Weekly School Newsletter

SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Tuesday, February 25, 2020

30 Shevat 5780

Message from Heather Moore, Head of School

Dear Parents,

An important component of our curriculum are the values and lessons that our students learn through the stories in the Torah (Bible). In second grade, the students begin learning Breishit (Genesis). Before they begin learning, the second graders have a very special Chumash Celebration with their families which took place last night. The students spend time preparing and thinking about why learning Torah (Bible) is important. The Chummash ceremony highlighted the many values our students learn from the Torah such as Gratitude ( hakarah hatov ), Welcoming Guests ( hachnasat orchim ) and Peace ( shalom ). Great job second grade! We are so proud of you.

A special thank you to our amazing second grade teachers Zohar Ben Moshe, Meredith Carnazza and Rashi Brashevitzky, our Director of Judaic Studies! I would also like to thank the clergy, Rabbi Ezring, Cantor Wendi, Cantor Proser, Rabbi Haber, Rabbi Zitter and Rabbi Zoberman who were able to attend.

I would like to express our thanks to the entire Bass family for their generous support by supplying the Chumash books for all our students. And finally, a special thank you to the parents for organizing a beautiful reception.

Jewish Community Survey

The Jewish Federation of Tidewater has created a 2020 survey for our entire community. Please complete the survey and share your thoughts. The s urvey is open to ALL FAMILIES. Right now they have a disproportionate number of older families who have completed the survey. Please, click here to take the survey, so that we can make sure that our younger families' needs are represented and heard.

PURIM

Just a reminder that Tuesday, March 10, 2020 is Purim and we have a 12:00 Noon Dismissal. Students are invited to wear a costume that morning, and we are planning lots of fun and celebratory activities.

Below you will see some reminders for next week.

Shavuah Tov, wishing you all a wonderful week ahead!

Heather Moore

Head of School

Chummash Ceremony

UPCOMING EVENTS

Click here for full calendar.

3/10 Purim/ Noon Dismissal/Fullcare Open

3/13 Family Shabbat Singalong, 9am

3/23 - 3/26 Scholastic Book Fair

3/31 All School Spring Conferences, 4pm - 7pm

4/7 EY2-EY4 Model Seder, 9:30am-10:30am;

PY K-5 Seder , 2:15pm

4/8 - 4/17 Spring/Passover Break

4/9-4/10 Fullcare closed

4/13 - 4/17 Early Years Spring Break Session

Click here for 2020-2021 School Calenda r.

Order LUNCH for the Rest of the School Year!

To order lunch: orgsonline.com

School code: 432HAOTVA

(for first time sign-ups)

Menu will show when you are assigned a school.

To cancel lunch:

If you have a scheduled lunch and your child will not be in school, you must cancel by 9:30 a.m. that day and email Benita Watts at ops@ujft.org or call Linda Bridges at 424-4327 to make sure the lunch is cancelled - credit will be applied to your account. If you don't cancel the lunch, you will be charged.

Lunches:

$3.30 for Early Years (EY 2-EY 4)

$5.50 for Primary Years (K-5)

Lunch not available

for toddler classes

Third Grade Writing with a Twist

Third grade is all about developing and refining writing skills, and Mr. Cohen knows how to get his students excited about writing!

Last week the SIA third graders worked hard to recall family stories of travel or entertainment, then added fictional twists and surprises too in order to capture their audience's imaginations. After writing and editing their stories, the students typed them up and added pictures to go with the story. Then they used cardboard to create storyboards with colorful backgrounds.

The students presented them to the class. Then they had the 5th graders read them, and vote on their favorites. Each storyboard was anonymous for voting. The fifth graders voted on their top three places and shared why they voted for each.

The third grade class had a blast, the boards looked phenomenal, all the stories came out beautifully and most importantly the students enjoyed working on their projects!

What is the secret to learning?

By Lorna Orleans, Director of the Early Years Program

I believe that when children are truly engaged they are truly learning. This became very concrete for me as I read the newsletters going home from individual classrooms this past week. When students are engaged, they are interested and they begin asking questions and sharing ideas. In turn they are honing their thinking and communication skills, two very important aspects of the five Approaches to Learning outlined in the IB platform. They are…

Thinking Skills

Communication sills

Social skills

Self-Management Skills

Research Skills

I read about activities and discussions happening this week that illustrated the everyday development of thinking and communication skills in our classrooms

One simple example is from an EY2 class learning about shapes. Two year olds learn so much from sensory exploration so eating shapes was a great way to get them talking and thinking. After eating square and rectangular crackers it was pizza making time. While it was exciting to be involved in the making and eating of pizza, it became quite clear to them that they were also working with shapes. The pizza is a circle they remembered from reading I Spy Shapes in Food the day before. One friend was proud to exclaim that their pizza pieces were triangles. This hands on activity also helped make clear the relationship between parts and a whole. A whole of something can be divided into many parts they deliciously found out!

It is great when our teachers share literature with their students, but reading becomes more than a listening activity when students are involved in the story. Some of our EY3 friends listened to The Mitten by Jan Brett and began making their own props to retell the story at home. This language arts activity not only works fine motor muscles and develops language ability, it gives children ownership of the literature which can engender a lot of excitement when they express their memory of the plot and sequence of events and details in the retelling. Some other EY3 friends had a group reading experience as they got on the floor at eye level with their teacher to read together, Whose Egg? In close proximity to one another they shared predictions, thoughts and ideas about which animal would be in each egg and nest. The picture below makes you wish you were fly on the wall to listen in.

Finally, our EY4 friends have so many opportunities for expressing their ideas and sharing thoughts after “read alouds”. I read in their notes home about whole discussions classmates have as our talented EY4 teachers guide our students in drawing connections between stories and their own lives. Sometimes the exchanges amaze me. Be sure to read the newsletter from your child's class. Your children are thinking through ideas and learning to communicate them with one another.