Category: Jewish Studies

Posted in Jewish Studies

WordArt as a conversation starter…

Posted on by aaizenberg

אָבִיב הִגִיעַ פֶּסַח בָּא

I am always searching for new ways to get my students speaking (Hebrew of course) in class.  These days I am participating in a digital pedagogy course to increase student proficiency in exactly that – speaking Hebrew.  This week I was introduced to the use of WordArt as a fun way to review/introduce vocabulary and encourage discussion. The idea of Word clouds/art is not new to me; however, in the past I used it more as a decorative tool at end of units, to show the vocabulary we learnt.  This time it is used as a review tool and a conversation starter. 

We will begin by looking at the shape (see bellow):

  • What is it?
  • What is it made out of?

At this point I will show them that when you put the cursor on a word it expands to help find the words… go ahead try it… 😉 

  • What words do you see/recognize? etc…
  • Lets think of the 4 names of Passover that we learned this week.. Each name is made of two words: 
    • Can you find them?
    • What word repeats itself in every name?
    • What other words do you see?
    • Which of the four names do they suit best? 
    • Can you also find words to build a sentence from a song we learned?

In class, this will all be done in Hebrew of course, working on use of learned vocabulary and use of (simple) full sentences.  I am looking forward to seeing how this will work…. 

Posted in Jewish Studies

Tu Bishvat Same’ach

Posted on by aaizenberg

What a fun day we had today with Kitah Bet. We heard about Eliezer Ben Yehuda and some of the words he invented, we excercised in Hebrew and danced as trees. Morah Batya lead us in guided drawing and then we created some beautiful trees with fruit and vegetables for our snack. We even had ALL our teachers (yes! even the English and french teachers) read us a story in Hebrew. What a special day! Even during online learning!

Bellow is the Slides we used with all the links to the videos/stories, etc as requested by some of our stidents.

Posted in General Studies, Jewish Studies, Math, Science

Let There Be Light

Posted on by arapoport

What do you get when you mix Science, Math, Procedural Writing, Diagrams and Jewish Studies? A fully functioning electric Hanukkiah of course! Several weeks ago, after introducing our unit on Energy, I had an idea. Why not make some cross-curricular connections? When I suggested making an electric Hanukkiah to the students, their excitement could not be contained. With access to a fully stocked Maker Space, it seemed the logical next step.

First, the students made predictions of what their circuit would look like, through diagrams. After some discussion and peer feedback, we collaborated to come up with the final design. Each student then turned their fast-drying dough into a candle that would serve as a base for the lightbulb. Once it was dry, they painted each candle, and waiting with anticipation to move on with building the circuits and assembling the Hanukkiah.

Did it work perfectly the first time?  No it did not! We had lots of opportunity to practice our problem solving skills. Which part of the circuit wasn’t working? Was it the light bulb wires? Were the batteries dead? The students kept suggesting ways to fix it and with a whole lot of patience and perseverance, we lit the candles for Hanukkah.

 

Curious how you too can build your own electric hanukiah at home? Just follow the procedural writing piece below. Please share your experience and what you have learned in the comments below.

 

 

 

Posted in Jewish Studies

Hanukkah Week…

Posted on by aaizenberg

Bitmoji ImageHappy 5th night of Hanukkah everyone,

Can you guess what our focus wil be this week…? Hanukkah fun of course 😉
We will continue following our routine in class, including being introduced to each sounds daily; however. As it is Hanukkah, and your evenings may be filled with deep frying, candle lighting and dreidle spinning there is no official homework. It goes without saying that reading daily is beneficial and encouraged but is not a requirement this week. 

happy hanukkah

Calendar alert:
1. Tuesday at 7:00pm we will have a virtual OJCS Family Hanukkah Celebration. We hope you can join us. 

2. Friday is PJ day and we will be having a pancake breakfast in Kitah Alef during the 1st period. Please send some fruit for your child to have with it. 

Have a wonderful week, filled with light and sweetness.
Posted in Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies Reading

Hanukkah is near…

Posted on by aaizenberg

Bitmoji ImageShalom Kitah Alef families,

As the second term of this interesting year begins, we are getting excited for Hanukkah that is getting near…

By the end of this week we will be recording our Hanukkah song (Banu Choshech Legaresh) and share it with our wider community during the Candle Lighting Ceremonies. I am not sure which date we will be on., but you will get to see it during our own candle lighting ceremony on Tuesday, Dec 15th at 7:00pm.

We are continuing with our daily reading homework (this week pages 9 to 12 in the choveret Kree-ah) and there are also fun stories to read (or listen to) in my bitmoji classroom, where I add books we read in class, or ones they are ready to read on their own.

Wednesday we will participate as one class following the Wednesday schedule from the distance learning page. Part of my lesson will be having the children find and show objects/foods that relate to Chanukah, so you may want to make sure you have a Chanukiya (Menorah), Sevivon (dreidle), candles, etc… out where they can find it… (please do not gather it ahead of time. The fun is in the search.

Also, I will be introducing this Wordwall game with an opening sound. You need to know what it is to know which is the opening sound… 😉 You can join your child in the fun.

 

Posted in Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies Reading

Moving on to a new “vowel”…

Posted on by aaizenberg

Finishing the first choveret kreeah is always very exciting. Now that we know all our א-ב we put together the puzzle we made at the start of the year (photo above)… they were so excited as they recognized the letters that were forming.

As we left school on Friday a few of the children tried to guess the next sound, the cover and  the colour of the pages… sooo exciting.

As you will see, in this next booklet we move a little faster, as they now recognize the letters with much less assistance… We will continue with our Monday to Thursday homework routine. I am reminding you that if it takes longer than 10 minutes, your child is not required to read the whole page. Please check  the lines s/he completed and have them read the rest with my recording (found in my bitmoji classroom).

This week we are starting with…

Monday – Eee (אי, יי)

Tuesday – Kee & Ghee (כי, גי)

Wednesday – See & Tzee (סי, צי)

Thursday – Tee & Ee (תי, עי)

Happy reading🙂

Posted in Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies Reading

Consistent Routines = Independent Students, Consistent Reading = Independent Readers

Posted on by aaizenberg

Shalom lovely Kitah Alef families,

It is so wonderful to see how all our students are becoming more and more comforable with our daily routines. Following these clear routines from the moment they enter the classroom promotes independence and in turn pride as each child is feeling responsible for his/her own learning. I am so proud of the gains I observe on a daily basis; from organizational skills, to patience, respect of one another’s space, thinking (staying quiet while another student’s brain is working to search for information) and different needs to be a succesful student, as well as their increased language acquisition of course. 😉  

One of my loves of teaching Ivrit to Grade 1 is seeing the aquired knowledge of the language on a daily basis. It is so exciting to see the student’s faces change from looking at me like I am speaking gibberish, to intent listening and big smiles as they participate and try their best to use not only a new word or sound, but full sentences.  It is a joy when I hear them correct each other (in a respectful manner of course).  

ta daAll this to say… routines work magic…  

As in years past, I believe a more regular routine will promote stronger readers, and I believe the students are ready… so… this week I will begin sending homework 4 days a week – Monday to Thursday. As I wrote last week, please assist your child to create a homework routine that suits your family’s schedule best. One where s/he will feel they have control over and can be independently successful.

 

This his week’s homework includes the following sounds: Monday – Mah (מ,ם),  Tuesday – Yah (י), Wednesday – Hah (ה), Thursday – Aah (ע). See “Choveret Kreeah” (reading booklet) with recordings in my Bitmoji Classroom. In there you will also find a new area for Stories in Ivrit (hanging on the back windows) – these will change with time, as we read/listen to our weekly story in class.

Posted in Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies Reading

Hebrew Reading Homework (Oct19-23)

Posted on by aaizenberg

Hi everyone, 

laptop readingThis week We are introduced to the sounds Chah, Ch, Nah and Nh. 

Homework will come home this week on Monday (Chah) and Wednesday (Nah).

We spoke about our responsibility (with our parents’ help) to create a space and a time at home to do our homework, so it becomes part of the family routine. We came up with different ideas that may work for different families. For example, reading in the car on way home, or on way to school, reading before/after dinner, reading before/after breakfast, reading when we arrive home, etc… Whatever works best at your home will best fit your child. Please help your child in making this choice of when it works best for him/her.

Please remember to use my bitmoji classroom to listen to the reading – I do it in a pace that the children can repeat after me. It is a great tool for practicing and reviewing.

Do not forget to practice reading daily and sign at the bottom of each page.

Todah Rabah.

 

Posted in Jewish Studies, Jewish Studies Reading

Practicing letter Recognition in a fun way

Posted on by aaizenberg

Shalom and Chag Sameach,

Last week I introduced the children to Wordwall – It is an educational App that I was introduced to by Morah Ruthie and Morah Sigal. It is free to download for you and you can search for different games on it; however, at this point I am creating very focused games that follow what we are learning in class. They are used as review, and the students are enjoying it very much (They are actually asking to use it – woohoo).

I will be adding (and regularly changing) the different links to my Bitmoji Classroom (at top of this blog page). I will usually post the practice from the week past and the one for the coming week (in which they will not know all the vocabulary yet, but can use the letter recognition one).

I will also add this week’s letter recognition practice bellow, for quick access and as a visual  introduction for our weekly sounds/letters – Rah (ר) and Vah (ב,ו).

I am adding a reminder to send a small box to school by tomorrow for our Sukkah creation this week. Toda.