January 29th – February 2nd

Judaic Studies

7th graders continued to explore chapter 11 of Bmidbar, focusing on the interaction between Moshe and God. What does Moshe really want from God? Does he get it? As part of our translation, we reinforced two grammar skills: ה’ השאלה and ו ההיפוך.

The 7th graders participated in a Tu b’Shvat seder in class. The 17 century Kabbalist Isaac Luria came up with the idea of having a seder on Tu b’Shvat to explore kabbalistic ideas through eating different types of fruit and drinking 4 cups of wine / grape juice. Students were amazing at preparing the room for the seder and then helping to clean up when it was done. As part of the seder, students competed in trying to peel a clementine in one piece and in making the best guacomole!

Math

7X will begin their ninth unit, “Number Patterns” in the new (7B) textbook. In this challenging unit they will learn to understand the idea of a sequence, find the terms of a sequence and the formula for the general term of a sequence, and solve problems involving sequences and number patterns.

7Y have been working on a challenging unit this week, “Number Patterns.” They will be taking their unit test today and will begin a new unit starting next week, “Coordinates and Linear Graphs.” In this unit they will learn to construct the Cartesian coordinate system and state the coordinates of points on it, plot a graph of a set of ordered pairs, draw the graph of a linear relationship, define linear relationships between two variables, and find the slopes of linear graphs.

Hebrew Heritage

הורים יקרים,

השבוע התלמידים המשיכו לעבוד על הפרויקט “כתיבה אישית, התלמידים התקדמו יפה בפיתוח העלילה והדמויות. מועד אחרון להגשת הסיפור (שעליו יקבלו התלמידים ציון) הוא ביום חמישי הבא ה- 8 בפברואר. יום למחרת התלמידים יציגו את הפרוייקט  לתלמידי כיתה ג’ וד’ תוך הקראת חלק מהסיפור שלהם, במסגרת חגיגות יום העברית שיתקיימו ברחבי בית הספר.

סוף שבוע טוב,

אילנה

Humanities 

Students in the A group read two great short stories this week – “The Rule of Names” by Ursula K. Le Guin and “A Retrieved Reformation” by O. Henry. I loved the enthusiasm with which they approached each story. It’s powerful to watch them read and interpret great writing. I’m excited to move forward with our narrative writing assignment.

Students in the B group were preparing for their social action project at Brooklyn Landmark School. I was so proud of them today. They did a fantastic job preparing and sharing their love of literacy with new students and friends.

Science

Students this week worked on a project in order to resolve a type of water contamination. Their task was to create a custom water filter in order to convert dirty water into clean water. This first attempt produced positive results and thoughts for improving their designs next week. The classroom was filled with excitement when the first few drops of clean water came out of their devices.