Mercaz Academy Celebrates as the Mustangs Ride to Victory!

In a historic display of determination and hard work, the Mercaz Mustangs finally broke through for their first victory, edging out the LIHA Lightning 43-30 at a game played at JFK Elementary School in Great Neck. 

The players came ready to play and focused on teamwork, passing and shooting like a well-oiled machine. Coach Tony Delwey gave all the team members a chance to shine on the court, including the youngest and newest players. The co-captains scored thirty points between them, and received plenty of assistance from the rest of the team on points and rebounds. 

“By the end of the second quarter, I thought we would win,” said one captain. “It just felt like we were doing everything right. But Coach told us not to celebrate too early.” The team returned after halftime with hope in their hearts and springs on their feet, unleashing a celebration years in the making as the final buzzer sounded.

Coach Tony Delwey and Coach Ari Gross never stopped believing that this victory was coming, with Coach Tony explaining, “They always give their best and are continuously showing improvement.” 

While this win may not make national headlines, in the halls of Mercaz Academy, it feels like an NBA championship!

Presenting Pajama Night with Pete the Cat

Pete the Cat, the feline literary icon from the series by James and Kimberly Dean, made his presence felt at Mercaz Academy’s second Pajama Night of the school year. Once again, students from the Toddler class through Nursery Bet came back to school in their pajamas to check out Mercaz Academy after dark. Children and their parents gathered for a Perfect Pizza dinner, delightedly waving various iterations of Pete the Cat on popsicle sticks. As they ate, parents chatted and children compared pajamas and played with friends old and new. 

The group split into three groups and rotated through ECC classrooms, where they enjoyed listening to three bedtimes stories that were perfectly themed for the evening: Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party; Pete the Cat: Snow Daze; and Pete the Cat and the Bedtime Blues, read by Morah Jo, Morah Esther, and Morah Alyssa. Meanwhile, older siblings enjoyed a little physical activity in the gymnasium under the direction of our Kindergarten’s Mrs. Monica.

The evening finished with the traditional chocolate chip cookies and milk–and, we must admit, a certain amount of reluctance to head home to bed. However, once assured that there would be another Pajama Night in March, the attendees allowed the night to proceed to a restful close.

Science and Halacha Meet in the Fifth Grade Classroom

Fifth grade science students have started an interesting experiment in hydroponics. They are sprouting one set of lima beans in water, with nutrients added as the plants grow. They have planted another set of lima beans in soil. They look forward to comparing the overall health and success rate of the resulting bean plants. 

These Kitah Hay students are also reviewing the brachot (blessings) for food as a prelude to their studies about Tu B’Shevat, the New Year for the Trees. As they drilled down for more information about brachot, they discovered an eye-opening detail: The bracha for produce grown via hydroponics is not the same as the bracha for produce grown in soil. 

“When we say ‘Borei pri ha’adamah,’ we are thanking Hashem for ‘the fruit of the earth,’ but hydroponically grown produce doesn’t get its nutrients from the earth,” Rabbi Kramer pointed out. “So what bracha should be said?” 

Several students remembered a popular example of a “vegetable” that grows from decaying plant matter rather than soil, the mushroom. They were thus able to deduce that the correct bracha is shehakol.

Tefillah Day Update: Mercaz Academy Says Shema

Tefillah–prayer–is not just rote recitation at Mercaz Academy. In addition to our tefillah studies in class, our monthly Tefillah Day encourages students in all grades to slow down and re-examine a single prayer, building additional connections to that particular interaction with Hashem. On this midyear Tefillah Day, each grade examined a different facet of Shema, as well as making their artistic contribution to the collaborative collage we started at the beginning of the school year. 

As always, participation ranged from the toddler student explaining that the scribble on her collage piece said “Hashem” to the sixth grader’s analysis of what it means to accept Hashem’s commandments, specifically focusing on the five listed in Shema. This Tefillah Day, the Kindergarten class particularly enjoyed incorporating movement and hand motions into their recital of Shema. Each motion–touching the heart, wrapping invisible tefillin around their arms–coordinates with, and reinforces the meaning of, the accompanying Hebrew word of Shema. Further, five-year-old children love serving Hashem with their bodies as well as their souls!

Through Tefillah Day and beyond, Mercaz students understand the daily recitation of Shema and other prayers as a cornerstone of their relationship with Hashem, and a meaningful part of their daily lives.

Sixth Grade Techology, Fourth Grade Math: Pixel Art Quizzes

Sixth grade students took a hand in teaching younger students by programming a math quiz with a surprise pixel art reveal at the end. After learning about conditional (“if-then”) statements in programming, the sixth graders set up a series of math questions on a computer spreadsheet using the first column. Mrs. Last showed them that a conditional statement would allow them to fill cells with preprogrammed colors as each correct answer was entered into the spreadsheet, slowly revealing an image programmed by the quiz creator. 

Fourth graders received these quizzes from Mrs. DeMeo and eagerly worked their way down the column of equations, hoping to be the first to identify the image. One fourth grader tipped off her friends to scroll down to see a greeting appearing further down the page.



The project ingeniously combined programming skills and creative design for the sixth graders with mathematical problem-solving for the fourth graders…and the suspenseful reveal of the mystery picture as they successfully solved each equation made the review fun for everyone.

Kitah Vav Completes Their Study of Parshat Beshalach

When a class successfully completes a section of the Torah, school tradition dictates that everyone joins in the celebration and the learning. How does this work? Everyone in the class gathers to read the last pasuk (verse) of the material they finished, followed by the first pasuk of the new section over the loudspeaker. The rest of the school stops to listen, and classroom doors are flung open so the entire student body can wish them a “Mazel Tov,” with cheers ringing down every hallway. Kitah Vav completed their months-long study of Parshat Beshalach just in time to coincide with the Torah reading this week. In a special update to this tradition, a Kitah Vav student who has begun learning Parshat Beshalach for his bar mitzvah reading lained the last pasuk for the school, with his class joining him to translate afterwards. 

Reflecting on the parsha, the question of why the nation of Amalek went out of its way to attack B’nei Yisrael was examined, with one student suggesting that they might have been trying to challenge the existence of Hashem. Another student shared a personal lesson he had learned, noting the frequent complaints of the Jews while miracles occurred all around them and vowing not to complain when someone does something good for him in the future. The discussion ended with everyone in agreement that Hashem’s spectacular splitting of the sea and the rich and interesting Midrashim surrounding it was a highlight of their Torah learning.