Alim Second Grade's Blog

A few Alim updates…

Poetry: We are reading, writing, and reciting all kinds of poetry. We started with looking at seemingly ordinary objects and using extraordinary language. As we are moving forward, students are learning about specific strategies such as repeated words, alliteration, and writing to an object.

Science: Who knows that soil is made up of humus, clay, and sand? Well, a lot of Alim students do! By observing closely, we are also discovering through smear tests, observations, and settling tests, that contrary to what one might think, of those three elements, sand is the largest and heaviest particle. This week, the students are completing tests on a mystery soil, and trying to discover the contents of their samples.

Literacy: Currently, students are either reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins or Cam Jansen and the Missing Dinosaur Bones. Students are reading in small groups or independently and working on comprehension and vocabulary packets. Students are also participating in small discussion groups about once a week.

Math: We are working on decimals and money. Students are practicing counting money, making change, adding up cash register receipts, estimating amounts of money, and using a calculator to input dollar amounts.

Word Study: In addition to individualized word sorts, students are also learning about spelling rules. This week, the objective is to learn when to double the consonant in a word when adding a vowel suffix such as er and ing. We acted out a funny story, that believe it or not, involved SHARKS! Ask you child about this story.

I am looking forward to seeing all of you cool cats at our poetry celebration on May 22nd.

Best,

haMorah Debbie

This week’s guest blogger is Jordan Eve S.

Last week was the Gan play. In Writing Workshop we are working  on our poetry a lot this week, and we are learning about List Poetry.  We are also learning about using amazing language. In math we have been working with centimeters, decimeters, and millimeters. In art this week we are glazing our clay plates. In P.E. we are mostly playing two-ball soccer and sometimes tag. We have also been busy and working very hard on handwriting and word sorts.

Alim is continuing their study of Israel and beginning to research and present information.  Students compared and contrasted Israel to Seattle and listened to stories such as Chickenman, about a boy at a kibbutz, and Dinosaurs Go to Israel.  The class also watched and took notes on the movie Families in Israel.  I was impressed with the amount of Hebrew words they recorded.  Interesting notes from students included: “Some kids in Israel learn Hebrew, English, and Arabic, there is less water, and they also play soccer.”

In addition, Alim is continuing to practice Hebrew letters, words, and prayers. HaMorah Iris assisted with the brahot books: learning the blessing for good smells.  The class also played “Hebrew Connect 4″ and learned Hebrew names of family members.  The children very much enjoyed when HaMoreh Ben led a game of “Follow the Leader,” finding things and places around the room in Hebrew and playing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!”  We even did some Alef Bet yoga in the sun!

We are looking forward to welcoming back haMorah Mihal very soon.

We’ve been working on measurement for the past couple of weeks and discussing U.S. Customary Units as well as Metric Units. We’ve also been doing a lot of estmating lengths of objects and distances around the room by using various measurement tools such as: meter sticks, yard sticks, rulers, and measuring tapes. One day the students had to estimate how many second graders it would take to cover the length of the floor. The answer turned out to be about nine, but the students’ estimates ranged from about seven to twenty-five!

What a success! Thanks to all of the parents who came to our Temperate and Tropical Rain Forest Museum. The students were very proud.

Best,

haMorah Debbie

Alim students had a great time at the zoo. First, we watched a presentation in the theater at the Education Center, which focused on the differences between tropical and temperate rain forests of the world. Some students were picked to go up on stage! After that, we were led through the zoo by a guide and visited the temperate and tropical exhibits. Some students were able to see the animals they are researching like toucans, jaguars, and poison dart frogs.

Thank you to David K., Sarah J., Stefanie S., and Leah L for driving and chaperoning.

Alim’s Interactive Rain Forest Animal Museum will be open for parents on Tuesday, April 16th at 8:45 AM. Looking forward to seeing all of you!

Best,

haMorah Debbie

 

 

 

Alim has been busy with a wide variety of musical endeavors. Purim found us exploring literature comparison and the genre of ‘parodies,’ as we first read/sang, compared, and then performed different versions of  stories, as well as American folksongs and ‘ditties.’ In Alim, this unit allows for the independent reader to engage with familiar melodies and gives the reader/singer an opportunity to develop confidence in solo or duet performance.

This experience certainly helped us as we worked with Pizmon and in one 30 minute class created a song and dance to perform for the whole school!

We turned our attention to music notation, reviewing our understanding of note values (quarter notes, eighth notes, half notes, and rests) to compose rhythms. We are playing these rhythms on the marimba as an accompaniment to the song “Oh Watch the Stars.” For this exercise, the marimba is set only with notes that will sound musically appealing to the song, and thus any rhythm played will be successful as well as pleasing to the ear.

We are also extending the unit on composition by listening to the classic composition, “The Firebird” by Igor Stravinsky. After developing a list of “emotion words,” we watched a recording of Igor Stravinsky conducting this work himself. At specific moments throughout the recording we discussed the emotions the music evoked in us. At our second ‘listening’ we will share ideas of actions that match the emotion. Finally, we will listen to the classic folktale itself, watch a section of the Royal Ballet’s performance, and compare our personal reactions to the story of the folktale/ballet, as well as to the Fantasia film version. Catch “The Firebird” at the Seattle Symphony this April at Benaroya Hall!

This week, Alim students started a new science unit on soils with haMorah Brooke. Students will be visiting the science lab every Thursday and Friday. We are also continuing to study the rain forest in class, and the soils unit integrates well with the rain forest curriculum. Today, students created questions about soil and looked at samples of soil through magnifying lenses.

Don’t forget about our zoo field trip on Friday, April 5th.

Happy Passover to you and your families.

Warmly,

haMorah Debbie

dclement@sjcs.net

This week, Alim students started research on tropical and temperate rain forest animals. They have been looking for information on habitat, predators, diet, and any other special characteristics about their chosen animal. Students also learned about the differences in text features between fiction and non-fiction books. For example, some non-fiction books have glossaries, indexes, diagrams, and captions.

Enjoy the students’ rain forest poems! I was so impressed.  -haMorah Debbie

Really big trees

All kinds of bugs

Icky snakes

New plants are used for medicine.

Feels hot

Oodles of unnamed plants and animals

Rare animals are common

Everything is wet

Spider monkeys swing from trees

Tree frogs are sticky.

By Jordan S.

Random

Animals and more like

Insects

Nature surrounds the rain forest.

Flying squirrels fly through and

Over the trees and

Rivers and sometimes you see

Endangered species and

See a  lot of cool things, and all of the animals look terrific so come and visit the rain forest, and stop cutting down the rainforest.

By Rina I.

Reptiles

And

Iguanas

Neat and existing on it.

Flying squirrels

Oh! Plants are used for medicine

Rare animals are commonly found

Everywhere is moist

Spiders and snakes creeping

Temperate or tropical? How close are you to the equator?

By Sydney S.

Reptiles

Army ants Amazon rain forest

Ideal plants, animals, and trees

Nature.

Fertile

Oxygen

River rare

Exotic

Snake

Trees, tropical, temperate

By Nora B.

Raccoon

And

Iguana

Nature.

Frogs

On leaves

Red birds

Amazing

Snakes

Tragic.

by Hannah M.

Raccoon

Alligator

Iguana

Native people.

Frog

Oxygen

Rain

Emergent layer

Sap

Tarantula.

by David H.

Reptiles

Animals

Iguana

Noisy Howler Monkeys.

Fuzzy caterpillars

Orangutans

Raptors

Elaborate

Snakes

Tropical.

by Nathaniel W.

Rivers flow in rain forest

On orangutan’s backs

In trees there are

Needles.

Flowers and

On orangutan’s backs

Rivers flow

Emergent layer

Spiders spin webs in

Tropical forests.

by Adam F.

Rattling sounds coming to my ears through the woods

And leaves fluttering from the trees to the ground

Iguanas, reptiles, birds flying over trees building nests and looking for food for families

No sounds at all just a fine quiet rest; all the tired birds sleeping in their nests.

Flying birds are flying

Over the

River over the trees

East, North, West,

South, wherever they’d please

The animals are so happy to be in their home sweet home where they belong, where they were born

Right here in the rain forest never alone.

by Noga M.