Worms and Passover Prep

Yahadut: Pesach Prep

This week has been all about Pesach! We focused on the order of the seder, the seder plate items and their connections to the story, the various names of the holiday, and traits of characters from the story.

Seder Ha’Seder

Students learned to sing the order of the Seder in Hebrew with corresponding hand motions. The hand motions help us remember what is done at each step of the seder.

Ask your child to teach your family the hand motions in advance of the seder, or have them lead this part at your family seder!

Second grade Red group sings Seder Ha’seder from Hannah Senesh on Vimeo.

Second grade Green group sings Seder Ha’seder from Hannah Senesh on Vimeo.

The Seder Plate

Students practiced saying what is on the seder table and the seder plate in Hebrew. We talked in English about what the items on the plate symbolize and whether they relate to Avdut or Cheirut- Slavery or Freedom. Students noticed that some objects can symbolize different aspects of both slavery and freedom, and learned that this is what a symbol is, something that can represent many things. We ended the week by designing and creating our own seder plates with motifs of slavery, freedom, and spring.

Math

In math we were all about the money, money, money! We learned about each coin, its value, and how to write the value using a dollar and cent sign. We played a game where we grouped the coins, counted them, and traded them in for other values. Through hands on activities simulating real world scenarios, games, and written practice we are working on becoming money experts. Next week we will be adding dollar and cent values- stay tuned!

Over the weekend empty those change purses and help your child count and sort coins!

Science

It was an exciting week in science. Students learned a lot about redworms and how to care for them before making a compost bag and meeting their worms. Many students held worms or took an up close look with a magnifying glass.

Later in the week, Iviva, the art teacher, came to visit during science for a special project. She brought two varieties of Japanese indigo seeds which we will grow in the room. She explained how the plants are used to make indigo dye. Students prepared one type by carefully scratching the tiny seeds with sandpaper before planting. We will take care of the plants as we care for the worms in the coming months.

Reading

This week we had the opportunity to combine reading and writing as we read through the nominees for the Irma Black Award. We read After the Fall: How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again written and illustrated by Dan Santat, a story about Humpty Dumpty dealing with his phobia of heights after he has fallen off the wall. We shared fears that we have, like boat rides, bugs, being lost, or even monsters in the dark. We shared ways we could overcome these fears. “Tell yourself it will be okay”, “Try it one small step at a time”, “Ask for help”, were some of the ideas the second graders shared. Then we created our own Humpty Dumpty characters, and like the author Dan Santat we drew a scene depicting our fears for our Humpty Dumpty. The second book we read was How the Cookie Crumbled: The True (and Not-So-True) Stories of the Invention of the Chocolate Chip Cookie written and illustrated by Gilbert Ford. This book describes how Tollhouse Cookie got their chocolate chip cookie recipe. We then created our own cookie creation, and wrote stories of how we got the recipe.

Ask your child which book so far should win the Irma Black Award.