If your kiddos are asleep early tonight! We had SO much fun bonding (and screaming) while tubing today. It was wonderful to watch our upper school students go from “me to we” as we all joined together in fun! I was having too much fun and didn’t get many pics!! 🙂
 
I am so excited to announce that we will have a guest speaker, Dr. Joshua Burns, from Marquette University on Wednesday, February 7. As our study of Ancient Egypt has evolved, many students have been wondering more about the Ancient Egyptians’ beliefs in the afterlife. Dr. Burns, a professor of theology, will share his expertise and help answer some of our wonders through a presentation including sharing excerpts from the Book of the Dead,  an ancient Egyptian funerary text.
In addition, Rabbi Rachel Marks from Congregation Shalom will come and speak to us about the afterlife in Judaism.
It will be a wonderful opportunity for our students to go from me to we, as we compare and contrast our beliefs to those of ancient Egypt.
I hope you had a nice weekend! We have a busy week with two field trips and lots of learning planned!Â
We will visit the Milwaukee Art Museum on Wednesday as we continue our journey to becoming Junior Docents. On this visit we will focus on learning more about our selected pieces and sketching our first draft.Â
The entire upper school will go snow tubing on Thursday! So fun! Permission slips are due on Tuesday. In addition, students MUST have snow-pants, boots, gloves and a hat to participate.Â
Quarter II Community service hours are due on Friday.Â
Looking forward to seeing everyone tomorrow! Sleep Well!Â
Have you purchased your tickets for the upper school musical? I just got home from their debut performance and to say I am blown away is an understatement. Tears were streaming from my eyes as I watched our kiddos shine bright on stage! Even if your child is not in the musical, I encourage you to check out one of the performances over the weekend.Â
Mazel Tov to the students and their families; you are incredible!!
Memoir writers often use narrative techniques such a s dialogue and descriptions to make their stories more engaging and real. Today we read the mentor text, My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, and discussed how the author’s use of dialogue and description helped develop the experiences and showed the relationships between the characters.Â
After dissecting the mentor text we tried these writing strategies on our own. I shared an example that included specific dialogue I remembered from an interaction with friends in 5th grade. I spoke about how the dialogue, or what my friend had said to me, left a lasting impression on me. The kids couldn’t believe that I remembered something from 22 years ago. It was a lesson not only in writing but also empathy. The words we choose to say can stick and impact people for a very long time! They also couldn’t believe that it had been 22 years since I was in 5th grade…I can’t either!Â
I asked the kids to find a comfy spot to write and to start thinking about a memory where a lot of conversation took place. In addition, I asked them to include how/why that dialogue enhanced the memory or story. Some students simply wrote their ideas (totally OK!) while others turned their dialogue into full written memoirs.Â
As we continue to immerse ourselves in beautifully written memoirs, I am impressed by the willingness of your children to take risks, share personal stories and the overall excitement to write!Â
Below are two examples of writing from today. Stay tuned for more writing to come!Â
Tomorrow our entire upper school will travel to the Milwaukee Public Museum. We will explore ten exhibits gaining inspiration for poetry we will write back at school. This is an exciting opportunity for our students, wish us luck in the contest!
Because we will be leaving school at 9:30 and returning at 2:00, please PACK A BAGGED lunch tomorrow. We will be eating lunch at the museum and will not be allowed to purchase food there. Thank you for your help in reminding your child to pack their own lunch tomorrow!Â
PoetryCompetitionFlyer_Nov2017 (2)_0-23ymvxg (More information about the Poetry Contest)
This week we have been immersing ourselves in a variety of mentor texts focusing on characteristics of memoirs. As we dipped our toes into some really wonderful writing, we were inspired to write down our own ideas that may eventually turn into published pieces of writing.Â
Yesterday we talked about how one word, home, might inspire us as authors of memoirs. Today we thought about memories or experiences that have left lasting impressions on us. The kids came up with wonderful lists of ideas they could write about and some students even began drafting short memoirs. I was blown away by the eagerness and effort I saw as your kiddos put pencil to paper. Even more exciting was the bravery I saw as some students volunteered to share their writing at the end of class.Â
Below are two awesome examples of student writing from the past week. Remember, these are just drafts–please don’t get too hung up on anything but their ideas! That is what drafting is all about! I will continue to share writing samples and I encourage you to ask your child to share his/her writing with you as well!
Below is an example of documentation and reflection completed by Gev. Kimmel, Clyde and Adon Kaufman. As you read through their process, please think about the following questions:
Please respond to these four questions in the comments section of this post.Â
Challenge Create an animal out of a bag of legos
Chat Captain: Adon Kaufman
Materials manager/Recorder: Gev. Kimmel
Timekeeper/facilitator: Gev. Clyde
Planning/Brainstorming 12/3/17
Kaufman asked us each to share our favorite animal. Penguin, Elephant and Dog were shared. Elephant may be hard to do because of trunk.
We decided to sort our pieces by color to see if that would help us think more clearly. We had a lot of red, could we make a cardinal?
We decided with three people it would be hard to all be using the legos at once. We would set a 2 minute timer. Each person would get two minutes to touch and manipulate the legos and then we would switch. Between each turn we would take 30 seconds to provide feedback and think about how to move forward. We all agreed not to get upset if someone changed something we made.
Our inspiration 
First Attempt 12/5/17
Gev. Kimmel started and used 5 red legos and one black lego. (forgot to take picture)
We all agreed that it was a good start. Our suggestion to Adon Kaufman was to try to add wings to make it look more bird like.
Kaufman added two more red pieces to add wings and a feather on top of the head. We all agreed that the wings worked by feather seemed confusing because it wasn’t centered.
Gev. Clyde removed the top feather and spent some time really studying our inspiration. We pushed her to get working but she said she saw the benefit in studying the actual cardinal. She added feet but still could not figure out how to add a feather to the top of the head.
Feedback
We shared our cardinal with Gev. Jirovetz. She loved our initial design. She had a few suggestions…
Reflection
Planning
Maybe we can use some of the longer flatter pieces to spread out the wings and make the beak stick out.
We will continue rotating who touches the legos but give only one minute each so that we each get to touch them more than once.
Second Attempt
Gev. Kimmel took apart the original design and spread the wings out further.
Kaufman then tried to figure out how to make the beak. He took it apart several times, got frustrated and asked to rotate early.
Gev. Clyde put the black piece so that it stuck out from the front. We all agreed that it helped and that Gev. Kimmel should focus on the feather on top.
Gev. Kimmel referred back to the inspirational picture and realized that the beak was supposed to be red, not black. That the beak pokes out of black feathers. She switched the red and black but everyone agreed it looked better how they had it. They compared now to the picture above and then time was up.
Kaufman took what they had and quickly changed it back and added the feather on top.
Feedback
Leah R. guessed a cardinal because of colors, wings and the mouth and feet. She thought it was clearly a cardinal!
Eva A. suggested moving the feet outward because bird feet don’t point stick out to the side.
Final Reflection
On Tuesday, the MJDS staff and faculty returned to work eager to jump into the 2nd half of our school year. We started our day by asking, “If you had to pick one word to “live by” in 2018, what would it be?” Dr. Truding, our school consultant, had read a blog over break where several teachers asked themselves this very question. It is an amazing idea– pick one word to live by and apply it in all aspects of your life. This seems so simple and authentic compared to creating unrealistic new year resolutions.
It became very clear, very quickly, that this would be amazing to try with our kids. So, this week, we asked all upper school students to think of a word to live by for the rest of the school year. Of course, we shared our own words.
Adon Kaufman chose “patience” and explained that he would like to work on understanding peoples’ mindsets or backgrounds without getting angry or upset.
Geveret Binder chose “student,” because despite being a teacher, she would like to continue growing and learning from her students, peers and administrators this year.
My word is secure– be secure in what I do and why I do it and worry less about taking things personally.
Because our teachers showed honesty and vulnerability, the kids chose incredible words and were open and honest about their choices. We displayed all of their words in the hallway with the hope that the students will hold each other accountable for sticking to their words as well as find opportunities to support their friends in their efforts to attain this one word goal.Â
Today 5th grade posted their words on their blogs. Please read your child’s word and encourage them every. single. day. to live by this word. It might be fun for you to pick a word too!Â
