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October 19, 2016 17 Tishrei, 5777
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Torah Portion: Chol Hamoed Sukkot
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Pardes Jewish Day School provides a rigorous, experiential education grounded in Jewish history, culture and values. This monthly newsletter highlights examples of classroom learning designed to meet and exceed state and national standards. Our students are well prepared for entry to the finest high schools and colleges and serve in a multitude of leadership roles.
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Kindergarten Preview
Do you know someone looking for a Kindergarten program? Make sure to let him/her know about the Kindergarten Preview on Sunday, October 30th from 1:00 - 3:00 pm.
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Eli Kreisberger is proud to call himself a Pardes Lifer. He began in kindergarten in 2005 and graduated from Pardes with the Class of 2014. He is now in his junior year of high school at Brophy College Preparatory.
Eli believes there were many benefits of attending Pardes Jewish Day School. "For me, the most important was its sense of community and warmth, which played a huge factor in who I am today. I felt valued. Pardes really helped me create my strong Jewish Identity which is really important to me, and I think is the main reason why parents choose to send their children to a faith based school. Now, wherever I go and in whatever I'm involved, I try to incorporate the Jewish values and ethics I inherited from my experiences at Pardes. Pardes has helped me to become a strong independent Jewish thinker and doer, and I will take all of the amazing things Pardes has taught me on my journey through life."
When asked about his level of preparedness for high school, he responded, "Pardes certainly prepared me academically. My knowledge base going into Brophy was much greater than all the other students around me, and it gave me confidence. Pardes has a wonderful reputation at Brophy. They believe we are middle school graduates who value our education, our family and community and are all around menschs. That helped me with admission to Brophy as I was not a straight A student but had so much more to offer as a graduate of Pardes."
As a student at Brophy, Eli decided early on that he planned to keep his schedule balanced between classroom and extracurricular work. "I have taken a few honors classes in areas I excel and interest me. Several years ago, Brophy invested in one of the most advanced robotics labs in the country called the
Innovation Commons
where students learn coding and other computer skills, and it is where my Brophy Robotics team calls home. I have discovered my profound passion for Robotics and now play an integral part of the team. I attend Robotics almost every day after school and am actively going to tournaments all around the state. I also participate in the Jewish Student Union, the entrepreneur club and the Broncoders Club, where we program games and mentor students learning how to program."
Eli's passion for Robotics extends beyond school. "I was determined to take my skills and participation in Robotics to the next level, but I did not have that technical programming component that is so important to the process. I was introduced to a summer academy called
Make School
in San Francisco, CA, where they teach computer coding and you are mentored by some pretty impressive graduate students from places like MIT. I attended the four week summer program on my own, which was an experience in itself being on my own as a 15 year old in a big city rooming with college students from all over the world. I took away some amazing skills and friendships from the academy and it has now helped me accomplish my goals with Robotics. It really opened a new chapter in my life, and I hope to continue down this road to success with internships in the near future. The best part is that I now get to mentor incoming Brophy freshman in the art and science of Robotics."
Having been at Pardes from kindergarten through eighth grade, the switch to Brophy would appear to be significant. When asked about his experience attending Brophy after Pardes, Eli explained, "Being Jewish at a Jesuit school has truly been a blessing. It has opened up the discussion about being comfortable and confident with yourself. The Brophy staff and student body have been so welcoming. Brophy incorporates the lesson of tolerance in everything. I tell people that question my choice to attend Brophy that I may go to a Jesuit school but everyday I maintain my strong Jewish identity."
Looking back on his time at Pardes, he has many wonderful memories. Some of his favorite memories of Pardes included praying with his friends during morning Tefillah, learning Hebrew in Morah Yehudit's class and being inspired in Rabbi Allouche's Jewish Studies class. He also added that Field Day and Color War were favorites, as well as enjoying Jack's wonderful food from the kitchen. "I remember Pardes as my home away from home, and I really do miss it," he added.
When asked what he would tell a family considering Pardes, Eli shared, "I do not think that there are words to describe Pardes, I think you just need to experience it to understand what I mean. In addition to a great all-around education, Pardes helps your child to develop a strong Jewish identity and a love and tolerance for others. It teaches you how to be a mensch. Pardes is an amazing place filled with wonderful students, teachers, parents and warmth."
We are very proud of Eli's achievements, and we wish him continued success in all of his future endeavors!
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Kindergartners Get Excited Learning Hebrew Letters
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The introduction to Hebrew begins in Kindergarten. Over the past few weeks Kindergarten students were hard at work learning the Hebrew alphabet through games, songs, and stories.
Every week we introduce "the letter of the week" tying it with related vocabulary to the topic or a general theme at hand. Since the High Holidays are all around us at this time of year, all the letters, the songs and the vocabulary we have recently learned relate to the various holidays. We covered the letter Resh (ר), linking it to the word Rosh (head) while realizing that Rosh Hashana is the "head" of the Jewish year. We covered the letter Chet (ח) and practiced how
to pronounce it like a true Israeli, relating it to the word Chag/ Chagim (holidays). The letter of this week is going to be Dalet (ד) and our word of the week is Degel (a flag). The students will each create their very own Simchat Torah flag to wave proudly at our Simchat Torah celebration. By tying each letter to vocabulary related to their Jewish life, the Hebrew language becomes even more meaningful and easier for the Kindergartners to understand and remember.
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Second Graders Enjoy Hands-on Exploration in Science
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Mrs. Garber and Mrs. Traulsen's second grade classes just finished their study of the solar system! Students learned exciting facts about each planet, used Oreo cookies to illustrate the phases of the moon and learned the difference between comets, asteroids and meteors. Students have chosen a planet or space object to research. They will present their findings to the class along with written component and a replica of their selected topic. These presentations, which will take place at the end of the month, incorporate several important skills including public speaking.
Upon completion of the solar system unit, second grade students just began their study of the Water Cycle. If you see a second grader on campus, ask them to sing you the water cycle song! Students showed their creativity when designing their own project illustrating the four stages of the water cycle using various art supplies. Additionally, they "made it rain" in a hands-on activity further exploring the water cycle. Make sure to check out the photos. Our second graders are Water Cycle experts!
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Fifth Graders Reflect While Preparing for High Holidays
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In Mrs. Keller's Jewish studies class, fifth grade students spent some time busily preparing for the High Holidays. As a part of their Rosh HaShanah preparation, students reflected on the past year. They were asked take a piece of paper and divide it into four sections. In the first section, they were asked to write three behaviors/habits that they would like to change from last year. In the second box, they filled in three behaviors that they wish to continue in the new year. In the third box, they wrote what they hope to accomplish in the next year. The final box was left blank and the papers were collected. We will check back at these goals at Chanukah time and fill in the final box when we will re-dedicate ourselves to our goals. Students made a visual representation of one of their goals. The hope that when they look back at these goals in a few months, students will have accomplished many of them!
For Yom Kippur, the fifth graders studied the Ashamnu prayer, which is part of the Vidui (confession of sin). The Ashamnu prayer is an acrostic prayer which lists sins in the plural beginning with the letter Aleph and ending with the letter Tav: Ashamnu- we have trespassed; Bagadnu- we have dealt treacherously; Gazalnu- we have robbed. After discussing the traditional prayer, the students worked in small groups to create Ashamnu prayers with sins that relate to middle school students. They created lists like: A-Annoyed people, B-Bullied or bragged, C-Calling out, D-Drove parents crazy and so on. The lists were very creative and helped the students relate the prayer to their own lives.
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Sixth Graders Determine Theme in Humanities
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In 6th grade humanities, the students just completed the first units in the Writer's and Reader's Workshop.
In Writer's Workshop, they have completed the unit on Personal Narratives, where they learned new strategies for writing strong personal narratives. Strategies such as story mapping allow the student to tell both the internal and the external story. They experimented with figurative language and precise detail in order to "show", as well as tell, their story. In the end they used a checklist to both assess themselves and their peers. They were asked to find specific evidence within their writing that demonstrated the skills listed on the rubric. This reflection allowed them to take ownership of their writing and set goals for future pieces. They reflected on their final graded pieces in their electronic portfolios.
To build on to those strategies as writers, they also learned strategies in the Reader's Workshop unit on Interpretation Book Clubs. While constantly reflecting, the students noticed, through close reading, how the author conveyed a message through the actions of the character(s). They also noticed how the author creates a unique mood at the very beginning of the story to help convey a theme. To practice these strategies, the students used digital texts (animated shorts, music videos, and commercials) and book clubs. Thought prompts were included in an effort to fuel their writing about reading so as to create a discussion about the different texts. These included wording such as
So, what I'm really trying to say is...
or
On the other hand, the author might mean...
to show their analysis of the text. They are now reading as writers, seeing the author's choices and relating it to their own choices in their writing.
Determining theme was the objective of both the Personal Narrative Unit and Interpretation Book Clubs Unit, and will be an ongoing objective for the remainder of the year.
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Eighth Graders Focus on Physical Science
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Eighth grade students will spend this year studying physical science in science class. Labs play a central role to science at all grade levels, and by eighth grade, students are honing their skills at conducting labs as well analyzing the results in a lab report. In the past weeks, eighth graders completed a lab in which they compared a generic disposable diaper with a name brand disposable diaper by experimenting with sodium polyacrylate, which is the chemical responsible for absorbing the water, to determine which diaper is more effective and a better deal.
Recently, students have been discussing units, unit conversion, and the metric system. They have been working through the metric system, and how to manipulate units using dimensional analysis. Furthermore, they just finished up a lab involving filtration techniques and evaporation. These are great skills that they will be using throughout their year in the lab. As always there is a major component involving lab safety, and with each new lab they are learning new lab etiquette to keep all students safe in lab situations. The next unit will be about the periodic table. They will learn about atomic structure of the elements and how they relate to their placement on the periodic table. They will begin their in depth journey through the periodic table, periodicity, and sub atomic particles. Mr. Rivas is looking forward to a great new unit in science!
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Zero Hour Problem of the Month
The following problem appeared on a previous Middle School Olympiad and was also given to students in Mr. Flatow's zero hour enrichment for grades 6 - 8. Are you as smart as a Pardes Mathlete?
Find the least value of whole number
N,
with N>10, so that the expression 2
N
-7
is both a perfect square and a perfect cube.
If you are able to complete this problem, please email your response to Bethany Spector at [email protected] by noon on Friday, October 21st. Go Pardes Mathletes!
Mazal Tov to the following people, who successfully answered last month's Math problem:
Raphael Avraham
Ira Azulay
Susan Finks
Ariella Friedman
Jeremy Marks
Jennifer Mason
Diane Ozer
Elliot Wernick
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