Author: sbaram

Posted in 1A, General Studies, Jewish Studies, Ruach

The latest from 1A

Posted on by sbaram

The latest from 1A

This past week we celebrated the 100th day of school. In General Studies, we read 100 words, worked on 100 math problems, and wrote the 100th-day news. We counted to 100 en français and wrote 100 words in Hebrew. The highlight was making Fruit Loop necklaces with 100 Fruit Loops. The students had fun snacking as they counted and made their necklaces.

100 Hebrew words

 

In Social Studies, the students worked on personal timelines. Seeing all the beautiful pictures of children of different ages made everyone smile.

 

Friday was our kickoff for the love of reading. We made reading forts in class. Reading in forts was a big hit. It was our surprise for our homework bingos. One of the students said, “It is a dream come true!” He had wished only a month ago that we could make forts in school.

 

A few children also enjoyed some quiet reading after story time in the library today.

 

Hebrew with Moreh Saar

Hey there Grade 1,

It’s almost Pesach and I figured a bit of showing off our conversational skills is in order.

As a part of my methodology I find it extremely important to anchor the learning in real life, as language is a “use it or lose it” skill. That’s why I decided to connect Hebrew studies with Israeli culture. As you might know, the students surely realized it by now, Israelis are loving, passionate and welcoming, however they are also loud and full of Chutzpah!!

Taking this into consideration I decided to teach the kids several different ways to ask and answer people “how are you doing?”, some are formal, some are good old fashion cheeky!! Please feel free to listen to them answer about their day and ask me how I’m doing. It was a calculated risk, but boy am I bad at math, the kids can definitely talk, but now I got a classroom full of cheeky Israeli sounding kids.

Have a great Pesach vacation,

Saar

Posted in Uncategorised

Here it is!!!

Posted on by sbaram

Amazing news everyone, thanks to the generosity and kindness of the Customs and Immigrations Union, our first graders received the opportunity to see their words come to life.

The letters we sent struck the president’s heart strings and he couldn’t resist but to come to class and grant us the old flag, promising the flag will be replaced this Wednesday afternoon.

We were more than excited to make him some extra thank you notes and can’t wait to see our flag returned in two days!!!

 

Posted in 1A, 1B, Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies Reading, Ruach

Where did my flag go?!

Posted on by sbaram

Hello everyone, it’s another interesting week here in the first grade.

As a part of our morning routine, we take notes about the weather, debating whether it’s rainy, sunny, cloudy, etc. outside… One of the different weather conditions we talk about is windy (רוח). Unfortunately, 2 weeks ago, a big storm tore away the flag from one of the businesses situated across the 417, leaving us completely lost when it comes to determining the level of wind outside.

That is why the first grade decided to spring into action and use their hard earned vocabulary into use. We sat down and wrote a stern, yet firm, letter to the Customs and Immigration Union (look it up, this is the real deal), asking them to bring their flag back. We also took the liberty of drawing some nice depictions of how the loss of the flag makes us feel, and these are some of the results:

 

Now we just have to hope that if they don’t bring the flag back for their own national pride, at the least they’ll do it for the children!

I hope that there will be updates to follow,

Saar.

Posted in 1A, 1B, General Studies, Jewish Studies

Economics 101

Posted on by sbaram

Dear grade 1 parents,

As I’m getting used to the hardships of winter (clearing the snow from my car, every, single, morning, is a new one for me), I had the pleasure of sitting in my car for 15 minutes straight waiting for my fingers to thaw. During that time I came across a meme that really reflects my way of thinking about how school should be.

 

 

It reminded me that while my “I believe” is heavily influenced by this idea, I still need to communicate that to my surrounding. So here it goes:

Since I encountered this phenomena many, many times in the various jobs I had, I believe in the power of incentivizing and fear the impact of dicentivizing. Therefore, I try my best to include the former, not the latter, in my teaching.

That is why I added a new, 100% optional, incentive to do the homework, a game. The game reinforces only some of the words in the homework, offering sound and translations to several words. Please only play the game if the kids have done their readings and still have some time and energy to play the game.

I hope this makes the homework experience more enjoyable,

Saar.

Always great seeing our Reading Buddies! Some of us chose books from our new Science Reading Bin “All About Energy”

Singing and learning in Hebrew Outdoors with Moreh Saar!

Welcome Back Maia! Such excitement in our class as we welcomed back Maia from her family visit to Peru!

A Busy week of measurement in 1A. Take a look at us using both standard measurement (rulers) and non standard units(unifix cubes and popsicle sticks) in and around our classroom!

Mrs Bennett

Posted in 1A, 1B, Jewish Studies

We tried so hard, and got so far….

Posted on by sbaram

In the end, it was all that really mattered!

Grade 1 has been working so hard on their Hebrew skills for almost four whole months now, last Monday they got to put  those skills to use in real life. We had our second meeting with a group of Israeli children who got to practice their English, while we practiced our Hebrew. We spoke about how old we are, what are our favourite sports and colours, what we like to eat and drink, it was a blast.

It was an amazing experience for the kids, who got to see how quickly they could use the Hebrew they know to express themselves in a coherent manner. Lastly, it was an amazing time for us Hebrew teachers, we got to see the fruits of our labor grow right in front of us. Trust me when I say, I’m one happy gardener…

From everyone in the grade 1 team.