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



title="Wordle: shemot perek bet"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/4057634/shemot_perek_bet"
alt="Wordle: shemot perek bet"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

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