Time itself was the focus of much thought and study this week.  

In this issue of the Maggid, MJCDS students study the lunar and solar calendars and learn how one little letter vav can act like a time machine!  Enjoy and Shabbat Shalom!

 

Students generally relish their one-on-one time with their teacher, and the information collected will help teachers to understand not only where each child is right now with his or her learning, but also to track growth over the course of the year.

 

All of the students in one respect or another, studied the passage of time this week. Younger students learned about calendars, while older students began to decode the tenses of Hebrew verbs.

 

In the kindergarten and 1/2 classes, students worked both independently and in groups learning about the Jewish calendar.  They made a game of putting cards filled with the names of the days of the week and the months of the year, written in both English and Hebrew, in order. The 1/2 students also created "traditional" calendars for the Gregorian/English calendars. The kindergarteners made a few of the months practicing how to write their numbers correctly. Students also learned which holidays fall in particular months.

 

The 3/4 grade students dug deeper into their studies this week as they were introduced to the magical 'vav ha-hipuch.' In the Torah, sometimes a verb is written in the future tense--yet a letter 'vav' added to the beginning of the word changes the verb's tense to the past. This unusual grammatical situation caught the students' attention and they became careful investigators looking at verb tenses at all times! They often excitedly pointed out the different verbs, looking at the shoresh (roots) of the word as well as the zman (tense).  This knowledge will help students as they study Torah to better understand what they are reading!

Mac users can add the calendar to ical.  Go to the menu bar and select Calendar, then select Subscribe.  Enter the following url: 
https://www.google.com/calendar/ical/madisonjewishdayschool%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

Oooh!  Oh!  Ah!  This past week, students in first and second grade reviewed vowels and consonants. They are focusing on the short vowel sounds now and will then study the long vowel sounds and how they are spelled in words. We have also taken a close look at syllables, often consisting of a consonant, a vowel, and another consonant. 

Words are the building blocks of sentences. Students are practicing identifying the subjects (naming parts) and the predicates (action parts) of sentences. 

With this under their belts, the class is embarking on a unit of study of fiction and poetry. During this unit, students will be reading and writing works of fiction and poetry. Parents are encouraged to enjoy reading fiction and poetry at home with their students!

 

 

MJCDS A+ Afterschool  Help spread the word about our creative after school program, which is open to students from other schools, and which features Music, Art, Drama and more. For more information, visit our website or contact Rabbi Ben-Gideon.

 

Scholastic bookclub orders are due Sept. 23. Order online using your class code

Grades K-2:  HGZG2

Grades 3-4:  J2WZK

or return your form to your child's teacher. Happy reading!

Thursday, Sept 15:  3rd and 4th grade trip to the Planetarium.  Please drop off car seats.

Friday, Sept 16:  Kabbalat Shabbat Together, 1:25 pm