Mercaz Academy Elects New Student Council Officers

With the election to determine the next president of the United States settled, Mercaz Academy students turned their attention to a more important contest: electing the officers on the school’s Student Council. These leaders will guide the school through the year, working to improve the lot of all Mercaz students, and many qualified candidates put themselves forward for consideration. After a frantic week of campaigning, the student electorate gathered in the auditorium on November 13th to hear presentations from the candidates. This year, a new office was added to the roster, that of Director of Volunteers.

A lengthy roster of candidates emerged this year, running on platforms such as more field trips, sushi for school lunch, Teacher Prank Day, and “a day for kids to do whatever they want.” Candidates also offered excellent ideas on worthy causes to support, ways to promote both kindness and tzedakah, and encouraging the performance of mitzvot through raffles and other rewards. 

Apart from fostering school spirit, the process of Student Council elections promotes our students’ involvement in the democratic process, and cultivates leadership and public speaking skills. Although those eligible to run for office were exclusively fifth and sixth graders, the voting franchise extended down to the first grade. Except in the first grade, where choices were indicated by a show of hands, voting was electronic. All candidates, regardless of the outcome of the race, are welcome to participate in the Student Council, so fortunately, none of these ideas will be lost.

Mazel tov to all, and may the new administration lead us into a bright future at Mercaz Academy.

Pajama Night Brings Bedtime to School

The nightlife in Plainview was upgraded last week with the addition of Pajama Night! This event invited pajama-clad children aged two to four to join the Early Childhood Center students in exploring the school after hours. 

Parents chatted with teachers, administrators, and newcomers while their children and their visiting friends played and noshed on rather more pizza than salad. Comfortably fed, the group rotated among three bedtime story rooms. ECC Director Morah Jo Mlotok read Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert, while the young listeners helped out the narration with their own puppet leaves, blowing in the wind. Ms. Gina Bonanno, who teaches kindergarten, read Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons, by Eric Litwin. Children listening to this story received their own coloring page and groovy buttons to count along as the story progressed. In Mrs. Melissa Reinhardt’s room, the story was How to Babysit a Grandma, by Jean Reagan, and listeners got into the action by caring for their own “little grandmas.” Meanwhile, a few older siblings enjoyed supervised play in the gym.

The evening ended with the customary (and delicious) milk-and-cookies bedtime snack. Having caught just a glimpse of what makes Mercaz Academy’s preschool so special, parents, students, and visitors headed home for a good night’s rest, to dream about their adventures at Mercaz after dark.

Pen Pals Open New World for Fourth Grade

Fourth graders are making cross-country connections by participating in a pen pal program with students at a school in rural Missouri. The letters received so far have introduced Mrs. DeMeo’s writing class to a new world, telling of a school surrounded by farmland that’s a two hour drive from the nearest city. The fourth graders were surprised to learn that, even though they are corresponding with a public school, Mercaz is bigger, because some Mercaz grades have two classes. Both Mrs. DeMeo’s students and the Missouri students wrote about basketball and video games, and they’ve discovered they have much in common. However, it was strange to learn that the Missouri school would be closed because the fair was in town, and several students would be exhibiting the cattle they had raised at the fair!

Mrs. DeMeo loves the boost this exchange gives to her students’ composition skills; writing to pen pals encourages the fourth graders to put pen to paper, energizes their descriptive writing, and offers practice in clear self-expression. In addition, writing to students in a different environment exposes students to new information, ideas, and even vocabulary. One student was shocked that his pen pal wrote “y’all,” having previously thought that contraction was only used in Texas. 

All the fourth graders are eagerly awaiting letters to provide their next glimpse into rural life in the United States.

Nursery Aleph Kachol Dissects a Pumpkin

Now that fall is here, Nursery Aleph students have directed their scientific curiosity towards that staple of autumn, the pumpkin. First, they formed a hypothesis as to what they would find when they cut it open, guessing that it would be a solid, hard mass of orange throughout. Morah Esther removed the top, and students used all their tools of observation to explore the pumpkin. They were astonished to find that the inside of the pumpkin was very different from what the hard shell led them to expect, being hollow, “slimy!”, “sticky!”, and full of seeds.

After drying the seeds, students in Nursery Aleph Kachol repurposed them for a pumpkin-themed math activity. Using mats decorated with a picture of a pumpkin and a numeral, students added the appropriate number of seeds to each pumpkin picture to match the number printed on the stem. Nursery Aleph Kachol learned that you can count on a pumpkin to be full of surprises!

Fifth Grade Explores Possibilities of Technology in Project on Early Explorers

Combining the newest digital tools with lessons about early explorers of the “new world,” fifth graders have used Google Sites to publish their very own websites to share the results of a research project on early explorers of America. The fifth graders created their layouts with guidance from Mrs. Last, and then populated them with text, images, and even embedded links, allowing them to add quizzes, games, and other fun activities to engage readers.

Exploring the possibilities of technology as part of their explorer projects gave students new and valuable skills. Due to security issues, these sites are only accessible from within the school community, but the bespoke websites made their research fun and accessible to fellow students. 

Mitzvot T'luyot Ba'Aretz and Parshat Vayeira in the GrowTorah Garden

Mercaz students learned about terumah and ma’aser, agricultural tithes that are part of the mitzvot teluyot ba’aretz (agricultural mitzvot), in the GrowTorah garden this week. Farmer Menuchah explained the halachot guiding how farmers in Israel set aside portions of their harvest for the Kohanim and Levi’im, who didn’t own land and instead served in the Beit HaMikdash. To bring this mitzvah to life, students harvested ground cherries and tomatoes from our garden and acted out the donation process by taking on the roles of Farmer, Levi, and Kohen. Students separated the terumah and ma’aser portions, discussing how these mitzvot build a caring, connected community. The produce collected, along with sage and fennel from the garden, will be donated to tzedakah.

Preschool classes learned about Avraham and Sarah’s example of chessed (kindness) in this week's parsha, Vayeira. Embracing this trait, we harvested radishes to donate to tzedakah as well, with students enjoying a taste of the fresh radishes themselves. Through this experience, they saw how kindness and giving are integral to their work in the garden.

Our students understand how generosity and caring for others are central values in both the mitzvot of the land and the example of chessed set by Avraham and Sarah, inspiring them to nurture these traits in their own community and garden.