Bais Yaakov e-Newsletter

6 Teves 5782 | December 9, 2021

Lower Elementary

Parshas Vayigash

PTA

We salute the PTA Presidium, Mrs. Layah Greenfield, Mrs. Malki Lehrfield, and Mrs. Tamar Zelcer for arranging Chanukah gifts for our faculty. The underwriting of the projects, the planning, design, decor, and set up of the staff luncheon made Chanukah special. Thank you to Mrs. Rivka Leiser who worked tirelessly alongside our volunteers and coordinators. We take this opportunity to salute our parent body for giving freely to acknowledge your daughters' teachers and assistants.

OUR BALTIMORE BRACHOS TRIPS

The culmination of the Nursery Brachos Unit is a grand Baltimore Brachos Tour, visiting various food establishments around town reviewing brachos on site. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of the PTA, our nursery girls and their moros happily jumped on school buses to visit Market Maven and Chef Dan's Cafe. The girls enjoyed seeing first-hand the different kosher food options the stores carry and reviewing what they learned about the difference between Meat, Dairy, and Parve foods. It was a pleasure incorporating these vendors as part of our learning experience.

"FUNDATIONAL" READING SKILLS IN KINDERGARTEN

Our Kindergarten girls are nearly finished learning and reviewing the ABCs in Fundations and know enough vowels to create short words. They practice the sounds of each letter so they can easily manipulate beginning and ending sounds in their early steps of reading readiness. Their next step is learning and recognizing "trick words," which will allow them to construct sentences. It is a joy to see their excitement in learning new skills!

CHANUKAH DANCE ACTIVITY

Mrs. Liora Rosen and Mrs. Etty Wolf led two guided dance activities for the Preschool and Lower Elementary. Miss Michal Ottensoser and Miss Esther Shapiro taught the girls dance motions for various Chanukah symbols including menorah, jug of oil, latkes, donuts and more. They then played a slideshow with alternating symbols, and the girls changed their motions to adapt to the changing symbols. Each round was increasingly faster and raised the tempo of the activity. This exercise was a fun-filled ruach activity!

SECOND GRADE INFERENCING

This past month, Mrs. Eileen Norris, our K-2 Reading Specialist, spent time in our Second Grade classrooms teaching the students about "inferencing." Inferencing is a comprehension strategy that students use while they are reading texts. It assists them in generating information that is not explicitly stated in a story or passage to help them better understand what they are reading and make robust predictions. Research suggests that students will continue reading to see if their predictions are correct. The girls worked together to solve a mystery called, "The Case of the Missing Apples." They used their inferencing skills to discuss the clues, eliminate suspects and discover who stole the apples. The girls had so much fun learning this important comprehension strategy!

SPOTLIGHT ON DEBATE

Mrs. Rivky Anisfeld's Second Grade staged a spirited debate last week on the topics of "Starting School Later" and "Using Technology for Instruction." This undertaking required a lot of hard work by the students, both individually and collectively. Although the actual presentation of the debate was what the students anticipated most, this was only one piece of a much larger picture. Initially, each student wrote her own persuasive paragraph. Mrs. Anisfeld was amazed by the quality of the handwritten arguments that they wrote, both in content and in form. They then worked together in groups efficiently and effectively. The energy and enthusiasm in the room were electric.