Grade 3 – Gimel Goings On

Shalom Gimel Families,

Gimel students had a successful first week of electives!  After some Hevruta study about miracles students broke up into their different electives – food, legos, art (Tuesday) and technology.  At 5:30, when we regrouped as a grade, each student shared with their classmates how what they did in their electives made them think of miracles.

In Hebrew students have begun working on mastering the Birkot Hashachar.  So far we have completed the first 3 blessings.  After working for a few minutes as a whole group, students met in smaller groups to practice reading the 3 blessings to each other, while another group worked with me to learn the melody/ nigun. Our third station was a Hebrew Reading 4-in a row game.  We encourage the students to practice reading their prayers at home for 5 minutes each day. Please

remember to sign or initial your student’s calendar each time he/she practices reading.

As always students did a great job at morning meeting, enjoyed the counting game and at the end of the day loved sharing their favorite part of the day in Hebrew.

In Torah we are still exploring the value of courage.  Students shared that it takes courage to try new things, make new friends, and speak up for others.  They also learned when one should show courage and when one should be more cautious because something might be dangerous.

As part of our Torah lesson students participated in an extra challenge.  Each student was given a piece of paper to crumple, and then had the task of smoothing it out to have it look like it did when they got it.  Of course this was not possible!  This activity was used in a conversation about how we use words, and being aware that unkind words hurt feelings. Just like the paper that couldn’t be smoothed out 100%, this can happen to hurt feelings too.  Many students shared different bucket filling activities that they have done in regular school to show kindness to others, and we added a new idea to the care poster hanging in the classroom – “Let’s be bucket fillers!”  Over the coming weeks students will participate in some follow up “bucket filling” activities.

We look forward to our second week of electives this week!

Shavua Tov!

Elana