MIVASERET MERCAZ
מבשרת מרכז
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Mercaz Academy Celebrates Presidents Day |
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The hallways were filled with red, white, and blue on Tuesday, and there were a few George Washingtons spotted as well--did you know that Presidents Day was originally established in 1885 to recognize his birthday? Students celebrating the confluence of Rosh Chodesh Adar and Presidents Day came dressed as presidents or in patriotic attire (red, white, and blue). We marked the second day of Rosh Chodesh Adar with Crazy Sock Day and a sock donation drive, enjoyed a delicious pizza day, a field trip to put on a Purim show, and more.
Scroll down for a glimpse of a week in the life of Mercaz Academy...
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Nursery Bet Pulls It All Together With Presidents Day |
Presidents Day inspired a trip through the Mercaz Academy curriculum for Nursery Bet. They began by learning of the two presidents whose birthdays were combined into Presidents Day– George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Morah Jo pointed out that those two presidents are pictured on U.S. currency, and the Nursery Bet students examined “bills” made of felt with those presidential images on them. They even used them for a math discussion–if President Lincoln’s face is on the five dollar bill, and President Washington’s face is on the one dollar bill, how many ones are the same as one five?
Finally, they learned about another facet of money: the importance of tzedakah (charity). Morah Jo read them Quarters and Dimes and Nickels and Pennies, by Baila Olidort, which addresses the question of what happens to the contents of a tzedakah box when it leaves someone’s home and goes out into the world. We love the way Nursery Bet tied together so many significant ideas for Presidents Day.
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Students Prepare Their
Asher Yatzar Body of Work
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Kitah Daled Puts On Asher Yatzar Puppet Show for ECC |
Kitah Daled students staged and performed a puppet show for Nursery Aleph, Nursery Bet, and Kindergarten students to teach them about the bracha of "Asher Yatzar," the prayer thanking Hashem for creating bodies with the ability to get rid of waste. The younger students were delighted by Kitah Daled’s presentation, featuring a royal family troubled by a fire-breathing dragon. What does that have to do with Asher Yatzar? Well, it’s kind of a miracle that Hashem created the dragon to release fire from his body, isn’t it? Kitah Daled was impressed that the kindergarten students were able to recite Asher Yatzar and very gratified by the rave reviews they received for their puppeteering debut.
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Kitah Bet Debuts “Asher Yatzar” Song for Mercaz Elementary School |
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Kitah Bet, as their contribution to the schoolwide, co-curricular learning experience about Asher Yatzar, performed a song for the rest of the school about the tefillah. The song described how lucky Kitah Bet students feel to have bodies that work so perfectly, designed by Hashem. Morah Tikva was very proud of how well they sang their song, and their performance charmed the entire school.
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Third Grade Creates Digestive System Marble Runs in STEM Class |
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The third grade has prepared their contribution to the “Asher Yatzar” program by creating marble runs designed to simulate a trip through the digestive system. Consulting a model of the digestive system from top to bottom, students used cardboard to make a run from the mouth through the stomach and intestines. If the marble couldn’t make it all the way through, the run was deemed “constipated” and the engineer went back to the drawing board. Fortunately, the marbles were smoothly digested in the end.
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Ulpan Students Write Letters of Gratitude to IDF Rescuers |
Kitot Daled, Hay, and Vav recently used their Ivrit skills to thank the IDF for their efforts to save lives in Turkey. Having learned from Rabbi Fogel of the recent devastating earthquake there, students very much wanted to thank the Israeli soldiers who rushed to the scene to rescue as many people as possible from the rubble. Under the guidance of Morah Carmit Akhavan, the Ulpan students in the upper grades wrote their letters of appreciation in Hebrew, to be sent to the Israeli Embassy in Turkey. Mercaz Academy students are proud of all that Israel does to help people around the world, and we are proud of our students.
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Mercaz Visits Pre-K at Jewish Early Learning Center in Merrick |
Mercaz Academy fifth and sixth graders helped the Pre-K students at the Alan & Tatyana Forman Jewish Early Learning Center in Merrick welcome the month of Adar with joy. These talented and caring students created a beautiful Purim program to share with the ELC children.
The Mercaz students arrived in Merrick early on Wednesday morning and joined the Early Learning children for tefillah, singing along to enhance their davening experience. Afterwards, the fifth and sixth graders put on an amusing Purim play for the children, introducing them to the story of Megillat Esther with spirit and fun (and the occasional funny hat). They followed this with...Read more and see photos!
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ECC Ulpan Welcomes Adar…with Simcha! |
The Early Childhood classes learned a new Hebrew word, simcha (joy) as they welcomed the new month of Adar. Morah Levana Gil explained that, when we enter the month of Adar, we should be even more joyful than usual. And what better way to express simcha than by dancing to a classic Purim song? Nursery Aleph and Bet students loved singing and dancing to “Mi Shenichnas Adar Marbin b’Simcha” (“Who Enters the Month of Adar Increases Joy”), with music furnished by the smart board. Like the month of Adar, ECC always increases our joy!
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Sixth Graders “Escape” the Same Old Book Report |
The sixth grade literature class has been reading Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, which . examines the immigrant experience of a Mexican girl in the 1930s. The sixth graders loved the book, citing the hopeful tone of the riches-to-rags tale. Their teacher, Mrs. Jenny DeMeo, used a clever and unusual method to assess student comprehension and review for an upcoming test on the novel.
Students were divided into groups and worked collaboratively in an Escape Room scenario designed to enable their “escape from Mexico to California,” like the characters in the book. There were four stations; one section of the room was devoted to plot and order of events, one to an examination of the characters, and one to vocabulary from the book. After the groups moved successfully through those first three stations, they ended at the fourth station, which presented them with a code to break that would enable them to “escape.” The review was thorough, and the escape room theme was much more exciting than the average book report.
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Mercaz Academy Conducts Mock Caldecott Awards |
The past two weeks in the library are among the most anticipated of the year, as students hosted the first Mercaz Academy Mock Caldecott Awards. Every year, as the American Library Association comes together to announce the best picture book of the year, our students do the same. School librarian Francie Goldberg prepares the students by teaching about picture books and previous winners, and narrows the wide field of competition to the top three contenders.
Students in grades one through six analyze the art techniques used in the books, how the pictures complement the text, and whether the book appeals to the population as represented by the students at Mercaz Academy. After much analysis and voting, Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf by Davide Cali and illustrated by Marianna Balducci took the gold Caldecott Medal at Mercaz. The Mercaz panel bestowed the Caldecott Honor on Walter Had A Best Friend by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Sergio Ruzzier. A very close third was Hot Dog, written and illustrated by Doug Salati (winner of the real Caldecott Medal for 2023). The library students spent this week writing letters to the illustrators to notify them that they won our school competition and awarding them their Mercaz Medals.
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What Happens in ECC Afternoon Enrichment on Fridays? |
The final entry in our series on the daily Afterschool Enrichment program in the Early Childhood Center brings us Friday’s gym class with Coach Keith Mikelberg, Mercaz Academy’s certified physical education teacher. Coach M. gets everyone moving in our beautiful gymnasium, introducing our youngest students to the equipment and encouraging them to invent their own games.
Because Friday Afterschool Enrichment combines ECC students with children from some of the older grades, the little ones have the opportunity to learn important skills like teamwork, cooperation, and how to play games from students who are slightly older as well.
On Monday through Thursday, after the special Afterschool Enrichment classes, an extended extra hour is available for those who need it. Students who stay for the last hour from four to five PM wind down after a long day with stories, coloring, and craft projects with Morah Alyssa, and return home with extra adventures to discuss over dinner.
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Tuesday, February 28
Monday, March 6
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1:45 dismissal: Ta'anit Esther
- 2:45 dismissal for ECC Afternoon Enrichment
Tuesday, March 7
- No school: Purim
- Family Megillah Reading and Brunch Seudah, 8:30 am
Wednesday, March 8
Tuesday, March 14
- Scholastic Book Fair
- In-person Parent Teacher Conferences
Wednesday, March 22
- Author visit, grades ECC-3, Meish Goldish
Tuesday, March 28
Wednesday, March 29
- Model Seder, grades ECC-3
Monday, April 3 through Sunday, April 16
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