Kitah Bet

In Parashat B’midbar, God tells Moses to conduct a census of all the Israelite males over the age of twenty. We related this to our class by discussing how we take attendance several times a day.

We learned about Yom Yerushalayim, which commemorates the reunification of Jerusalem. Yerushalayim is the capital city of Israel. We talked about places there like the Kotel, the Knesset, and the Israel Museum. Then, we read a story and talked about things that we wish for the world and for ourselves. Next, we did a fun activity using an app called Pic Collage on the iPads! Just as people put a real note into the Kotel, we were able to “visit” the Kotel using technology, and to write our special wishes onto the Wall.

Here we are creating our projects!

On Friday, we began studying Shavuot. We read a story describing how God gave the Torah to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai. Something strange happened . . . everything stood perfectly still! People did not move, birds did not fly, fish did not swim, and the wind did not blow. There was thunder and lightening; the sound of a shofar being blown; smoke and fire on the mountain. When God spoke, it says that people saw the voices. We had a brief discussion about how it’s possible to see voices, but we never came up with an answer. Any ideas? The class would love to read your comments on Monday!

Reading Blogger (Moses) – We read the world’s greatest poems. It’s a good book. There are a lot  of good poems and they’re funny. On Tuesday we read the world’s greatest poems again. It’s a good book.

Math Blogger (Courtney) - We are doing fractions and Ms.Stein shows us. It  was cool. We are doing lots of shapes and matching the parts.

Spelling Blogger (Elizabeth) - We  do a  Spelling Pretest every Monday. And  we  study  wordly wise every  day. We look  over our test on Tuesday. We  get  our Spelling homework if we are a  Green list  or a Blue list. And  some times  we do Spelling stories. And we have to study every night to get ready for the Spelling test. A lot of kids in my class gets an A+ or a B  or a C. And we do a wordly  wise test every  Friday too.

Wordly Wise Blogger (Saylor) – On Monday, we studied lesson 12. The words are: attention, award, collapse, demolish, excess, outline, sculpture, spade, & utensil. Tuesday: For morning work,we did pages 93-94. We were in a hurry, so we just said our W.W. words. On Wednesday, we did page 97  in W.W. I had SO much fun! The question was: ” What stays in a corner & travels around the world?” The answer was:” A postage stamp”. Then we checked page 93. Miss Stein kept saying ” W.W. page 93. That’s the page for you & me”. How we checked 93 is Miss Stein would just say the answers. P.S. Page 97 is a word puzzle. P.P.S. The reason Miss Stein just said the answers is she wanted us to have recess. On Thursday, Miss Stein just said the definition & she would call on someone to answer. She did it like this because she wanted us to have recess again. We checked page 97. Miss Stein would call on someone to read the question & say “blank” when they get to the word & say it & spell it. Friday: We didn’t  do any W.W. at 10:30. We read the story, but we didn’t  write the questions down.

Your Friend,
Saylor The Wordly Wise Blogger.

Community Of Kindness Blogger (Daisy) - On Monday it was Moe’s birthday,and his parents brought doughnuts.The doughnuts were special doughnuts they had chocolate with sprinkles they were really good.(yum yum). The nicest part is that Moe brought us really cool erasers.On Tuesday it was Josh’s Birthday. I think that was funny that it was Moe’s birthday and then the day after Moe’s birthday  it was Josh’s birthday. Anyway Josh’s mom and grandfather brought doughnuts with creme in them. They spend extra $ on us. Well I think.If they did that was really nice. On Wednesday we made a surprise (you might know what it is) we also made cards to the Israeli solders.On Thursday we did not do any  Community Of Kindness but know one was being mean to anyone.On Friday we did not do any Community Of Kindness but again know one was being mean to anyone.

Love
Your friend
Daisy

On Monday, we celebrated a special birthday!

On Tuesday, we celebrated another special birthday!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Rivka & Ms. Stein

In Torah last week (B’resheet), we reviewed the punishment for the snake and learned about the punishments for Adam and Eve. From then on, Eve and all women would have painful childbirths. Adam would have to work very hard in order to provide for his family. God also sent Adam and Eve away from the Garden of Eden.

In Parashat Emor, we talked about God giving laws to Moses to give to the Kohanim, and instructing Moses to tell the people about the holidays.

As we studied Israel, we continued to discuss the timeline of Jewish history.

Math Blogger (Isaac) - On monday  we did 3 digit number mentally. On Wednesday I did my favorite thing about 2nd and it was math .

This is Ms. Stein. On Monday, we actually subtracted ones and tens from two-digit numbers. On Tuesday, we subtracted ones, tens, and hundreds from three-digit numbers. On Wednesday, we subtracted two two-digit numbers; and practiced subtracting 99 and 98 from larger numbers. That was also the day that Isaac was recorded talking about his favorite part of Second Grade for his Blogfolio. I was happy that he talked about math! On Thursday, we reviewed the concepts that we’ve learned in the first three chapters of Unit 7, and prepared for an evaluation. On Friday, we took two small quizzes to see how well we’re doing. Isaac is right that we have been learning strategies for mental math.

Reading Blogger (Anna) - On Wednesday in Daily 5 I read with Aleeya! On Friday we had two mystery readers. The book they read was Minnie and Moo, The Case of the Missing Jelly Donut. The clues are we are 2 people (one with long hair, one with short hair). We love mystery stories! One of us is a student, the other is not.

Our Mystery Readers last Friday were Isaac’s sister, Nahila and their mom!

Science Blogger (Eva) – We  watched  a Science video from the science lab. We watched  4 science videos.

You can find them in the last post, entitled “Sensational  Science!”

See you tomorrow for a fun, four-day week!

Morah Rivka & Ms. Stein

 A few weeks ago, we began studying Energy in Science! We talked about heat, light, and even sound energy.

Then, we visited Mrs. Burkhart’s Science Lab, and had a really fun time! Check out this slideshow:

Enjoy these Science videos too!

Solar Energy Basics

A 12-year old boy invents a new type of solar panel!

How Solar Panels are Made 

In this video, a character named Rukun, who lives in India, talks about solar electricity, solar water heating, and why his grandfather respects the sun so much.

In learning about Israel last week, we practiced Hatikva, and discussed the proper behavior we use when singing it. We modeled inappropriate and then appropriate ways of standing and acting. We also studied the special Israeli prayer for peace, watched a video of someone singing it, and learned that there are other names for God.

Last week, we also started to learn about the timeline of Jewish history, related to the land of Israel. We’ve discussed our ancestors and the land that God promised them.

In Torah, we discovered the punishment that God gave to the snake. He used to have arms and legs, but after the punishment, he had no limbs, and had to crawl on his belly. He was also forced to eat whatever creatures came along, no matter how dirty they were. From then on, there would always be hatred between the snake and the human being. This week, we’ll discuss the punishment that God gave to Adam and his partner (Eve).

Here we are working in reading groups!

In Parasha Acharei Mot, we studied Yom Kippur, and how we should ask for forgiveness for mistakes we have made. In Parasha Kedoshim, we learned what the Jewish people need to do: keep Shabbat, honor their parents, not worship idols, give tzedakah, help people in need, plant trees in Israel, and treat others with kindness.

In Math this week, we continued adding two-digit and three-digit numbers mentally. While mental math skills are very important, I want to remind everyone that writing down problems and showing your brainwork (especially on a test) is also very important! When you take a test, work slowly, show your mathematical thinking, and go back and check your answers.

We’ve begun to learn about Earth Day! So far, we have learned that it was started in 1970 by a senator named Mr. Gaylord Nelson. This will be the 43rd Earth Day. We sang a song entitled “What Can I Do About Pollution?” and we’ll have other fun activities this week!

Morah Rivka & Ms. Stein

Jewish Studies

In Torah, we discussed how God confronted Adam and Eve about them eating from the forbidden tree. We talked about taking responsibility for our actions, instead of blaming others. We related this important lesson to our own, daily lives.

This week, we read Parashot Tazria-Metzora. These Parashot discuss purification rituals and skin infections. We compared and contrasted the doctors of today and the Cohen of long ago. You can read more about these Parashot here: Parasha Tazria Parasha Metzora

We continued learning about Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day. We discussed the Israeli flag and the symbol of Israel (the menorah and olive branch.)

Here we are singing Kachol v’lavan!

During the Rosh Hodesh Iyar assembly, we sang songs for Yom HaAtzmaut. On Tuesday, we will celebrate Israeli Independence Day with Yom Sport (a day of sports). Please remember to have your child wear the correct color t-shirt.

General Studies

Community of Kindness Blogger (Mason) - Mrs. McVearry made more leaves. Anna, Aleeya, and May gave Moti an eraser. Eva,Daisy,May,Yisrael,Moe, Danny, and I help clean up the library and find the missing book.

Wordly Wise Blogger (Ariel) - This week in Wordly Wise we took a test. I  had a lot of fun.

This is Ms. Stein. In Wordly Wise this week, in addition to learning some great vocabulary words with multiple meanings, we also learned about George Ferris, the inventor of the Ferris wheel! We read about the London Eye, which is the world’s largest Ferris wheel! It is located on the banks of the Thames River in London, England. Then, Mrs. Hallett visited our classroom to tell us about her personal experiences on the London Eye. We discovered that Mrs. Hallett visited this famous landmark five years ago; and that it has closed cars for safety and for protection from the weather. We then discussed other famous landmarks in London: Big Ben and London Bridge. It was special to have a guest speaker, rather than simply reading about these places. 

Spelling Blogger (Danny) - We did a spelling pretest. We reviewed our spelling lists. We did a spelling Word search. We did spelling stories. We did a spelling test. We shared our spelling stories.

Science Blogger (Eliana) - On Monday we did not do any science. I  hope we do science tomorrow. On Tuesday in Wordly Wise we talked about inventors which use science. Ms. Stein said that Wordly Wise and science go together. On Wednesday  in our book called Russell Sprouts the next chapter is called the Science Fair we are going to read it tomorrow. It is the last chapter in the book. On Thursday we went to the Science Lab. We learned about energy. We learned about three different kinds of energy heat,light and sound. We made light with lemons. It was so cool! You could actually see light! We used cold water and hot water. We saw that food coloring absorbs slower in cold water and faster in hot water. It was really cool! We used a tuning fork to hear,feel and see a sound wave. You have to hit the tuning fork on the table and put the tuning fork close to your ear to hear the sound wave. You can actually hear the sound wave! To feel the sound wave you have to hit the tuning fork on the table and then put the tuning fork on your nose. You can actually feel the sound wave! Everyone thought the sound wave tickled even me! To see the sound wave you have to hit the tuning fork on the table and lightly put it on top of the water. It makes a big splash! You can actually see the sound wave!  A tuning fork is a scientific tool. Mrs. Burkhart says “Tally Ho” to get your attention. I think Tally Ho is Mrs. Burkhart’s favorite word. We had a lot of fun in the Science Lab. On Friday we did not do any science. I felt disappointed because I love science. Science is so much fun! Bye!

More pictures are coming soon!

Our Mystery Reader on Friday was Dr. Mitzmacher!

It was wonderful to see so many of you at Community University today! See you tomorrow!

Ms. Stein & Morah Rivka