Weeks 5 and 6: Monday, October 1st – Friday, October 12th

Hebrew

Dear Parents,

This week the students focused on using all the vocabulary we learned in the unit on the five senses in order to describe various experiences during the holidays and in everyday life. We ended the week with a test on the unit. Next week the students will take the vocabulary and structures and use it verbally in order to interview each other on a memorable day through the things they smelled, tasted, saw, heard and touched. Next, we will start our first unit in the neta program.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Andreea

Heritage

Humanities

ELA: Students have finish the final drafts of their first major writing assignment, a thematic analysis of their summer reading book, The Chosen. Now, we have started a unit studying memoirs and writing our own personal narratives. We have read a few mentor texts to identify what moves writer’s make to craft compelling personal narratives.  Also, students have practiced using those craft elements in their own writing by incorporating them into short, prompted “free writing” assignments.  In the coming weeks, students will continue to read mentor texts to identify the qualities of exceptional personal narrative writing and start to draft their own personal narratives.

Social Studies: Students completed their review of map skills and took a quiz.  Then, the class transitioned to learning about how historians engage with texts.  Students have learned how to source a document, corroborate it and contextualize the document within a specific time and place. These skills will help them to close read and critical think like historians.

Have a great weekend,

Michael

Israel

We have been extremely impressed by the 8th graders respectful and involved approach to Israel study this year. In 8th grade we focus on the current state of affairs in Israel. The year began with an exploration of our K-8 Israel goals and a discussion about why we offer this class. Students shared their opinions about the goals and curriculum as well as their hopes for the year ahead. Each week begins with a current events discussion. Last week we presented the conflict between the Law of Return (which says that anyone with a Jewish grandparent is Jewish) and the Israeli Rabbinate (which says you are Jewish if your mother is Jewish) and how this specifically impacts the Russian community. The students were filled with questions and comments on the topic and in small groups demonstrated our value of Elu v’Elu by listening openly and respectfully to each other. In our first project students will review what we learned in 5-7th grades (with opportunities to learn new topics as well) by creating Crash Course History videos.

Phyllis and Andreea

Judaic Studies

8th graders translated the sections of Devarim in which Moshe warns Bnai Yisrael about the perils ahead. We focused on Moshe’s 3 main worries:

1. when the Israelites become successful and wealthy, they will forget God — they will think they deserve all the credits for their accomplishments, that they are entirely self-made.
2. the Israelites will embrace the greater freedom of living in Canaan without understanding that it comes with more responsibility
3. the Israelites will be influenced by the nations living in Canaan, and will take on their practices.

In class, we related Moshe’s worries to the 8th graders’ upcoming transition to high school. We also discussed articles that expanded on Moshe’s concerns — https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-wealth-reduces-compassion/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/surviving-your-childs-adolescence/201801/adolescence-and-freedom-choice

To conclude our study of Moshe’s fears for the people, 8th graders are designing parting gifts Moshe could give to Bnai Yisrael, to help them keep out of trouble and stay on the right path.

Shabbat shalom!

Jessica

Math

The 8th grade has temporarily left the world of exponents and will head straight into the linear world. In Unit 2 there will be nothing more important than using different methods to solve linear equations in two variables.

Science

In science these past weeks we have continued our exploration of the periodic table. We conducted a fun activity that allowed students to interact with the periodic table. Students were giving a challenge to pretend aliens landing on earth. They know about atoms and their properties however call their elements by different names. In order for the two species to work together they needed to place their elements in the proper place in the periodic table. This allowing for proper communication among scientists. They were focused and working well together in order to answer a series of clues in order to help them complete the table.

Mike Noll