First Grade – Kitah Alef

Ms. Lewis and Morah Rachel

Archive for October, 2011

30
Oct

A Peek at Our Week-10/31

Good-bye October, Hello November!

This week we will…

-Read the story, The Farmer in the Hat, and discuss how classmates work together.

-Work with words with long a.

-Explore cause and effect and using pictures to help us comprehend what we are reading.

-Practice our spelling words:  face, made, age, safe, take, make, cage, cake, late, name, could, old. Bonus: your last name!

-Focus on Proper Nouns in our writing.

-Begin our Subtraction Unit.

-Continue to watch our pumpkin seeds grow–hopefully!

-Discuss what it means to be a good American citizen–knowing the laws, learning about American symbols, understanding heroism, etc.–in preparation for our visit to NAS Jax and Veteran’s Day.

Reminders:

-This week’s homework will be sent home on Monday.  It is due on Friday, 11/4.

-October Reading Logs are due Tuesday.

-We are going to take a few weeks off from AR until we can reorganize the program.  Thank you for your patience during this process.

-Our field trip is this Thursday, 11/3.  We will leave the school at 9 am.  Please make sure that you pack your child a brown-bag lunch.

-Within the coming weeks we will start the Rocket Math Program in class to help us recall addition facts automatically.  Once the children have a firm grasp on the process, letters will be sent home so they can teach you how to help them! ;)

-The end of the first quarter is this Monday.  Conferences are on 11/11.  We look forward to meeting with each of you!

posted by Kristi O'Neill in Uncategorized and have Comments Off
30
Oct

Proud to Present our Butterfly Book

The conversion of our classroom into a Monarch Butterfly nursery happened by chance. We discovered a caterpillar while taking a nature walk and decided to bring it into the classroom to observe.  Since I have raised Monarchs before, I knew exactly what the caterpillar needed to thrive.  The students were so excited about our one caterpillar friend that we kept checking the milkweed leaves for more caterpillars and a butterfly unit was born. We studied the life cycle and were privileged to see each stage (egg, caterpillars of various sizes, chrysalis, and even several butterflies emerging during class!) The children complied everything they discovered about Monarchs into this book so they could share it with you. We hope you enjoy our eBook.

If you own an iPad or iPhone, you can download the ePub file and directly drop them into your iTunes library. Once you sync your device with iTunes, you are able to read our butterfly book.

If you are reading this post on your iPad, simply click on the ePub link and choose to open in iBook.

Please leave us a comment where you are from and maybe other interesting facts about Monarch butterflies for us to learn.

posted by Kim Glasgal in Announcements,General Studies and have Comments (4)
30
Oct

Week of Oct. 31–Jewish Studies ז

אריאות  Ariyot  Please remember to READ with your child!!!

ו The letter vav continues to surprise us!  We love meeting

אדון בלון  Adon Balon Mr. Balloon  and the always changing balloon that is

ורוד  Varode  pink!

ז the letter Zayin is next with words like:

אוז Avaz   a male goose

אוזה  avazah   a female goose

אוזון  avazone  a baby goose

זז  zaz  moves for a boy

זזה   zazah  moves for a girl

זהב  zahav   gold

We meet the cutest little goose in this story ….

זוזו האוזון   Zozo HaAvazone   Zozo the baby goose.

Enjoy reading and re-reading this story with your child.  Act out the parts…. it’s fun!

פרשת השבוע Parshat HaShavuah  The Torah portion of the week is

לך לך  Lech Lecha   We will cut, glue, color and underline (and learn) about Avraham and Sarah!

תפילות  Tefilot  Prayers  We did miss Mr. Mitzmacher last week while he was with the Middle Schoolers on their fantastic retreat at Ramah Darom.  We did pray without him but are so glad to count him in our minyan once again.

שלום בכיתה  Shalom BaKitah   We finally return to this book now that the holidays are over and enjoy learning all about our classroom and  the stuff in our backpacks!  :)

 

posted by Morah Rachel in Uncategorized and have Comments Off
26
Oct

Sukkah Hop

Making edible sukkot

Yummy creations in the Jaffa sukkah

posted by Morah Rachel in Uncategorized and have Comments Off
25
Oct

Pumpkin Pics!

posted by Kristi O'Neill in General Studies and have Comment (1)
23
Oct

A Peek at Our Week-10/24

It’s hard to believe that this week is our first “normal” week of school since the beginning of October!

This week we will…

-Start a new reading unit on communities.

-Read the story, Max and Ruby: A Big Fish for Max, and discuss what families do together.

-Work with words with digraphs and the vowel sound in ball.

-Explore main idea and predicting while reading.

-Practice our spelling words: (ship, fish, then, shut, with, rush, shell, shop, trash, thin, want, good. Bonus: catch.)

-Focus on nouns in our writing.

-Wrap up our addition unit so we can move onto subtraction. Your child should begin to start recalling number bonds and addition facts automatically. While working on math homework, please help challenge your child to explain WHY and HOW they are solving the problems.

-Wrap up our Great  Pumpkin Study by counting seeds, planting seeds, and writing reflections.

-Visit the Science Lab to explore leaves.

-Complete reading, writing, and math assessments to see our progress during the first quarter of first grade!

Reminders:

-Box Tops and Book Orders are due Monday, 10/24.

-This week’s homework will be sent home on Monday.  It is due on Friday, 10/28.

-Math tests will also be sent home on Monday.  Please support your child while he/she corrects mistakes and then sign the test and return it to school by Tuesday, 10/25.

-Red Ribbon Week is this week. This event will “promote healthy choices” and will even include some “spirit” activities.  Daily Spirit Days: Monday: Wear Red, Tuesday: Wear a Hat, Wednesday: Wear Your Pjs, and Thursday: Backwards Day.

-Please stop by the classroom to take home your child’s pumpkin. :)

-We are going to take a few weeks off from AR until we can reorganize the program.  Thank you for your patience during this process.  We strongly encourage you to continue to have your child read to you to fill up the last part of October’s Reading Log.

-We hope you consider joining us for an all-school Kabbalat Shabbat this Friday, 10/28, at 3:15  in the afternoon.

-Our field trip is next week, 11/3.  We will leave the school at 9 am.  Please make sure that you pack your child a brown-bag lunch.

-Within the coming weeks we will start the Rocket Math Program in class to help us recall addition facts automatically.  Once the children have a firm grasp on the process, letters will be sent home so they can teach you how to help them! ;)

-The end of the first quarter is next Monday.  Conferences are on 11/11.  An reminder e-mail will be sent concerning your selected time for conferences.  We look forward to meeting with each of you!

posted by Kristi O'Neill in General Studies and have Comments Off
23
Oct

Week of Oct. 24–Jewish Studies

תודה רבה  TODAH RABAH THANK YOU VERY MUCH

to all our hosts that welcomed us to their Sukkah for an amazing Sukkah Hop!!!  Thanks to the Jaffas, Mitzmachers and Einstein/Zoskes for showing us such great hospitality.  The treats were delicious and the etrogim are beautiful!  A BIG THANK YOU also to all our drivers.  We couldn’t have “hopped” without you!

 

אריאות  Ariyot    FINALLY, we have a regular week to get back to our routine!!  As always, homework still continues to be reading each night with an adult any circled pages.  It is most important to practice our reading outside of class as we move quickly to new letters in class.

ה  The letter Hey   We finally get to finish this letter and complete this book!!     Halleluyah!

מזל טוב  Mazal Tov  Congratulations on completing this first book and on moving forward to our next book.

ו  The letter Vav    See more explanations of this unusual letter from last week’s blog.

פרשת השבוע  Parshat HaShavua   Portion of the week

Since we completed reading the Torah and are starting it over again,  (enjoyed dancing with many of you and the Torah on Simchat Torah!!)  we have our new Torah book.  Most of the work in this book will be done in class on Fridays but if not completed during classtime, it will have to be finished at home and returned to school the next week.  It’s mostly coloring and underlining…. and we all really enjoy it!

בראשית B’reisheet  In the Beginning   Genesis   It is the name of the first book of the Torah as well as the first portion.  Pages 6 and 7 will be done on Monday and then we will be ready on Friday for the next portion…

נח  Noach   Noah and the Ark   pages 8 and 9.

 

ראש חדש חשון Rosh Hodesh Heshvan   A new month begins Friday…. with NO holidays….. enjoy!

 

posted by Morah Rachel in Jewish Studies and have Comments Off
16
Oct

It’s Time for the Great Pumpkin Study!

This week will participate in a study of pumpkins!

-We will enjoy pumpkin literature, writing prompts and word study.

-We will observe and describe pumpkins using our 5 senses.

-We will sort the pumpkins by size, shape, color, stem, weight (heavy or light), texture, etc.

-We will make Pumpkin Belts to use for measuring.

-We will predict and measure the weight of pumpkins.

-We will predict and explore whether a pumpkin will sink or float and record our data. What do you think will happen???

-We will estimate, count (by 1s, 2s, 5s, 10s) and graph the number of seeds found in a pumpkin.

-We will plant seeds and discover what seeds need to grow through some experiments.

-We will create a pumpkin life cycle.

-We will have lots and lots of hands-on fun! :)

Reminders:

-We will have noon dismissal on Wednesday, 10/19.  School will be closed on Thursday and Friday.

-October Book Orders were sent home last week. They are due online by 10/24.  We hope you consider ordering a few books to share the love of reading with your child and support our classroom library.  Please do not forget that you have to log-on to our class site at scholastic.com/bookclubs.

-Red Ribbon Week begins 10/23. This event will “promote healthy choices” and will even include some “spirit” activities.  Please stay posted for more information.

-We hope you consider joining us for an all-school Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday, 10/28, at 3:15  in the afternoon.

-We are finalizing the details with the Squadron this week for our field trip to NAS Jax on Thursday, 11/3.

posted by Kristi O'Neill in General Studies,Uncategorized and have Comments Off
09
Oct

Weeks of Oct. 10 and 17—Jewish Studies ו

חתימה טובה  Hatimah Tovah   Hope it was a good “sealing” and an easy fast.  And now:

חג שמח  Chag Sameach!  Happy Holiday!  Yes!!

חג הסכות Chag HaSukkot!  The Holiday of Sukkot is one of our favorites!   We will celebrate all 8 days!!!  Especially fun will be our Sukkah Hop on Monday, Oct. 17th.  If you still have not signed a permission slip, your child will not be able to hop with us!!!

אורחים  Orchim  Guests   We will be guests in several family sukkot and we say a BIG  תודה רבה to our hosts in advance!

מינים 4  the 4 species of the holiday that we shake are:

אתרוג  etrog  citron (like a lemon)

לולב lulav  palm branch

הדס  hadas   myrtle branch

ערבה aravah willow branch

We will learn the blessing and enjoy the shaking in all directions.

שמחת תורה Simchat Torah  Rejoicing in the Torah!!   YES!!!

What a busy and fun time of year this is!

שמח  sameach   happy for a boy

שמחה  s’maycha  happy for a girl

We are all very happy to finish the Torah and begin it again on this exuberant holiday.   We love dancing with the Torah and we’re good at it!!

פרשת השבוע Parhat HaShavua   Portion of the Week

We have a new book in our class.  Each portion that is read from the Torah each week has 2 pages to enjoy.  We will enjoy learning about each portion and coloring the pages.  We will do this in class on Fridays and if not completed, it will come home.  Parshat HaShavua has to be returned to class the next week by Thursday at the latest!!

בראשית B’reisheet   (In the beginning) Genesis is our first book of Torah portions and each week we will read along with the rest of the Jewish world the portion of the  week.  WE LOVE LEARNING TORAH!!!

אריאות Ariyot Our letter lion is not forgotten in all of the excitement of the holidays.   We have a new book starting with the new letter:

ו  Vav   This letter can do many things… be the word   And    and it can also be a vowel   O.

אבא ואמא  Abba V‘Ema    Father and mother

אדון בלון Adon Balone    Mr. Balloon  We meet him in our story and see what happens to the pink balloon!

ורוד  varode  pink

דב   dov    bear

WOW!  We’re also welcoming friends from Israel (in real life!!!) who are visiting MJGDS from our sister city, Hadera.   We will show them how much Hebrew we know already!!  We are very proud of our fantastic Kitah Alef!!!

posted by Morah Rachel in Jewish Studies and have Comments Off
06
Oct

Ipad Pictures and more!!!

 

We owe all this fun to our fabulous 21st Century Team…. thank you for bringing us up to date and making us famous!!!  We enjoyed writing  lots of Hebrew words from Ariyot on our Ipads!

This afternoon we also prepared for Yom Kippur with the Hazzan and experienced the old tradition of Kapparot.  We did NOT have a live chicken so we used a rubber chicken to swing over our heads.  We prayed that G0d would give us a long life if we shared food (canned goods–not a chicken!!)  with the needy. We even did a chicken dance!  Todah Rabah to our Hazaan Holzer for making everything fun and musical.

Hatimah Tovah!!!

 

 

 

 

 

posted by Morah Rachel in Jewish Studies and have Comments Off
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