Today Chalav students celebrated reading a total of 900 minutes. Rav Hazzan read a story to the children and they ate a special treat (Italian Ices)! Our new reading goal is 1200 minutes and we are already halfway there. Go first grade readers!
In Fundations, we have completed our study of glued sounds. Next week we will begin to learn about blends. Blends can be described as two or more consonants that appear together and each letter makes a different consonant sound. They are in contrast to digraphs in which the two consonants combine to make one sound.
We were privileged this week to have a visit by the children’s book illustrator, Janice Hechter. Ms. Hechter has illustrated several children’s books including ones with Jewish content. She showed the children how she begins her work with a sketch and then moves on to eventually create the final version of her drawings. She shared before and after pictures of how she revises her work which is a great illustration (yes, I know, bad pun) of our Writer’s Workshop saying: “When you think you are done, you have just begun.” The children were fascinating by the process she uses of producing her amazing pictures with use of her computer.
As part of our study of geometry, we read the book: A Cloak for the Dreamer by Aileen Friedman. The book tells the story of a tailor and his three sons. Each son makes a cloak out of shapes for the archduke. Chalav students used shapes to create their own “quilts” for the archduke as well.
We finished the week with a mini-unit on dividing shapes into halves, thirds and quarters. Next week, we will complete our geometry unit by learning about 3D shapes.
Shabbat Shalom,
Hamorah Joanne