A Peek into Mercaz Academy, June 2026

Volume 4, Issue 17 | June 11, 2026

Summer is coming! As classes wrap up, units finish, and lessons come to an end, students are moving into review and celebration mode, looking back proudly on what they’ve accomplished and coming together to enjoy the wonderful feeling of a year well spent at Mercaz. Enjoy the last 2025/2026 issue of Mivaseret Mercaz, and don't forget to scroll down for important dates and upcoming events!

Around Mercaz Academy

📖 Mishmar Dinner Celebrates a Year of Torah, Friendship, and Fun

One of our end-of-the-year highlights, last night’s annual Mishmar Dinner was a joyful celebration of the year-long Mishmar after-school program, in which nearly 80% of our fifth- and sixth-graders learn each week with their friends in an intimate, non-classroom environment that combines Torah, recreation, and snacks. (What could be better?)

“The point of Mishmar is to share the beauty of learning Torah for its own sake, for enjoyment, not for grades,” said Principal Rabbi Fogel. “It’s a voluntary program, it’s a little more informal, and it’s a beautiful way of growing and learning together. Students see that learning is not limited to the hours of a classroom, but something you also do on your own time.”

Boys and girls learn separately, with Rabbi Avi Kramer leading the boys and Rabbi Fogel leading the girls. The girls’ group studies Sefer HaChinuch, cycling through all 613 mitzvot over the course of several years and then beginning again, while the boys’ group learns Gemara.

At the end of the year, the usual after-school program is replaced by a catered dinner. This year’s dinner, co-sponsored by the PTA and the Conboy, Ofer, and Kaplowitz-Boxer families, was especially meaningful: it marked the siyum, or completion, of the entire Sefer HaChinuch for the girls’ group. Determined to hit the milestone in time, the girls have been pushing hard over the last several weeks to learn as many mitzvot as possible during Mishmar sessions, often urging Rabbi Fogel, “We don’t want another story, we have to do more mitzvot!’”

At the dinner on Wednesday, the students learned the final mitzvah of Sefer HaChinuch together – writing a Sefer Torah – and earnestly discussed why it’s important and how it’s relevant today. The boys and girls also faced off in a lively gematria competition, with each side vying to quickly “translate” English numbers into their Hebrew equivalents, and vice versa.

The evening was a fitting celebration of a year filled with growth in learning and friendship. We are grateful to our dedicated faculty, supportive families, generous sponsors, and enthusiastic students for making Mishmar such a meaningful part of Mercaz life!

In the Classroom

💐 Kindergarten: Sharing in Simcha

Siman Tov u’Mazal Tov! Kindergarten recently celebrated a special simcha in the Mercaz community: their assistant teacher, Eliana, is getting married! Students surprised her with handmade cards filled with Hebrew messages of congratulations, songs, a flower keter (crown) and necklace, and a spirited hora. Morah Leah, mother of Eliana’s chatan (groom), joined the celebration as well. Sharing in one another’s joys helps nurture our values of community, kindness, and love, reminding our students that Mercaz is more than a school – it’s a family.

🕒 First Grade: Time to Learn

First graders are on the clock! As part of their math studies, students are learning how to tell analog time using both the hour and minute hands, identify times to the hour and half hour, and use terms like “half past.” Through hands-on practice with model clocks, drawing activities, and problem solving, they are building an essential life skill while developing a deeper understanding of how time is measured. Time flies when you're learning something new!

🦴 Second Grade: The Amazing Human Body

Over the past several weeks, second graders have explored the human body, learning about the circulatory, digestive, muscular, nervous, respiratory, and skeletal systems that work together to keep our bodies strong and healthy. This week, they focused on the skeletal system, discovering that the body is made up of 206 bones that work together to give us shape, help us move, and protect important organs. They assembled jointed skeletons, gaining first-hand knowledge into exactly how “the foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone” (and so on), and how all of our bones join together to form the framework that supports us every day.

🛠️ Fourth Grade: Mastering the Melachot

This week, fourth graders became halacha instructors, diving into the 39 melachot of Shabbat through collaborative research and presentations. Working in groups of two or three, each team became experts on one specific melacha, learning about its role in the Mishkan, researching its practical applications, and exploring how it helps make Shabbat more meaningful. Students made slideshows and brought in props to share their findings creatively, teaching their classmates what they learned and deepening their own understanding through instructing others.