What we did in school

With such a short week we covered a lot!

 

Science

The children learned the terms solid, liquid and gas. We took a walk around the block and explored the snow. We brought the snow back to class and we hypothesized what will happen to the snow. The children said it will melt. We began by understanding that snow is solid which will turn to a liquid and may turn to gas if its stays out for long time.

They watched how the snow melts from a solid to a liquid. The children were very excited to see the change happening right before their eyes.

Social Studies

The children were excited because they were old enough to vote in Mazel Day School. Each child had a choice to vote for either Romney or Obama. Emy said I am going to vote for Romney because he is going to create jobs. After the votes were in Romney won the election.

We discussed that although Romney won in Mazel Day School, President Obama won the Country's vote. The children now know that a term is four years for a president and he may be elected for two terms, a total of eight years.

Math

The students are proficient in addition. Each child had an addition flash card which they needed to find the answer. Every boy and girl got the answer right!

Next week we will learn all about subtractions.

Handwriting

The children reviewed the letters they know how to to write c, o, s, v, w, t, a, d, and g.

Writing workshop

The students came to school each with their experience of what happened when Hurricane Sandy hit them.  After hearing their experience they wrote about it. Here is some of their work:

Simon                   I lost power in my house. Why did I lose power? Because of Hurricane Sandy

Zaylin                    I lost power. My grandpa and grandma lost power too.

Shimon                 My power was lost. Trees being on ground. Stuff fell down. Basement was       flooded.

Dov                        The light turned off but when I came home I had light.

Yoni                       My light almost turned off. I help my dad get ready for the hurricane. After the hurricane I help the school.

Felix                       We lost power. We don’t have light

Ariel                       My family looking at the window at the hurricane.

Ariella                   I lost light in my home from Sandy for three days. I stayed at my aunts home.

Evalyn                   I lost my  power and my school got damaged, and it got flooded.

Alan                       It got flooded a car got drowned.

Sammy                 Sandy put the light off. There was no hot water and the classroom was flooded. And the books was in the garbage.

Nate:                     I am happy because I have light. I want to help the school.

Morah Sharona I am sorry that our school had to go through such a terrible hurricane. I am glad that we are all safe and we can start to learn again. Mazel Day School is an amazing school  because of the students and parent body of the school (and it does not matter where the school is located).

Reading Workshop

The children Know good readers find a quite place to concentrate. Each child finds a nice quite 

place to read after they discuss what they read.

Enrichment

 

Music

Students enjoyed their time with the music teacher they learned a beautiful song in Hebrew. In addition they got familiar with country, blues and Irish music. The music teacher would play it on her guitar and the students needed to tell her what type of music it was.

Russian

 

 Morah Bracha asked the boys to write Russian words on the board. They each got a chance to write a syllable and their friend got to finish the word. Morah Bracha then read them a story in Russian.

Hebrew Books!

Dear parents,

Our class is progressing greatly with their Hebrew fluency. The children love to read Hebrew stories and act them out at school.

Starting this week a few children will get a chance to take home a Hebrew book from our class library to read at home for that week, and share the story with their families.

Please encourage your children to read to you and explain the story.

This will be great to reinforce their Hebrew Fluency at home!

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Morah Mushky

morahmushkyokunov@gmail.com

Science, Social Studies and Math

Science

In science we started the unit: What is a scientist? What can a scientist observe? Some of the children's responses were: A scientist can observe the weather (Alan). Another student said they can observe a plant (Zaylin). We shared many ways a scientist can experiment using his tools. The students got a chance to explore as if they were scientists. They used a clip board to record their data, funnel  dropper, timer, measuring cup and a scale. After exploring the tools the children shared what they did. Sammy shared that she used the dropper to transfer the water to the scale. Nate timed the experiment he was working on.

We will be going to the Aquarium on October 24. We will be having a workshop about sharks.

Social Studies

Our Mazel students in first grade were exploring the world using a globe. They first discovered United States and then we spoke about were Russia is on the globe. We spoke about how each country has a leader. Sure enough the children knew the leader of our country is Obama. I then asked who was our first president and why he was chosen. Emy said George Washington was our first president. I explained to the children that he was a general and fought and won a war and therefor the people wanted him to be the President.

We began a unit of learning how the president is chosen. We talked about elections. Every four years a president gets elected to be president because the people vote for him. The candidates running for president have a debate about what they would do for their country. I asked the students if they had seen the debate on television. The children were not sure what I was referring to. So together we watched a Youtube video of the debate. Sure enough, students were stating "that was on my television yesterday". Soon, we are going to have our own elections in our class. The children are going to experience their own debate and how to vote.

Math

In Math, students are working on adding numbers using concrete objects. They use a ten frame using counters, in addition, they use number lines to jump when they add numbers.

Ten Frame

Number Line

In the beginning of the school year the children learned that numbers can be used in different ways such as in a sentence or numbers to add numbers and subtract.  For example, the students are proficient in knowing that the number three can be shown as: 3, three, ***. When it was time to work in groups, I would clap my hands three time and they would know to take out the card number 3, the word three, and the 3 manipulative foam.  These may seem like simple concepts but in first grade, we want to first ensure that our students have a very strong base in numeracy.  Over the year, the concepts become more complex and challenging.

Stay tuned for subtracting numbers.

Happy Birthday

I would like to thank parents who gave gift from the wish list. Happy birthday to Emy, Shimon, Sammy and Nate. Wishing many great years to come!

What a busy month we had!

Dear parents,

I hope you had a nice and uplifting Holiday!

In school the past few weeks were packed with learning why we celebrate each holiday and what we do to celebrate. In addition we made lots of projects for the children to use at home. Some of the projects we made were honey jars for Rosh Hashana, , Lulav and Esrog sets for Sukos,  Edible  Sukahs which the children got to eat in class and Flags for Simchas Torah when when we dance with the Torah.

Now that we are back to school I would like to encourage you to continue taking  the time to supervise your child when they do their reading  Homework to ensure ultimate success.

Feel free to contact me with any concerns,

Morah Mushky

Literacy

Writers Workshop

With such a packed day you wouldn’t think we would be able to squeeze something new in to our curriculum. Yet, we did just that this week when we began our editor centers! The children are working very hard in the process of journal writing. Stay tuned for their finished products.

Some good writing strategies include:

·         Capital in the beginning of a sentence

·         Period at the end of a sentence

·         Space between words

Penmanship

The children now know how to write capital and lower case “w, v, t, s, c.” Ask your child how we start to write our letter (at the top).

The children learned a song “where do you start your letters?”

 

Riddle of the Week

What did the heater say to freezer?

Have an ice day!

Reading Update

We are proud to announce that we have received our phonics workbooks. The children are proud to work on their own workbook using the phonics strategies we learned in class.  A few of the words the children learned how to blend this month include:

black

blink

trip

trick

In addition the children know how to use their time wisely when it’s time to read a book. Each child reads their book and shares with their friends what they read.

   

Let’s Review!

Please review the short vowels they already learned with Morah Dawn:

a e i o u

Sight words of the month:

Is          me

the        he

she        see

you        I

do          because

zoo        ten

Yom Kippur

This month is just so busy learning about Holiday to Holiday!
The children are very excited to share their previous information they know regarding the upcoming Holiday in addition to learning new information!

The children learnt that on this day it is a Fast day for all Jewish People, however children are not allowed to fast.( we talked about not disturbing our parents so they can have an easier fast.) We discussed that on this day it is a day of Prayer and that many people wear white clothing symbolic to the angels.

For Yom Kippur the children learned about Kaporos, It is a custom Jewish people do  before Yom Kippur.
While doing this we say a Special Prayer asking G-D for a good year.  The children had the opportunity to do Kaporos in our own School Yard!

Wishing you and your families to be sealed in the book of life for a Happy and Healthy year.

Morah Mushky

Rosh Hashana

We had very busy week learning all about Rosh Hashana- the “New Year”.   We learned all about the types of foods we eat on Rosh Hashana to what sounds the Shofar makes when the Rabbi blows it in Shul.

The children each got a chance to blow a real Shofar in class and practice the sounds they make!

In class we baked honey cake , since it is a custom to eat Honey on Rosh Hashana for a sweet new year!

In addition they each made their own Honey Dish decorated as a "BEE", which they are very excited to be  using  it!

Please ask your children to share with you all the things they have learned about Rosh Hashana! ( they have learned many new songs, encourage them to sing them at home as well!)

Wishing you and your families a sweet new year!

Morah Mushky