October 2019
Dear Middle School Parents,
October scooted by us with a load of holiday time away from school, yet I think we accomplished nearly as much as we do in a "regular" month. This group works hard.
In Language Arts, students revised their business letters, which worked to persuade the Kind Bar company to donate some bars for us to sell. We are sending some of the letters and hope to hear back soon. Students also wrote friendly letters to a sixth grader in Illinois (also my nephew) who wanted some book recommendations. Assignments with their novels about Egypt included slide shows, vocabulary study, and a final assessment, and we also had our first spelling test.
October's Social Studies lessons have focused on "the Cradle of Civilization" -- Mesopotamia and the process of note-taking. The students took notes on a video, then worked with partners to analyze and take notes on a section of the textbook. They had to present their findings for the rest of the class to take notes about. The highlight of the month was our trip to the Getty Villa to see a special exhibit of reliefs from an Assyrian palace and the remains of artifacts from a villa that was buried by Vesuvius in 79 CE.
Mrs. Snyder writes that the students are starting to dig deeper into Earth Sciences. Recent classes have been dedicated to preparing for the L.A. County Science Fair (selecting projects, learning about the necessary written components, beginning science log books, and submitting pre-approval requests). The students have also enjoyed working on various STEAM challenges as well.
In Math, students continue to make progress through the Saxon books. They all did well on their first tests, and they will have their second tests during the week of November 4.
In Hebrew this month, students started to review male and female word characteristics and continued to play games to improve Hebrew language application for conversation.
In Jewish Studies with Jason Moss, students are learning about the traditions and rituals of Judaism, understanding more about what the Torah and Tanakh say to them.
Additionally, in Jewish Studies with Ms. Dinerman, MS students are learning about food insecurity, and doing a mitzvah project that includes learning some cooking skills with Melissa Levy at PJTC USY. She is teaching them about keeping a kosher kitchen, some basic kitchen safety and knife skills, and connecting all of it to Jewish values and teaching. The students watched a short film about a retired 5 star chef, Chef Braxton, who now devotes his time and skills to cooking for and feeding people in need. The film was called "Braxton's Bus". Our students are helping prepare for a special dinner on November 17 at PJTC. Parents are invited to come to the trial run, Sunday, Nov. 3, or the actual event on November 17.
In Israel Studies with Ms. Freedenthal, students learned about some Yom Kippur and Sukkot traditions in Israel. They also explored the publication "Israel21c.com" and they are working on reports about articles that interested them.
Best wishes.
Mrs. V.
Jane VanderVelde
