Pardes Jewish Day School wishes a Mazal Tov to Morah Lauren, who is  one of our wonderful kindergarten teachers. She was recently nominated for an Arizona Excellence in Private Education Award presented by the Arizona Council for American Private Education (AZCAPE). Over 300 nominations were received for four different awards, and we are thrilled to share that Morah Lauren was one of five finalists for the pre-k to third grade category. She was honored at a reception on November 10 where she received three certificates, one from AZCAPE, one from the Office of the Governor and one from the Office of Congressman Trent Franks. What a fabulous achievement!

Our first grade students have been busy learning about Thanksgiving with Mrs. Nadler and Ms. Peoples. Students have examined a variety of pieces of reading to study the First Thanksgiving and how the Pilgrims and Wampanoag celebrated together. Students practiced non-fiction reading skills, including text to text and text to self connections, with information found in a Mayflower edition of Scholastic News and their textbook. Additionally, they have examined characters, setting, and plot with a variety of historical fiction stories. They will be sharing the story of Thanksgiving in the annual First Grade Thanksgiving Play. The play provides a wonderful opportunity for students to begin to hone their skills on performing in front of an audience, public speaking and reading with expression. If you would like to see the finished product, you are invited to join our first graders for their upcoming play on Tuesday, November 25 at 9:00 a.m.

Pardes second graders were busy learning about maps in social studies. They examined the compass rose, map keys and the map scale through various hands-on activities, such as using tape measures to draw the classroom to scale, making maps of the new campus and maps of their bedrooms. They also learned about eight main landforms, including lakes, mountains, valley, islands, and plains. As a cumulative project, students created either a treasure map or an imaginary town following specific guidelines outlined in a rubric.

Mrs. Keller's third grade Jewish Studies students are working on a Noah unit. They recently read a midrash (homiletic story) about Noach. The midrash focused on what the Torah means when it says that Noach was "righteous in his time". It says that God picked Noach to build the ark not because he was a perfect person, but because he was God's best choice at the time. Students compared this idea to their own lives: sometimes you need to pick the best choice, even if you would prefer something different. The students applied higher level analytical skills by creating their own examples. They developed examples such as, "My soccer coach asked me to play forward, halfback or sweeper. I usually play goalie, but that wasn't a choice. I picked forward because at least I would get to score a goal". Another example was "My mom asked me to clean my room, clean the playroom, or walk the dog. I didn't want to do any of those chores, but I picked walk the dog because I would be outside". Next, the students will work with a chevruta (partner) and create a song about why God did not think that Noach was worthy to be the first Jew.

Miss Abrams' sixth grade social studies students just finished their unit on Ancient Egypt. The students received an overview of Ancient Egypt and then chose an aspect of Egypt in which they wanted to focus their studies. In this way the students were able to go in depth on the material in which they were most interested and learn it well enough to teach it to the class. They worked in groups with other students where they created an outline with research, pictures and videos. They taught their section to the class while their peers took notes. As an assessment, each student is creating a poster with symbols to depict: Pyramids, Mummies, The Nile River, Gods/Goddesses, and Pharaohs. An explanation and description will accompany each poster.

The main objective in sixth grade social studies is to make connections between all of the ancient worlds being studying. From Mesopotamia students were able to make connections with the civilization's religion and beliefs as well as its life source being the river(s). Students are excited to learn about their upcoming unit on India where they will surely make even more connections between Egyptian mythology and the after-life using the ideas of Hinduism and Buddhism. Students have already begun making connections between Egyptian, Greek, and Roman mythology.

Morah Dina and Morah Yehudit's students recently designed brochures  and presentations as a result of reading stories about small animals in their Chaverim B'Ivrit text. Each student selected a small animal and a method of presentation. Students could either make a brochure or a Google presentation. They wrote about their animals while following a rubric in Hebrew. The required topics included habitat, food, and characteristics. In addition to the research, students had to make sure their grammar and sentence structure was correct. Then they presented their information in front of their peers, which provide an additional opportunity to practice speaking.

Morah Anat's students read about clothing in their Chaverim B'Ivrit text. Each student then did a research report on clothing from a specific time period. They presented their information through a digital poster (Glogster) or with a Google Presentation written in Hebrew. The students were required to include background information about the time period, clothing and accessories from the time as well as information about famous designers of that time period. Similar to the other assignment, this project also required students to focus on proper vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure.