1. March 2013 Updates: School News

2. At school Hahgoot was learning about transportation and had a project: she chose to make a booklet about cars. My random picture clippings collection came in handy, as we found many interesting pictures to use. Hahgoot sorted the ones she wanted, cut them to fit, arranged the booklet’s pages by subject, drew illustrations and wrote text, all with a lot of motivation and energy.

3. Left: she did rubbings of our car’s tyre Bottom right: the cover page Top right: the first two-fold Hahgoot especially liked a collection of stylish car symbols and scattered them through the booklet.

11. They had a list of questions and guidelines to follow, but she added a lot of text, mainly following the images we found.

12. Hahgoot has been enjoying the topic of transport so much, she asked to do some extra work at home. So we did some more worksheets I found online. Right: Hahgoot’s flying bird shaped craft – comes complete with an escape door where the bird’s bottom is located! Safe and with a comic twist!

13. In English Hahgoot has been enjoying great recommendations from her class teacher and the librarian. She can read the “Aussie bites” series in minutes (top left), and really enjoyed “The Friendship Matchmaker” (top right) and the Selby series.

14. One of the best recommendations she got was for “The Worry Tree” by Marianne Musgrove (right). She made her own tree the minute she finished reading the book and asked me to print the original illustration to hang near her bed, so she could “talk about worries to the creatures, like the girl in the book”.

15. In Hebrew Hahgoot continued to work hard on her grammar and spelling with various workbooks I provided.

16. In Hebrew Hahgoot has been reading with enthusiasm and enjoying books with a lot more text and plot like Cinderella (top right), “The Why book” (bottom right) and even poetry (top left).

17. I am still trying to get Hahgoot interested in reading the Pilon magazine in Hebrew. She is still very reluctant, but I think the language and content will be a good challenge for her. For example, she can practice reading various fonts (top middle). On the other hand, she was happy to read Madonna’s book (“The English Roses”) translated to Hebrew (top right).

18. Hahgoot really liked a new Hebrew workbook about correcting spelling mistakes and worked in it enthusiastically and independently. She used new highlighter pens she got from Smiggles for her birthday – thanks Mia, Sarah and Bernadette for the fun birthday card!

19. Hahgoot also worked on Social Stories worksheets in Hebrew, and read about Kofiko, the cheeky monkey, and his Passover tricks.

20. The unit in the BJE studies was about the story of Joseph, so I decided Hahgoot needed some context. She enthusiastically read a book of abridged stories in English from the Torah (Genesis to the Spies). She liked the story of Joseph and especially enjoyed the use of colours in the workbook to depict different emotions of the characters.

21. The unit on Passover was done as a review in a creative way: There were a series of letters to read and discuss so I printed them and put them in envelopes. Each night I hid another letter around the house and read a portion of the story. I modified the story so it was about Hahgoot helping the characters tidy up for Passover and then she comes across the letters. Hahgoot LOVED the interactive part and was amazed a new letter “appeared” each night. In addition she did extra Passover worksheets I made for her in Hebrew and read stories in Hebrew from Year 2 readers.

22. In our next presentation: Alma’s news!