Collaboration Fifth Grade Style

One of the skills that we are focusing on this year is collaboration. When we finished Parshat Shmot the the students did a Jigsaw activity. What is a jigsaw Activity? Well let me tell you.
The Students were broken into groups you had your A,B,C, groups in every A, B C, group you had a student who was assigned a number 1,2, or 3. Then they broke up into their number groups. Each number groups was assigned two perakim in Parshat Shemot to review and come up with Key words and key facts. When they finished the students returned to their letter groups and taught the other members of their group about the Perakim which they prepared.

Today we worked in groups and created a picture Wed about the month of Kislev.

 

Yonah Story Books

Re-posted from L.S. Judaic Studies Blog

YONAH STORY BOOKS

Today the fifth graders together with their Kindergarten buddies created their own version of the story of Yonah using Story Jumper.

Click on the link below for the links to the stories

Gmar Tov

Akevy

https://sites.google.com/a/mhafyos.org/rabbi-greenblatt-s-class/student-page

Yom Kippur Slogans

For a class project students were asked to come up with slogans about Yom Kippur. Here are some of the slogans our class came up with

Gmar Chatima Tova
Rabbi Greenblatt



Dinim

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div style="width:425px" id="__ss_9527332">Yom kippur s.o.

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Yom kippur slogans

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Your skating on thin ice

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Yom kippur (2)

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Wallwisher

Today we used Wallwisher to express some of our thoughts about Rosh Hashanah.
Now that we got the hang of it I will ask the students over the next few days to add more meaningful ideas
You can add your own thoughts as well

http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/5thgraderoshhashanah

Wordle

A Student in class project using Wordle:

Below is a link to a Wordle.
Please click on the on the link and you will see the Wordle.
I would then like you to comment on the blog one of the following

1. Who are the main characters

2. What are the key words or phrases



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alt="Wordle: shemot perek bet"
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TIC TAC TOE

This week we finished the first perek in Parshat Shemot. As an assessment of the Perek we are doing a Tic Tac Toe assignment. Basically each student has to pick 3 activities out of nine hence the name Tic Tac Toe.

A more detailed description is posted on the website and was emailed to you through RenWeb.

Today the students had some time to work on this assignment in class. Here are some pictures.

Google Docs and Mishna

Today in Mishna we used Google Docs for the first time. I also showed the students how to use the comment stream and at the end of the activity I asked them to write a comment about the activity.

Below are the actual comments taken from the comment stream:
“I don’t want to log off”
“Awesome”
“this was fun”
“This was very fun!”
“This was awesome, thanks rabbi Greenblatt”
“Great job guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Our goal is to have engaged student and motivated students. I think we accomplished that goal with today’s activity.
To quote one of the students, “Great Job Guys!!”

Welcome Back

Wow! another year has already begun and we are having fun while learning in Fifth grade.
On the first day of school we discussed why rules are important and the students themselves came up with the 3 core rules for our class. Then we did a fun welcome back activity.
Pictures from the first day can be found on our Class website: https://sites.google.com/a/mhafyos.org/rabbi-greenblatt-s-class/

We started an introduction to Chumash and Mishnah as well. As an introduction to Chumash the students had to write or create a comic strip about one of the events from the end of Sefer Bereishit.

Today the students had a chance to use the smart slate and hopefully next week we will use the Laptops and Google apps for a collaborative project in Chumash.

I hope you all have a great Shabbos and I am looking forward to our first full week of school.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Greenblatt

Always Learning and Trying Something New

Last night I participated in a webinar given by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano (@langwitches). The two main takeaways were that it is important to establish and give out class jobs or tasks and that there are different ways to take notes. So I tried to implement some of what I learned into today’s Chumash lesson.
I put the following jobs/tasks on the board:
1 Note Taking- writing down key points
2 Note Taking- making illustrations
3 Writing down key vocabulary words
4 Writing down new or hard vocabulary words
5 Editors- would take the notes and edit them

By pulling names out of a cup I assigned the students the different jobs. At the end of the lesson each one submitted their work and the note takers agreed to take the edited version and post in on our kidblog website.
By assigning tasks all the students were involved in the lesson and focused on what was going on in class.
Once again Kitah Hay you did an amazing job.
Rabbi Greenblatt

PEREK 12 PROJECT

Yesterday we finished Perek 12 in Parshat Bo and we are one perek away from finishing the entire Parsha. Perek 12 is long and it took us a while to finish and some of the material we learned before Pesach vacation.

As a culminating activity we divided the Perek into 5 main topics. Each student had to pick three topics and make a PowerPoint, a Prezi, a blog or poster about the main facts related to each topic.

All the students were engaged and excited working on this project as we see here:





Tomorrow students will present their projects to the class.

Once again Kol Hakavod Kitah Hay
Rabbi Greenblatt

Class Update

WOW!! I think that is the best word to sum up what has been going on in the fifth grade over the last few weeks.
We had some amazing Navi projects that included two Prezi presentations some clay diagrams as well as “Movie Scroll” project. The students did an amazing job.
We continued with Parshat Bo and learned about the phases of the moon and saw some science videos to help understand what the cycle of the moon is and that when we see a full moon it is actually the 15th of the Hebrew month and that the moon on Rosh Chodesh is actually a dot.
Our learning of Chumash also tied in nicely to our Dinim unit on Pesach. We have been learning about the Korban Pesach and other laws about Pesach in Chumash as well as in dinim.
We also watched two videos about how matzah is made one showed us how hand Shmurah Matzah is made and the other focused on machine matzah. We discussed the differences in the two kinds of matzah.
The students prepared some amazing questions for Rabbis Joel and Shay Finkelstein when they came to speak to us about Pesach and how the sale of chametz is actually done.
Finally many of the students submitted Divrei Torah for the Haggadah we are putting together so that everyone will have some divrei torah to share at the Seder
As I said WOW!!
We have been busy learning and getting ready for Pesach
I would like to wish you all a Chag Kasher V’Sameach
Rabbi Greenblatt

NAVI PROJECT

Each Student of group of students was assigned either a Perek or a set of Pesukim from Sefer Shoftim.
For each set of pesukim students are required to make a presentation to the class about the story/main idea found in those pesukim.
The presentations can be but are not limited to; PowerPoint, Prezi, Voicethread, video, or a model.
The project is due on March 28, 2011

Student Signature_____________________________

Parent Signature _____________________________

A Proud Teacher

Dear Students,

I told you on the first day of school or maybe the first week a story that occurred to me when I lived in Detroit. I was a Director of a Day Camp and on shabbos a community member came to complain about something that happened in a park that he witnessed. The campers unknowingly by their actions made a Chilul Hashem. I emphasized to you at that time the importance of your actions, both positive and negative.

Baruch Hashem I am writing this to tell you all how proud I am of all you. First of all your behavior during the High School boys dress rehearsal today was excellent.
The second highlight of my day was seeing your Science Fair projects. I was truly impressed by the work you all put into them and the creativity and skill you showed in making the boards as well as the multi- media projects. You have set the bar high so the next time I give you a project to do I expect to see some great work!

Kol Hakavod!
Rabbi Greenblatt

The Week In Review

HAPPY PURIM KATAN !!

We are half way through the Makot and almost finished with Parshat Va’Ereh. Kol Hakoavod Kittah Hay on a great week of learning

This week we finished Perek Chet. As a summative assessment of the perek we used voice thread and blogging. Voice thread is a program that you could download pictures and record a comment for each slide. I downloaded pictures that related to the perek and then recorded certain questions based on those pictures. The students had to blog their responses. I will be giving them feedback on their blog posts.

We also started learning about the Arba Parshiot and Purim.

Enjoy the long weekend.
Rabbi Greenblatt

Jeopardy and a RAFT

Last week was a bit crazy in the fifth grade. On Monday and Tuesday I attended the North American Day School Day School conference. The conference was great! I learned and shared a lot with other educators from across the country.
On Wednesday I wanted to check and see what they learned with Rabbi Wittlin so I divided the class into two groups and each group got two topics and they had to make up a Jeopardy game based on their topic. The plan was to play the games they worked on in class on Thursday. However Thursday was a snow day so we reviewed and played the games on Friday.
Today we did a RAFT activity. RAFT stands for Role, Audience, Format, and Topic. The most popular one was making up a slogan that Avimelech would have used to convince the people of Shechem to appoint him as the ruler.
Some of the posters were very convincing.
I hope you all have a great week!
Rabbi Greenblatt

A virtual Tour of The Mishkan

Today we watched Artscroll’s Virtual Mishkan. We watched how each of the utensils was made and we took a virtual tour of the Mishkan. During our tour we walked up the ramp to the Mizbeach and we were able to enter the Kodesh Ha’Kidoshim something only the Kohen Gadol did on Yom Kippur.
It brought the life many of the details that are mentioned in this week’s parsha. The students had many questions like; how did they make the Menorah out of one piece of gold? why did the Aron have poles if it wasn’t really carried? and how was the Lechem Hapanim made? The video sparked all of these ideas and caused them to think.
Our Tour of the Mishkan was both educational and fun.
Have a Good Shabbos
Rabbi Greenblatt

21St Century Skills In Action

We often talk about having the students involved in the learning process and developing skills that they need for life. The last two days that is exactly what we did in our Chumash class. Yesterday before we started the Plague of Blood, I asked the students to come up with questions based on their prior knowledge and by reading the pesukim. As a class we came up with almost 15 questions. Last night I boiled down the questions to six main questions on the topic. Today the class was divided into three groups; each group had to answer two of the questions. I gave them some material and resources to help them answer the questions but not only did they have to answer the question but they had to then teach what they learned to the class. At the very end I asked the class to fill out exit cards with 3-5 facts that they learned from the two other groups.

This activity focused on questioning, analyzing, collaborating, and communicating just to name a few of the skills that the students used.
The students not only did the learning but they did the teaching as well.

Another Great Job by the Fifth Grade!!
Rabbi Greenblatt

A Collaborative Activity

In order to review the first 18 pesukim of Perek Zayin the fifth graders were divided into three groups.
The first group had to come up with 2 worksheets that focused on the shorashim (the roots) of some of the key words as well as the translations.

The second group came up with review questions about the content found in these pesukim while the third group focused on coming with worksheet to help us review the Rahis we learned as well as teaching the class a new Rashi.

Once they came up with a draft that was approved they had to type up their worksheets. Tomorrow we will work on these worksheets in class.
Each group had to brainstorm about what type of worksheet they wanted to do and assign different tasks to the members of the group.

They did a great job.

Here are some pictures for you all to enjoy

Kol Hakavod Kitah Hay !
Rabbi Greenblatt

Using Kidblog

Today we once again went to computer lab in order to blog. Today we blogged about the concept of Free Will which we have been discussing in Chumash class or about Gidon, the main character in Navi.
Below is a link to the blog post. I have created a guest username so that you can log in and see what we have been doing.

The username is parent99 and the password is parent1

http://kidblog.org/RabbiGreenblattsclass/

Enjoy

Rabbi Greenblatt

Tu B’Shvat in the Fifth Grade

My elementary school memory of Tu B’Shvat is of eating dried out figs and dates and breaking my teeth on Carob (Buxcer in Yiddish). We have come a long way since when I was in elementary school. This week the class worked on and presented PowerPoint presentations. Most of the presentations were about the Shivat HaMinim but we had one on Trees and one on recycling. Everyone did a great job.

Today Mrs. Wittlin and Yocheved did a Tu B’Shvat Seder with the class. Each student participated and had a part to play in the Seder. Thank you to Mrs. Wittlin and Yocheved for putting this together.

As you can see we have come a long way from dried figs and carob

Tu B’Shvat Sameach

The week in Review

This week we finished Perek Vav in both Chumash and in Navi.
We are about to start learning about the 10 plagues in Chumash.

This week we spent some time in the computer lab working on our Tu B'Shvat PowerPoint presentations, as well as posting to our Fifth grade blog on kidblog.org.
The topics for our blog posts this week were:
1. My Experience in Skyping with another School about Chanukah
2. If I were Gideon what sign would I ask for from Hashem

We also practiced for our presentation at the Kollel Community Wide Tu B'Shvat Program on Tuesday at 5:30

Have a Great Shabbos

Rabbi Greenblatt

Class Update

I hope you all enjoyed the unexpected long weekend.

Today we finished Perek Vav in Chumash by comparing the last few pesukim with earlier pesukim in the Perek.We raised the question in class, why does the Torah repeat what it said earlier at the end of the perek? We learned that this question was also asked by Rashi and we learned Rashi's answer. However we all had a question on Rashi which we need to do some more research on. Stay tuned to see if we can find an answer to our question on Rashi.

We also started a Tu B'Shvat PowerPoint that we will be working on in school.

I have blogged about our Skye experience but I asked the students today on kidblog.org to blog about the experience from their point of view.

Have a great day!

Rabbi Greenblatt

Family Tree

The next set of pesukim are all names. Rather than covering the pesukim in class, the students will be making up family trees and answering some basic questions. The project is due Monday.

Here is a copy of the handout the students got today in class.

Family Tree Project



I -Make a Family Tree for שבט ראובן, שמעון and לוי based on פסוקים יד-כח in פרק ו

II- Based on the family trees answer the following questions:

מי היה הסבא של משה?__________________________

מה היתה השם של האשה של אהרון? __________________

של אהרון ?________________(brother-in-law)מי היה הגיס

מי היה הנכד של אהרון? __________________________

What is the relationship between יוכבד and עמרם ? _______

This project is Due Monday January 10, 2010

Wordle? What’s a Wordle?

Wordle is a program that gives a visual presentation of a text giving importance to the words used most often in the text. Below is an example of a wordle we did today for the beginning of parshat Va’ereh.








Based on this wordle the students were asked the following two questions:
1. What do you think the key words are?
2. What do you think is the main idea of these pesukim?

The main goal of this assignment was to have the students think and come up with their own answers. Before vacation I attended a webinar given by Chris Lehman a Principal of a very progressive school in New England,said that one of the most important questions we need to be asking our students today is, “what do you think?”

I hope you all had an enjoyable break and now we are all ready to learn.