6th Grade News: 1/15 – 1/19/18

HUMANITIES

This week marked the beginning of a few new units in Humanities classes. In Literature class, students started reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor. Roll of Thunder tells the compelling and sometimes tragic story of a black family living in rural Mississippi during the 1930s, challenging readers to engage with important topics such as discrimination, violence, and prejudice. In order to prepare for this mature read, students began to learn about the the pre-civil rights era South. These discussions fit in nicely with Martin Luther King Day, and we’ll continue learning about race relations and other social justice issues as we progress through the novel.

In Writing class, we began the research process for and eventual argument essay about social issues. Students are planning to write arguments about cyberbullying, immigration, animal protection, and more. Right now, they’re exploring reliable sources and taking notes on their findings; later, they will outline their arguments and begin drafting their essays. I’m looking forward to reading their opinions about these controversial topics.

Have a nice weekend,

Naomi

SCIENCE 

This week, students continued their discovery of human body systems. They started the exploration of the circulatory system by using learning centers. In one station students hooked themselves up to a computer in order to record their own EKG. This hands on activity allowed for discussions about their heartbeats. Students continue working hard in science in order to build a solid foundation of biological knowledge.   

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Noll

JUDAICS

By Ronit: “This week in our class we learned and shared our translations of the section of text where Moshe is found in the Nile. We focused on feminine verbs so we could see what was done and dig deeper into the feelings behind their actions. Throughout the week we moved forward in the parsha and kept figuring out new hidden pieces. We found that Bat Pharaoh cared so much about this baby that she knew was Jewish that she even paid a Jewish woman to feed the baby. I thought this was interesting and important because it shows she was able to step out of her father’s footsteps of hating the Jews. At the end of the week we started a new project. We have the option to make this next section of the text into a puppet show or interview. We are all really excited! Have a nice weekend. Shabbat Shalom!”

By Gabe: “This week in Judaics we went back into Chumash. We looked closer at the text about Bat Pharaoh finding Moshe in the basket in the Nile. We thought about what we learned in Humanities about the Nile and discussed why it was chosen as the place Pharaoh wanted babies to be killed. We acted out the text that we translated and saw how much Pharaoh’s daughter cared for Moshe. For the first time this year we started our weekly vocab quizzes. This will be a weekly challenge on words in the Torah text that we are studying. This has been a great week for us and we expect many more!”

HEBREW

Dear parents,

This week the HaKbatza Aleph continued to practice conversing about clothing in the present and past tense. We also read a text about clothing in the times of the Tanach and we practiced having conversations discussing various clothing choices.

HaKbatza Bet finished the unit on the desert and on verb + infinitive. The students have discussed and wrote about things they get to do in life and things they have to do.

I wish you all a warm weekend,

Andreea

HEBREW HERITAGE

הורים יקרים,

השבוע עבדנו על אוצר מילים המתייחס לספורט ועליו התלמידים נבחנו. במסגרת הדיונים שאנחנו עורכים בכיתה מה זה להיות אוהד ספורט צפיינו בקטע מתוך הסרט הישראלי “לול”. בנוסף הגיעו אלינו השינשינים וערכו פעילות המקושרת לספורטאים ישראליים ידועים.

סוף שבוע נעים,

אילנה