9-2-22

  We had a spectacular second week in first grade! As our topic of friends continued, we read many more books — There Once Was A Puffin, Farfallina And Marcel, Will You Be My Friend, Hunter’s Best Friend At School  and A Circle Of Friends.  If you have never seen A Circle Of Friends before, I highly recommend taking it out of the library.  This book, which tells a story using no words, starts several thought-provoking conversations in class each year.  We were also able to discuss how the characters in the story demonstrated all 3 middot of friendship, hard work, and respect.  The message of the book is important for all ages, even adults!  The book is written by Giora Carmi, who grew up in Israel.

On top of working on addition concepts in math, we played a math game called Bunny Hop.  To teach the first graders about this game, it was me versus the class.  We had a lot of fun playing, and I am very happy to report that the first graders used spectacular sportsmanship throughout! 

We officially started our Take 10 program!  This program helps us make sure to take 10 minutes each day in class to exercise, get our heart rates up, and move around.

Last week, we started working on a STEM project that we will hopefully get to use for many weeks to come.  In our science books, we had read about different tools used to measure weather, including a thermometer and a rain gauge.  We talked about the purpose of a rain gauge, and what important features it should include.  After making plans for our own class rain gauge, we started construction.  Ask your first grader how we did and what we are up to!  We look forward to assessing our work and making improvements as needed!

This week we also made our first trip to visit our class tree.  We will visit our tree at the beginning of each month to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.  This is a very exciting time of year to visit our tree, as it is a Red Buckeye.  The buckeyes that have been growing all summer are getting bigger and bigger!  Check out this week’s picture e-mail to see us with our tree.

Have a nice long weekend!

-Miss Deena Tanenbaum

P.S.- Morah Esther is celebrating the Bar Mitzvah of her youngest son, Asher, this Shabbat.  She invites all of you to join in this special occasion at Torat Emet!  Her newsletter will resume next week.