What do a colony of ants and a third-grade class have in common? They all have to learn to work together as a group. That is why the third-graders had some practical – and ant-based – lessons on teamwork. The videos they watched of ants working together to move a piece of food made them laugh, but they also got them to thinking how these tiny creatures manage to cooperate – all without electing a leader.
Afterwards the children had to draw a colorful picture together, when each child could choose just a single crayon. They had to figure out, on their own, how to get the picture colored in, and how to work out arguments that arose as they took turns filling in their part of the picture.
When the pictures were finished, the kids found they had created something unique – something they would not have accomplished had each simply colored in their own picture. It was a lesson in learning to listen to one another and allow one another space, while giving each one an equal part in both the work and the enjoyment.
The third-graders have also begun to learn English, and their English lesson tied together the Muslim, Jewish and Christian holidays of Ramadan, Pesach, and Easter, as well as the words for the colors they needed to fill in their pictures.
For the first and second graders, another meaningful event was the start of a new section in their HOTAM Education, Culture, Tradition curriculum: Growth and development. The first-graders had an opening event in front of the entire school. The second-graders, as part of their forestry lessons, prepared cuttings they took from the forest and planted them in the school greenhouse.
The fourth-graders were already practicing their English by playing the game Monopoly – not only reading the street names but buying and selling property in English.
They also celebrated pi day – March 14 – with artwork that brought them the beauty and magic of circles.
The fifth graders finished the HOTAM, Education, Culture, Tradition section on people and the Earth. To complete their learning cycle, they prepared group presentations on the holy sites they chose to research, and presented them to the class.
To practice their English, the kids pretended to buy and sell goods, improving both their vocabulary and their speaking abilities.
By the sixth grade, the children are already learning the basics of scientific research. The sixth-grade science fair featured an assortment of projects for which the children had chosen a research subject, developed a research question, created an experiment, offered hypotheses, run their experiments complete with measurements, and drawn conclusions. In the science fair, which was open to the entire school, the students then had to explain their experiments and results.
Fifth-grade students participated as well, with demonstrations of their solutions to technological problems.
100 days: The number 100 is a special one in the school, and the entire school celebrates. They celebrate 100 days of learning together, but it is also a day for the younger kids to start learning the math of higher-digit numbers. The sixth-graders participate in setting up fun activities for the day, and the younger ones create artwork – including cut-out glasses frames – using the number one and two zeroes.
