out a way to earn money if he is to buy the things that he wants. Each book comes with a comprehension packet. The children are expected to read the stories, answer applied, literal and interpretive questions and then use the book to work on grammar skills.

For grammar we learned that a noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. We went on a "noun hunt" around the school and collected a huge list of nouns. Next week we will sort them.

In math, we continued our work on identifying fractions. Next, we will learn about fractions that represent groups. For example, what is 1/3 of 6?

For Under the Sea this week we learned about dolphins and whales. We also watched an Under the Sea video as well as a video about cuttle fish. Ask your child to share two interesting facts that he/she learned about cuttle fish.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

Reminder: we DO have school on Monday, October 14th

Fun at recess.

Working together to learn about whales.

Comparing a whale to a fish.

Under the Sea cooperative group.

October 4, 2013

Dear Families,

We finally completed our first full week of school! 

In my math class we began to look at fractions. We learned that they are equal parts that make up a whole and we learned how to "read" a fraction. For example, 1/2 is read as "one out of two" or "one half." We had a few tricky problems to solve such as: if there are 8 lady bugs and you need to color 1/4, how many do you color? The kids learned that sometimes the bottom number of the fraction can mean a certain number of groups rather than the total number of parts.

My class also had their first spelling quiz. Next week our goal will be to have the full 10 words.

In science this week grades 1 and 2 completed ocean food chain posters. I hope that everyone was able to see them displayed in the front hall. We learned all about dolphins and how they use sound or "echo-location" to find their food. And, last, we learned that there are different parts of the ocean; the abyss, the surface, the ocean floor, a tidal pool and the open sea. The kids were given five different ocean animals and by reading rhymes about them, they had to figure out in which part of the ocean each animal lives.

And, finally, grades one and two began STAR (Sit Together and Read). We are reading and discussing Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it is a very funny story about a fourth grade boy named Peter whose biggest problem in life is his 2-year-old brother, Farley.

Shabbat Shalom,

Hamorah Caren

Proudly displaying our Ocean Food Chain posters.