Thursday, May 31, 2012
So excited - great online resource http://www.aspaklaria.info/
So when I was in seminary, I got a few volumes of the aspaklaria. I read them for fun- it is an encyclopedia of Jewish topics. I photocopied sources from there so students in high school could do reports without needing a complete library - I just stumbled on the fact that it is online! http://www.aspaklaria.info/ I am so excited!
Thursday, May 31 recap
Here are some of the things we did today:
Tefillah: for the new tefillah, one student was the chazzan. He read each phrase, stopping at the comma or the period, then the class repeated it after him. This method really helps with fluency for each new tefilla.
Improve fluency, and have students assume responsibility for tefillah
Chumash: פרק לא: כה-ל First, the students filled out the Shorashim and Pronoun column for new pesukim in their linear translation.
Goal: word attack skills, pre teaching knowledge that will stop comprehension the 1st time.
Vayitzei Perek 31b Linear
Then we read the pesukim כד & כה where ה' told לבן not to speak.
reviewing important information from last time, and creating anticipation for new material.
As we learned the new pesukim, the kids were literally laughing out loud because of how לבן ignored ה' and cared more about his idols than kids. I read the pesukim dramatically but didn't add any additional commentary. The pasukim speak for themselves. We concluded with each student filling out their linear translation sheets. Independent Practice.
ivrit: We are working on אותי vs אתי. I tried to have the kids write sentences with these words but they are still unclear about the object pronouns. Guided Practice. We sang a song אותי is me, אותך is you etc. different modality learning. Helps memorization and recall. Using the different objects in hebrew sentences depending on the preposition is a hard concept for the kids. They can translate לי in the chumash but will write אל אני in their own sentences.
Chayeinu: Yamim Tovim Independent learning, self paced.
Biography of Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky we are learning about how honest יעקב was so I thought it would be nice to learn about the Gadol who best exemplified this midda - Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky. This was also an opportunity to introduce Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky to the class. After reading the biography we watch some videos.
rav yaakov
Rav Yaakov zt"l with Rav Moshe zt"l
Rav Shmuel telling a story about Rav Hyman (go to 4:20 story is 2 minutes)
Rav Shmuel starting off a class (I just showed the first minute to show what it means to be gracious)
Tefillah: for the new tefillah, one student was the chazzan. He read each phrase, stopping at the comma or the period, then the class repeated it after him. This method really helps with fluency for each new tefilla.
Improve fluency, and have students assume responsibility for tefillah
Chumash: פרק לא: כה-ל First, the students filled out the Shorashim and Pronoun column for new pesukim in their linear translation.
Goal: word attack skills, pre teaching knowledge that will stop comprehension the 1st time.
Vayitzei Perek 31b Linear
Then we read the pesukim כד & כה where ה' told לבן not to speak.
reviewing important information from last time, and creating anticipation for new material.
As we learned the new pesukim, the kids were literally laughing out loud because of how לבן ignored ה' and cared more about his idols than kids. I read the pesukim dramatically but didn't add any additional commentary. The pasukim speak for themselves. We concluded with each student filling out their linear translation sheets. Independent Practice.
ivrit: We are working on אותי vs אתי. I tried to have the kids write sentences with these words but they are still unclear about the object pronouns. Guided Practice. We sang a song אותי is me, אותך is you etc. different modality learning. Helps memorization and recall. Using the different objects in hebrew sentences depending on the preposition is a hard concept for the kids. They can translate לי in the chumash but will write אל אני in their own sentences.
Chayeinu: Yamim Tovim Independent learning, self paced.
Biography of Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky we are learning about how honest יעקב was so I thought it would be nice to learn about the Gadol who best exemplified this midda - Rav Yaakov Kaminetsky. This was also an opportunity to introduce Rav Shmuel Kaminetzky to the class. After reading the biography we watch some videos.
rav yaakov
Rav Yaakov zt"l with Rav Moshe zt"l
Rav Shmuel telling a story about Rav Hyman (go to 4:20 story is 2 minutes)
Rav Shmuel starting off a class (I just showed the first minute to show what it means to be gracious)
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wednesday, May 30
Tefillah - Today, we started saying the first הללוי-ה in Davening. Whenever we learn a new tefilla, we have the same system. For the first few days, I say each phrase in the tefilla, stopping at the commas and periods. Then, the class repeats after me. For the next two weeks after, each student gets to lead by reading the tefilla in phrases with the class repeating after them. This method really helps with fluency and gives them confidence and pride in their reading.
During Chumash it was Test day!
We had our test, and then set up the classroom for the second half of Perek לא. We did our last PPP - Vayitzei Perek 31b PPP
and set up the felt flash cards on the side of the room.
We then read a story in Migdalor which focused on the difference between אתי and אותי. The students read the story quietly and then we discussed it. Then the class wrote sentences and also spoke using these words.
Chayeinu - For the next two weeks, we will be reviewing some key sections - we started with Chagim and will move on to Tanach.
During Chumash it was Test day!
We had our test, and then set up the classroom for the second half of Perek לא. We did our last PPP - Vayitzei Perek 31b PPP
and set up the felt flash cards on the side of the room.
We then read a story in Migdalor which focused on the difference between אתי and אותי. The students read the story quietly and then we discussed it. Then the class wrote sentences and also spoke using these words.
Chayeinu - For the next two weeks, we will be reviewing some key sections - we started with Chagim and will move on to Tanach.
Tuesday, May 29
Baruch Hashem, school started at 10. As it was, the kids all staggered in with their post 3-day Yom Tov hangovers. Some had stayed up all night on Motzei Shabbos, all had stayed up for the meals that began at 10. Having school start a little late meant that everyone showed up to school and functioned better than they otherwise would have.
With only one hour of class time, I focused on reviewing half the perek for the test on Wednesday. I gave students a strip of paper and had them cover up the English in their linear. I told them to underline any word they didn't know in the hebrew. If they didn't know a word, they should look it up in the English.
After that, they did some independent review work focusing on על מי נאמר, איך כתוב בפסוק, & מי אמר למי
With only one hour of class time, I focused on reviewing half the perek for the test on Wednesday. I gave students a strip of paper and had them cover up the English in their linear. I told them to underline any word they didn't know in the hebrew. If they didn't know a word, they should look it up in the English.
After that, they did some independent review work focusing on על מי נאמר, איך כתוב בפסוק, & מי אמר למי
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Thursday May 24 - pre Shavuos
Chumash - finished through pasuk 25.
At recess, there was some playground politics about including the younger kids. I asked for input from students who have a rule in their house that they must include their younger siblings how they can do so without fighting. Here were their suggestions:
After recess, we started learning parsha. Each student got an information sheet about all the shevatim,
Shevatim Info
and one flag of a shevet to color. Shevatim Flags They also got slips of paper and had to make one stick figure per 5,000 men in their shevet. After we all finished, we went to the back of the room and set up the three machanos.
At recess, there was some playground politics about including the younger kids. I asked for input from students who have a rule in their house that they must include their younger siblings how they can do so without fighting. Here were their suggestions:
After recess, we started learning parsha. Each student got an information sheet about all the shevatim,
Shevatim Info
and one flag of a shevet to color. Shevatim Flags They also got slips of paper and had to make one stick figure per 5,000 men in their shevet. After we all finished, we went to the back of the room and set up the three machanos.
Because it was the day before Shavuos, I asked the students if they wanted to bring home their portfolios so they could review the chumash they learned this year. (After Shavuos, I found out that one student sat next to his father and reviewed his chumash on Shavuos night!)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Wednesday, May 23 recap
Tefilla - רצון יראיו יעשה - I asked if they would rather be the pawn or the king on the chess board - we have a choice which we will be based on how much we do of Hashem's will, The more we listen to Hashem's will, the more important we are in Hashem's plan. Also check out Rav Hirschs explanation of http://www.dailyhalacha.com/m/parasha.aspx?id=98 the two goats on yom kippur
Clean up time - guests were coming and so the kids straightened up a bit.
Chumash / just the highlights - יח-כא I drew shorashim as pictures ג זז= two letters crossed to make a air of scissors, נהג- The נ lead the other letters . Kids looked for hard words first. https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/chumash/vayeitzei/vayitzei%20perek%2031a%20linear.pdf?w=d2da30ea
Ivrit - read story and asked comprehension questions after each line without translating . Most kids got the gist of the story and could answer the questions easily.
I had to leave for the last 45 minutes of class. I wrote a list of assignments for the class to do either as a group or as individuals. When I came back the next day, the class was very excited about their independent learning. The key with this work is that it is not busy work. They do the best they can, they have to think while doing it, and it builds on knowledge they have or have access to.
1. I had the students fill in http://chinuch.org/item_details.php?mid=9200&s=1&ft=243? - A workbook on Shavuos by Rivkah Kessler found on chinuch.org. We had reviewed most of the information as a class so this was a chance to review what we had discussed orally. I chose not to fill in the worksheets as a class because I found that gets boring quickly. The students learned what information they had learned, and what they stll needed to learn. The more advanced students filled in the hebrew section, the other students filled in the English section.
2. Chayeinu - Pages regarding the Aseres Hadibros and the shalosh regalim.
3. Chumash homework.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Tuesday May 22
Almost done with Ashrei, we have started to say it before עלינו. כל האומר תהילה לדוד ג פעמים ביום . . .
Chumash https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/chumash/vayeitzei/vayitzei%20perek%2031a%20linear.pdf?w=d2da30ea יב-יז
Chayeinu. - I asked the students to work on the pages having to do with the megillos and the Aseres Hadibros. After they completed these pages, I did a quick oral quiz to check for learning.
Chumash https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/chumash/vayeitzei/vayitzei%20perek%2031a%20linear.pdf?w=d2da30ea יב-יז
Chayeinu. - I asked the students to work on the pages having to do with the megillos and the Aseres Hadibros. After they completed these pages, I did a quick oral quiz to check for learning.
Monday, May 21, 2012
May 21 recap
Tefillah: קרוב ה' - focus on kavanah, and crying in truth.
Chumash: ח-יא https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/chumash/vayeitzei/vayitzei%20perek%2031a%20linear.pdf?w=d2da30ea
Limudei Kodesh: We have learned all about story of Rus - During Chumash, I realized the students didn't know who Boaz was. We did a few activities to make the story memorable.
1. Powerpoint from chinuch.org
2. Rus Rebus
3. Story of Rus in hebrew
We did one perek at a time. So the students knew the story line and the people in the megillah.
Ivrit: Next story in Migdalor
Chumash: ח-יא https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/chumash/vayeitzei/vayitzei%20perek%2031a%20linear.pdf?w=d2da30ea
Limudei Kodesh: We have learned all about story of Rus - During Chumash, I realized the students didn't know who Boaz was. We did a few activities to make the story memorable.
1. Powerpoint from chinuch.org
2. Rus Rebus
3. Story of Rus in hebrew
We did one perek at a time. So the students knew the story line and the people in the megillah.
Ivrit: Next story in Migdalor
Friday, May 18, 2012
Friday May 18 recap
Tefillah:
The 4/5 grade boys joined us for davening since their teacher was out of town. Using a quick Q/A with one word answers, we reviewed the concepts that we had learned so far about Ashrei. The 3rd graders were very proud that they knew the answers quickly to questions the older kids couldn't answer.
Chumash: We learned ה וז. The students first looked at the pasukim for hard words. The hard words got written on the board. Using the words on the board, one student tried to read each pasuk. Then I read the pasuk. The students got to ask questions. To ask an analysis question, 1 student had to first read and translate the pasuk accurately. Then class read the pasuk. Closure: Students independently filled in their linear translation sheets.
Parsha: I quickly reviewed the laws from behar/bechukosai. I then took the opportunity to talk about Shemitta . Chinuch.org has all the back issues of Olemeinu online. http://chinuch.org/olomeinu_admin_topics.php?id=229 They are filled with facts, games and stories about shemitta. One of the articles explained that there are some Jews that keep heter mechira, and some Jews who do not. I mentioned to my students, one of whom has a brother named after Rav Kook, that Rav Kook had implemented the halachic idea of heter mechira. I then mentioned that the Chazon Ish, for whom another student is named, said that shemitta must be observed with no exceptions. The Rav Kook representative looked at me and said "But I know that the Chazon Ish and Rav Kook treated each other nicely!" The Chazon Ish stand-in turned to his neighbor and replied - "You know, it's like Hillel and Shammai." His friend nodded and smiled, understanding completely the idea of a machlokes l'shem shamayim
The 4/5 grade boys joined us for davening since their teacher was out of town. Using a quick Q/A with one word answers, we reviewed the concepts that we had learned so far about Ashrei. The 3rd graders were very proud that they knew the answers quickly to questions the older kids couldn't answer.
Chumash: We learned ה וז. The students first looked at the pasukim for hard words. The hard words got written on the board. Using the words on the board, one student tried to read each pasuk. Then I read the pasuk. The students got to ask questions. To ask an analysis question, 1 student had to first read and translate the pasuk accurately. Then class read the pasuk. Closure: Students independently filled in their linear translation sheets.
Parsha: I quickly reviewed the laws from behar/bechukosai. I then took the opportunity to talk about Shemitta . Chinuch.org has all the back issues of Olemeinu online. http://chinuch.org/olomeinu_admin_topics.php?id=229 They are filled with facts, games and stories about shemitta. One of the articles explained that there are some Jews that keep heter mechira, and some Jews who do not. I mentioned to my students, one of whom has a brother named after Rav Kook, that Rav Kook had implemented the halachic idea of heter mechira. I then mentioned that the Chazon Ish, for whom another student is named, said that shemitta must be observed with no exceptions. The Rav Kook representative looked at me and said "But I know that the Chazon Ish and Rav Kook treated each other nicely!" The Chazon Ish stand-in turned to his neighbor and replied - "You know, it's like Hillel and Shammai." His friend nodded and smiled, understanding completely the idea of a machlokes l'shem shamayim
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Thursday May 17 recap
What a busy day.
Today, we learned about צדיק ה בכל דרכיו. We were learning about the life of the
4th Belzer Rebbe later in the day, so I took the opportunity to connect the
pasuk to how the Belzer Rebbe responded to the Holocaust after his wife,
children and grandchildren were killed. There were also a lot of questions. One child asked, "How come we say tehillim if everything Hashem does is right?" Each student shared a personal story, a mashal they had heard, or a story they had read. I let them share because I could see they were connecting and processing a very hard lesson.
Chumash
We learned פרק לא: פסוקים א-ד. The students are very concerned with fair and right. I asked the students what the words of the pesukim implied. They were offended that Lavan and his sons would accuse Yaakov of being dishonest. We explored why would the sons of Lavan accuse Yaakov of stealing, why was it important that Yaakov noticed Lavan's face, and why Yaakov would need to call his wives to the field.
Biography.
We learned about the 4th Belzer Rebbe, Rav Aharon Rokeach zt"l and his nephew, ybl"c, the 5th Belzer Rebbe, Yissachar Dov Rokeach. I picked this topic because one of my students expressed an interest in chassidus and the Belzer Rebbe is remarkable in his recreation of his chassidus after World war II. It also involved a Hungarian and Polish personality which had not yet been represented this year.
Biography of the 4th and 5th Belzer Rebbes The story of the 4th Belzer Rebbe's escape from the Nazi was very inspiring.
I then put an article I found online on the projector - so the students could see pictures of the original shul built by the Sar Shalom and the new shul built by the 5th Belzer Rebbe
After showing them the pictures, we watched a video of how Belz quiets the shul
I then showed this broadcast from Israeli news about the Belz Beis Medrash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HftHFc1jgRI We watched a sentence, and then I translated that sentence. After we watched the whole clip, I showed the clip again, this time from the beginning without pausing. Most of the students were able to understand the video the second time through.
Ivrit: We reviewed some words in Ivrit from Migdalor.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Wednesday, May 16 recap
Chumash: test - I read recently that easy tests give as much information about the students' knowledge as long tests. I made what I thought was a pretty easy test. Sure enough, the grades were pretty similar to my harder, longer tests. I included more application questions and the students had to illustrate some of the pesukim from the test.
After the test, I had the students do some independent work. Th objective was for them to learn how to find a pasuk in the chumash. They chose the order of the exercises they wanted to do:
After the test, I had the students do some independent work. Th objective was for them to learn how to find a pasuk in the chumash. They chose the order of the exercises they wanted to do:
1. Find pasuk - This exercise teaches students how to analyze a pasuk so they can narrow down where it will be http://www.scribd.com/doc/94256669/Vayitzei-Perek-30b-Pasuk-Find-1
2. Find pasuk without clues This activity did not include the hints. http://www.scribd.com/doc/94256673/Vayitzei-Perek-30b-Pasuk-Find
3. PPP for פרק לא http://www.scribd.com/doc/94251398/Vayitzei-Perek-31a-PPP
3. PPP for פרק לא http://www.scribd.com/doc/94251398/Vayitzei-Perek-31a-PPP
4. Organize the felt boards - Students who finished their work got to alphabetize and sort the words from the perek based on easy, medium and hard.
Limudei Kodesh: I asked the students what stories they knew about Matan Torah. Then I filled in the rest of the medrashim I felt were important. I told the stories in hebrew to add an Ivrit listenng part to the lesson.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Tuesday May 15 recap
I am falling very behind in my updates - so a quick one will have to do.
Chumash: review : How does it say it in pasuk, and review story
Limudei Kodesh: Each student already wrote all they knew about Shavuos divided into 4 categories. Today, we reviewed the minhagim and halachos they knew, as well as any other minhagim and halachos I wanted to add in.
Ivrit: Migdaolor - I am enjoying reading this book with the class more and more. Today, the students split up into groups, read a story, and answered the questions
Chumash: review : How does it say it in pasuk, and review story
Limudei Kodesh: Each student already wrote all they knew about Shavuos divided into 4 categories. Today, we reviewed the minhagim and halachos they knew, as well as any other minhagim and halachos I wanted to add in.
Ivrit: Migdaolor - I am enjoying reading this book with the class more and more. Today, the students split up into groups, read a story, and answered the questions
Monday, May 14, 2012
May 14 recap
Tefillah: Review concepts by asking students to say first max three word that comes to mind (after raising hand) for each line of Ashrei I say out loud.
Ashrei=smile
Bchol Yom = say a bracha
Dor L'dor = Generations
Hadar - Zecher - talk, talk, talk
Chanun - kind
Tov Hashem Lakol - everyone & everything
On to פותח את ידך, ומשביע לכל חי רצון - the students are busy studying the food chain in science. My room is covered with food chain chains. This is a concept they will get and will get excited about.
Chumash - The end of the Perek is fast approaching. The test is on Wednesday. The main focus is על מי נאמר, מי אמר למי, content and a few translations. This will be the subject of my review before teaching the last of the pesukim.
Ivrit: Migdalor
Limudei Kodesh: Shavuos - I asked the students to write everything they know about Shavuos in the following categories:. Minhagim, Names, Special halachos, torah & megillah reading.
Once the students are aware of what they know, I don't have to reteach old concepts, and they will know when we are learning new material.
Ashrei=smile
Bchol Yom = say a bracha
Dor L'dor = Generations
Hadar - Zecher - talk, talk, talk
Chanun - kind
Tov Hashem Lakol - everyone & everything
On to פותח את ידך, ומשביע לכל חי רצון - the students are busy studying the food chain in science. My room is covered with food chain chains. This is a concept they will get and will get excited about.
Chumash - The end of the Perek is fast approaching. The test is on Wednesday. The main focus is על מי נאמר, מי אמר למי, content and a few translations. This will be the subject of my review before teaching the last of the pesukim.
Ivrit: Migdalor
Limudei Kodesh: Shavuos - I asked the students to write everything they know about Shavuos in the following categories:. Minhagim, Names, Special halachos, torah & megillah reading.
Once the students are aware of what they know, I don't have to reteach old concepts, and they will know when we are learning new material.
Friday, May 11, 2012
Friday May 11 recap
What happens when you cross Lag B'Omer, two days of Color War and a late night barbeque with a ball game on a beach?
Very tired kiddos. During davening, I got the rhythm going and let the students clap, bang and stamp to the beat in davening. They were louder than normal but at least they weren't asleep.
We reviewed some pesukim, learned another pasuk, and then came parsha time.
A few years ago, I had made up a fictional story about a kohein named Shmeryl Cohen and his life. He almost marries a divorcee (gasp!), he has visions of angels, he is a zookeeper and mashiach comes during his life. http://chinuch.org/item_details.php?mid=4859 The story is written on a first grade level which was perfect to keeping the humor and good cheer going in the classrom.. We also learned about the holidays, the need to make a kiddush Hashem, and the Megadef.
I gave out perek 4 from Pirkei Avos for some extra learning over Shabbos.
Very tired kiddos. During davening, I got the rhythm going and let the students clap, bang and stamp to the beat in davening. They were louder than normal but at least they weren't asleep.
We reviewed some pesukim, learned another pasuk, and then came parsha time.
A few years ago, I had made up a fictional story about a kohein named Shmeryl Cohen and his life. He almost marries a divorcee (gasp!), he has visions of angels, he is a zookeeper and mashiach comes during his life. http://chinuch.org/item_details.php?mid=4859 The story is written on a first grade level which was perfect to keeping the humor and good cheer going in the classrom.. We also learned about the holidays, the need to make a kiddush Hashem, and the Megadef.
I gave out perek 4 from Pirkei Avos for some extra learning over Shabbos.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
May 10 recap
Tefillah: We discussed how ה' is טוב לכל - to all and is good to ALL of his creations. We talked about not hurting animals unnecessarily I even mentioned how Rav Yaakov Yosef Herman would even feed cats in Yerushalayim because he was טוב to all of Hashem's creations.
Chumash - We reviewed a bit and did one more pasuk. The students were a little hyper because they had COLOR WAR.
(My kids were on different teams. When they got off the bus today, my first grader had on this huge grin. I had assumed that he had won. No, he lost - he just had a great two days and felt really successful the whole time. )
Chumash - We reviewed a bit and did one more pasuk. The students were a little hyper because they had COLOR WAR.
(My kids were on different teams. When they got off the bus today, my first grader had on this huge grin. I had assumed that he had won. No, he lost - he just had a great two days and felt really successful the whole time. )
May 9 recap
It's COLOR WAR. Yellow & Blue. We still had davening and chumash for half a period. The kids lined up their desks into two lines facing each other.
Tefillah: We were up to a great pasuk of Ashrei to give a pep talk for color war.
חנון ורחום ה' ארך אפים וגדל חסדו. - I talked about how we are supposed to imitate Hashem. The better we act, the bigger we are.
חנון - be a gracious winner or loser -
רחום - help out the weaker kids/kindergarten kids who seem overwhelmed
ארך אפים - if someone annoys or upsets us, we should say over 8 times ארך אפים - I am slow to anger
גדל חסדו - Think big when helping out others - what could they use or need.
The pep talk combined with the stellar middos of my class shone through. During the first game, the yellow team was losing. The 3rd graders on the blue team decided to alternate cheering for the blue and yellow team to be gracious winners!
Chumash - We reviewed some of the pesukim and learned one new pasuk. We acted out the words to make it memorable.
Tefillah: We were up to a great pasuk of Ashrei to give a pep talk for color war.
חנון ורחום ה' ארך אפים וגדל חסדו. - I talked about how we are supposed to imitate Hashem. The better we act, the bigger we are.
חנון - be a gracious winner or loser -
רחום - help out the weaker kids/kindergarten kids who seem overwhelmed
ארך אפים - if someone annoys or upsets us, we should say over 8 times ארך אפים - I am slow to anger
גדל חסדו - Think big when helping out others - what could they use or need.
The pep talk combined with the stellar middos of my class shone through. During the first game, the yellow team was losing. The 3rd graders on the blue team decided to alternate cheering for the blue and yellow team to be gracious winners!
Chumash - We reviewed some of the pesukim and learned one new pasuk. We acted out the words to make it memorable.
Monday, May 7, 2012
May 8 recap
Tefillah:
הדר כבוד הודך, ודברי נפלאתיך אשיחה. ועזוז נוראתיך יאמרו, וגדלתך אספרנה. זכר רב טובך יביעו, וצדקתך ירננו...
Meaning:
The splendorous glory of Your power and Your wondrous deeds I shall discuss.
And of Your awesome power they will speak, and Your greatness I shall relate.
A recollection of Your abundant goodness they will utter and of Your righteousness
they will sing exultantly....
Each of these three lines of Ashrei mentions different ways to communicate out loud. Focus: Why is it so important to vocalize these ideas?
Activity: What are some things that are important to say? Why do you need to say them? What will happen to our opinion if we talk about something positively? Negatively? Relate it back to the main questions
Chumash: Review - the last few pesukim have been very difficult. Review the hard words - specifically names of animals and other words that will appear again.
Each student has a whiteboard and a dry erase marker. I took off the flash cards from the felt hangings and shuffled the cards, and reviewed them one by one orally. I shuffled them again, this time when I held them up, the students had to write the answers on their whiteboards.
The students get very motivated even though it's drill work. They learn vocabulary words and I can eyeball who needs help and who doesn't immediately.
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I then asked the kids to go through the next pasuk and write down words they don't know.
The next few pesukim are not easier
I referenced the above picture when teaching this pasuk which helped a lot.
After recess and library, the students had time to practice and perform their plays about rabbi shimon bar yochai. They got very into making these plays. I have a whole stash of fabric stored in the classroom for these occasions, so they draped themselves to be Romans and Jews. They borrowed various hats from the kindergarten. They each performed their scenes wonderfully and we then spoke about Lag B'Omer
הדר כבוד הודך, ודברי נפלאתיך אשיחה. ועזוז נוראתיך יאמרו, וגדלתך אספרנה. זכר רב טובך יביעו, וצדקתך ירננו...
Meaning:
The splendorous glory of Your power and Your wondrous deeds I shall discuss.
And of Your awesome power they will speak, and Your greatness I shall relate.
A recollection of Your abundant goodness they will utter and of Your righteousness
they will sing exultantly....
Each of these three lines of Ashrei mentions different ways to communicate out loud. Focus: Why is it so important to vocalize these ideas?
Activity: What are some things that are important to say? Why do you need to say them? What will happen to our opinion if we talk about something positively? Negatively? Relate it back to the main questions
Chumash: Review - the last few pesukim have been very difficult. Review the hard words - specifically names of animals and other words that will appear again.
Each student has a whiteboard and a dry erase marker. I took off the flash cards from the felt hangings and shuffled the cards, and reviewed them one by one orally. I shuffled them again, this time when I held them up, the students had to write the answers on their whiteboards.
The students get very motivated even though it's drill work. They learn vocabulary words and I can eyeball who needs help and who doesn't immediately.
>
I then asked the kids to go through the next pasuk and write down words they don't know.
The next few pesukim are not easier
| לודֶּרֶךְ שְׁלֹשֶׁת בֵּינוֹ הַנּוֹתָרֹת. | 36 three days' journey betwixt himself the rest |
| לז מַקַּל לִבְנֶה לַח לוּז עַרְמוֹן פַצֵּל לְבָנוֹת מַחְשֹׂף |
After recess and library, the students had time to practice and perform their plays about rabbi shimon bar yochai. They got very into making these plays. I have a whole stash of fabric stored in the classroom for these occasions, so they draped themselves to be Romans and Jews. They borrowed various hats from the kindergarten. They each performed their scenes wonderfully and we then spoke about Lag B'Omer
May 7 recap
Tefillah: Continue with ashrei Dor l Dor. Asked students to think of one thing they learned from a grandparent. Some of the answers were candy making, baseball. Who taught their grandparents baseball - they said their parents. I asked when baseball was invented - that was a debate was it in the 1800s or during the civil war. I mentioned how we have something that goes back generation to generation, further back than baseball or making candy - The Torah & believing in Hashem. The Torah goes back to Moshe. But believing in Hashem goes back to Avraham. When we say דור לדור it reminds us that we have gotten something that has been passed down for thousands of years
Chumash - This part of the Chumash is very confusing. I gave out a handout to help the students visualize what we were learning.
As we read the pesukim, we illustrated the sheet.
Ivrit/Limudei Kodesh. - I distributed a hebrew story about Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. I translated all the difficult words on the page and gave out guided questions I split the class into three groups. The first read the text as a group and answered the questions in hebrew, the second read half the story and answered the questions in english. The third group read the story and answered the questions with the help of the teacehr. After reading and answering the questions, each group decided on how they would present soemthing to the class. One group is making a poster and two are making skits.
RT: לב-לה
R: לו-מ
Worksheet
Chumash - This part of the Chumash is very confusing. I gave out a handout to help the students visualize what we were learning.
As we read the pesukim, we illustrated the sheet.
Ivrit/Limudei Kodesh. - I distributed a hebrew story about Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. I translated all the difficult words on the page and gave out guided questions I split the class into three groups. The first read the text as a group and answered the questions in hebrew, the second read half the story and answered the questions in english. The third group read the story and answered the questions with the help of the teacehr. After reading and answering the questions, each group decided on how they would present soemthing to the class. One group is making a poster and two are making skits.
RT: לב-לה
R: לו-מ
Worksheet
May 4 recap
Tefillah: We had the second graders join us because of some substitute timing. We reviewed that Ashrei = Happy and what makes us happy. We then translated the first few lines of Ashrei until בכל יום. I asked the students if they needed to thank their mothers today if they already did so yesterday? Why would we need to bless and appreciate Hashem every day? Should our feelings of thanks to our mother be the same each and every day?
Before we said Ashrei, we thought of something we are happy for. We paused before בכל יום to think of what we would thank Hashem for today!
Chumash. We spent today learning the vocabulary for the next unit
כשב = sheep
עז=female goat תיש= male goat
צאן = many goats OR sheep
שה = one goat OR sheep
טלוא = spotted (patched)
נקוד - dotted
עקוד - ringed
What יעקב initially asked for (there is a mistake - the brown sheep should be with לבן's sheep.)
יעקב would mate white goats, black goats, ringed goats, brown goats, checked goats
לבן would mate spotted & dotted goats and brown sheep
יעקב's salary would be dotted & spotted goats & brown sheep
I explained basic genetics by surveying who in the class has blue eyes and who else in their family has blue eyes.
What לבן took
dotted, spotted, ringed, any goats with white (some say any sheep that are white) and brown sheep.
Leaving Yaakov with Black goats, black sheet and according to some white sheep. His salary stays the same.
יעקב's plan
He takes three לח=fresh sticks-מקלות of לבנה, לוז, ערמון and stood (ויצג) them in the gutters (רהטים) of the water troughs (שקתות מים) The goats would get excited (hot ויחמו) when looking at the sticks and have dotted & spotted babies. He did this with the קשורים - the strong ones, for the weak ones - the עטופים - he didn't use this trick so lavan got sick sheep and יעקב got a lot of good sheep.
I also gave out Pirkei Avos Perek 3 to learn over Shabbos.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
May 3 recap
Intro: We are starting אשרי!
We discussed אשרי means happy. What do we need to do to be happy? We need to focus on good things to appreciate them to be happy. In אשרי, we will focus on many things ה' does which is why we are happy.
Chumash: Review Pesukim 25-27.
Translation sheets
Learn pesukim 28-31
Draw shorashim on board
2) Ask questions:
- if יעקב thinks it is time to leave, what should the conversation go like?
- When do you think יעקב will want to go and why?
- Will לבן want him stay? How will he convince יעקב to stay.
- call on students to read phrases
- read as a class
- kids ask questions based on the fact that the pesukim differ from what they expected.
- read rashis
- read pesukim as a class
4) Fill in translations - the students paired themselves up. I sat in the back of the room. Some students like the security of working with me. Others prefer to work with friends.
- Level 1 - with teacher/ friend
- Level 2 - with friend, and fill in שרשיםת גוף & זמן
Ivrit: Follow up on conversation. Have peple invit e each other to do something
Gedolim: Rav Tuvia Goldstein. His Yartzheit is Sunday, 14 Iyar. I didn't have much material - but one of my students was named after him. There is a cool story about how he managed to survive Siberia because his camp guard thought he had connections in Moscow. This was an opportunity to talk about Stalin and what a Rasha he was to his own people.
Parsha : Two Parshios - - Using the sheets from chinuch.org (word find, balsam) I acted out the steps of the עבודה. For Kedoshim, we went through the Mitzvos to see how many the students would recognize.
Homework: RT: כח-לא R: לב-ו
Homework sheet with translating phrases and מי אמר למי
May 2 recap
Today was a great day.
The class did this awesome unit about the Civil War where each kid took one historical figure, researched his life and role in the Civil War, wrote journal entries from that perspective and then dressed in costume to present in a "town hall meeting"
We went on a field trip today to Genessee Country Village & Museum - a living history museum where they recreate life from the 18th and 19th century. As a parent and co-teacher I came along. It was an awesome place.
There was a pioneer homestead where they got to grind corn, carry a yoke, wash dishes and churn butter. They got to watch a potter churn butter.
We tied the trip slightly into limudei kodesh. When the kids picked up the yoke, they said without prompting "I'm pretending to be Esav and I will break the yoke!" We also discussed how pottery connected to last weeks parsha of metzora.
Trip was not as comprehensive as this one but was cool nonetheless
The class did this awesome unit about the Civil War where each kid took one historical figure, researched his life and role in the Civil War, wrote journal entries from that perspective and then dressed in costume to present in a "town hall meeting"
We went on a field trip today to Genessee Country Village & Museum - a living history museum where they recreate life from the 18th and 19th century. As a parent and co-teacher I came along. It was an awesome place.
There was a pioneer homestead where they got to grind corn, carry a yoke, wash dishes and churn butter. They got to watch a potter churn butter.
We tied the trip slightly into limudei kodesh. When the kids picked up the yoke, they said without prompting "I'm pretending to be Esav and I will break the yoke!" We also discussed how pottery connected to last weeks parsha of metzora.
Trip was not as comprehensive as this one but was cool nonetheless
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
DIY: Making my own self checking quizzes
I hate grading papers. If you are a teacher, you probably understand. Grading papers ranks up there with folding laundry and dusting. And papers do need to be graded.
So to help with the tedious work, I have been photocopying the assignments on transparencies, , writing the answers above the blank on the transparency, and punching holes next to the answer blanks. I also punch a star in the top corner. If the paper is perfect they get the star gets colored. If the answer is correct, I color on the hole.
Less thinking = less painful=less time = papers get returned.
So to help with the tedious work, I have been photocopying the assignments on transparencies, , writing the answers above the blank on the transparency, and punching holes next to the answer blanks. I also punch a star in the top corner. If the paper is perfect they get the star gets colored. If the answer is correct, I color on the hole.
Less thinking = less painful=less time = papers get returned.
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