It has been great to finally have two full weeks of school and Chalav students have been busy learning and growing in so many areas.
The children are learning more and more Hebrew letters, listening to stories in Hebrew and growing their Hebrew vocabulary.
In our phonics program, Fundations, students have been practicing reading and writing more CVC (consonant vowel consonant) words with short vowels. They have been writing short sentences with these words and practicing using upper case letters at the beginning of their sentences and adding punctuation at the end.
Math has continued to center around adding on the number line. We also have been working on missing addends within the numbers 7. 8 and 9. For instance, the children are given the math sentence 5+__=9 and they have to figure out that the number 4 goes on the line. We have been playing the game “Some Went Hiding” to help practice this. Ask your child to explain how we play this game.
We had tefillah outdoors yesterday and today. We have been exploring the idea of creating sacred space. Together wirh pre-K, K, 2nd and 3rd grades we experimented with saying the shema in different indoor and outdoor spaces and had a discussion about the experience. Some children spoke about feeling closer to God when they are in nature, while other children like praying in synagogue or at home in their rooms.
In Reader’s Workshop, we have been learning about using the pictures and beginning and ending letters to decipher unknown words. The children have been reading beautifully in our independent reading time. We have begun our author study of Kevin Henkes. We are using his books as vehicles to learn reading comprehension strategies. Ask your child about text-to-self connections.
Shabbat Shalom,
Hamorah Joanne