Shabbos Party

Every Friday at Mazel we have a special pre-Shabbos get-together where the children reflect on the week that has past and share with each other what they are thankful for. It is really beautiful! The children sing Shabbos songs, and get a special treat. This past week, because it was the first day of the Hebrew Month of Cheshvan, we had a special pizza lunch as well. Enjoy the short but sweet video!

Book Challenge!

We've officially launched our 4th Grade Book Challenge 2011-2012! The goal is for each student to read 25 chapter books. In order to complete a book, the students must  respond with thoughtful reviews or summaries of the main points of the story, including: Setting, Characters, Problem/Conflict, Solution/Resolution, possible lesson, as well as the Main Idea/Theme of the book (such as sacrifice for friendship, overcoming a challenge, etc). For every five books, another "medal"  is earned along with a book-related prize (awesome book covers, bookmarks, etc). When 25 books have been read, the student has earned a TROPHY and is admitted to the Reader's Hall of Fame!

Rachel, from last year's Hall of Fame

In these pictures the students were posing for their Hall of Fame portraits.

Math Update!

We've been busy completing our 2nd Math Unit. Here's what we've been working on:
1. Analyzing a set of Data and finding its Landmarks such as median (middle number), mode (most frequently occurring number), minimum, maximum, and range.
2. Different methods for addition with multiple numbers: We explored "partial sums" method as well as "column addition" (which uses trading, similar to traditional addition).
3. Different methods for subtraction with multiple numbers. We explored "partial differences" as well as "Trade-first" methods.
4. We used 3 types of graphs/tables to display data: Tally mark tables, line plots (a rough draft of a bar graph), and bar graphs.

For analyzing data and using data graphs we collected information about numbers of raisins per box, people-per-household in Mazel Day School families, as well as head sizes in grades 3-5. Not only was it educational, it was also fun:-)
We also reviewed for our Math Assessment with a great game of Jeopardy! Enjoy the pictures.

Sukkos Recap

We did special Sukkos activities this past Monday and Tuesday in honor of the holiday. We tied the Sukkos/Simchas Torah theme into our Writing: we wrote Acrostic Poems, where each letter of the word "Sukkos" or "Torah" began a new phrase that described the holiday. We really enjoyed that! Please check out our work!

We also had food-fun! We built  delectable Sukkahs out of crackers, wafers, and candies and glued it all together with Marshmallow fluff. It was a challenge to keep those Sukkas standing! We decorated with green-colored coconut and icing...yum. We also made edible Torahs which were sweet to remind us that Torah makes our lives sweet!

Science Update

We've been exploring animal ADAPTATIONS - physical features or behaviors that help the animal get food, protect itself, move, or reproduce. We learned that all animals need FOOD, WATER, OXYGEN, and SHELTER to survive. The better the animal's adaptation, the better it's chance for survival. We learned about many fascinating adaptations. For example, did you know that Rock ptarmigan (bird) has feathers that change with the season? In summer, its dark, colorful feathers blend in with its surroundings and help protect it from predators; In summer, it sheds its dark feathers and blends in with the snow!

We discussed the difference between an inherited trait (physical feature like brown fur, sharp beak), and an inherited instinct (a behavior the animal is born with, such as MIGRATION, HIBERNATION). We learned that not all behaviors are inherited; some are LEARNED. Animals can learn by trial and error, or by observation. The class was especially interested in the fact that not only can offspring learn from their parents, but parents can actually learn from their offspring (like the case of the monkeys that learned to wash sweet potatoes in the river by watching their offspring's example)!

(The cub learns to pounce on its prey by practicing on the mother's tail)

Math Update

We're well into our 2nd Math Unit, and have explored a number of topics:

1. Uses of Numbers and Organizing Data: 

Numbers have many uses and we explored some of them within the context of the "World Tour" we're taking. We traveled from New York to Washington D.C. where we found these examples of Numbers:

Numbers are used to COUNT: there are 132 rooms in the White House!
Numbers are used to MEASURE: the cast iron dome on he capital building weighs 9 million pounds!
Numbers are used as a REFERENCE SYSTEM: the average high temperature in October is 68* Fahrenheit.

Numbers are used to COMPARE: D.C's population of 600,000 is greater than the population of the sate of Wyoming!
Numbers are used to IDENTIFY and CODE: the Lincoln Memorial is located at C-1 on our maps!

2. Many Names for Numbers:

We explored the meaning of "equivalent names" for numbers and know that in Math, we can use a combination of digits and operations to reach the same number. For example 24/4, 12/2, 2x3, 4+5-3 are all names for 6!

3. Place Value with Whole Numbers:

In our base-ten system of numbers we use the digits 1-9 as our counting numbers, and 0-9 as our "whole numbers". We have an infinite amount of variations because the VALUE changes based on its PLACE. When we put 2 in the tens place, and put 2 in the hundred thousands place, they mean very different things... We also worked on grouping the numbers correctly, and reading a large number by naming each group on it's own (reading 567,382,101 as five hundred sixty-seven million, three hundred eighty-two thousand, one hundred one.

4. Place Value Using a Calculator

We paid great attention to the transition of digits when counting up or down on a calculator. For example, if we were asked to count DOWN by 1,000s beginning with 834,985 - we paid close attention to what operation we were doing (subtracting), and which digits were changing. Then, we exercised changing only a SPECIFIC digit in a specific column (for example, in the hundred thousands place only) for a particular replacement digit. We had to figure out which operation to use, and what we had to add or subtract in order to get the desired number.

We have covered many topics so far; to get a good idea of what we are covering each day, I encourage you to look over your child's homework which directly corresponds to what we are learning:-)