MIVASERET MERCAZ
מבשרת מרכז
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This week, we got ready for our schoolwide tefillah project, enjoyed a beach party, learned and played, shaped and sorted, created and studied and sank some balls, too. Scroll down for a glimpse of a week in the life of Mercaz Academy...
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A Reflection on the First Yahrzeit of Dr. Steven Albert |
A key component of Jewish character is hakarat hatov—appreciation. In that light, we recall with gratitude the deep dedication and significant contributions to Mercaz Academy of Dr. Steven Albert, a”h, on his first yahrzeit, the 26th day of Shevat (this year, February 17). It would be too simple to remember Steve only through his titles of our first Chairman of the Board of Education or as an incorporator of the school.
More than titles, Steve’s numerous strengths allowed our school to move from a concept to a reality...Read more
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Getting Ready for the Tefillah Project |
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Sixth Grade Students Prepare Presentation on Asher Yatzar |
Mercaz Academy is preparing for a school-wide co-curricular learning experience on the bracha of "Asher Yatzar," the prayer thanking Hashem for creating bodies with the ability to take in the nutrition they need and get rid of waste.
Sixth grade STEM students have been studying the digestive system with STEM teacher Mrs. Gonzalez-Spagnuolo, and these sixth graders created beautiful demonstration materials to explain the digestive system to younger students.
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Additionally, some sixth graders have been working with the school's 3-D printer under the guidance of Mrs. Last. These students found and selected a template of the digestive system and programmed it to create a 3-D plastic model of the digestive system. |
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The entire sixth grade wrote, directed, and performed a humorous skit about the importance of saying "Asher Yatzar" for first through fifth grade students. Not only was it informative, it had the audience in stitches.
With these eye-catching presentation materials and fun teaching techniques, the sixth grade students will have everything they need to make sure the younger students absorb the lesson, bringing biology and Jewish prayer together as one expression of gratitude to our creator.
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Kitah Aleph Creates People Out of Clay |
Kitah Aleph was intrigued to learn that Hashem created Adam from the clay of the ground, especially when Morah Shani challenged them to follow Hashem’s recipe and create their own people out of clay (actually, Play Doh).
Students had no difficulties in forming their people out of clay, but found that creating them with the complex systems designed by Hashem that support life in humans did not go as planned. Kitah Aleph’s people were not alive, and they found that building a working digestive system (among other things) was beyond their skill level.
Kitah Aleph students gained a new understanding of the “Asher Yatzar” prayer, which thanks Hashem for creating us with these systems to keep us alive, and had a great time with their hands-on lesson in appreciating Hashem's work.
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Kindergarten Applies Rule of Parshat Mishpatim |
Parshat Mishpatim contains many mitzvot and laws for living life as a Jew. Kindergarteners have been focused on a specific law: the prohibition against cooking a kid in its mother’s milk. This is the source for the teaching that meat and dairy must be kept separate. Kindergarten students made themselves separate placemats for meat and dairy, sorting out pictures of foods to decorate the placemats into the meat and dairy categories. They finished the mats by labeling them with the Hebrew words for meat and dairy (חלבי and בשרי). The kindergarteners have thus ensured that no mixing of meat and dairy will happen while they are on the watch.
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School Store Offers Tangible Rewards for Achievement |
Mercaz Academy students in grades one through six have been enjoying the opportunity to cash in on their successful learning strategies and good behavior at the Mercaz School Store, where they can trade “Mercaz Bucks” for toys they choose themselves.
Students earn Mercaz Bucks for a variety of positive behaviors, including kindness, academic achievement, showing effort, helpfulness, and participating in class. Any teacher who spots a student...Read more
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First Graders Give Up on Snow, Enjoy Beach Party Instead |
The first grade, continuing their excellent record of following class rules, demonstrating good behavior and kindness, and receiving compliments from other teachers, earned a beach party last week, and refused to be daunted by the timing in mid-February. The first graders, under the direction of Mrs. Wald, created a hot and sunny beach day right in the first grade classroom.
With a tropical beach video running in the background, they made a bright yellow sun, scattered around lots of seashells, and put on some beach music. Students donned sun hats, sunglasses, t-shirts and sunscreen as they relaxed and read on beach towels. Of course they removed their shoes, and found the sand (okay, that was imaginary) very hot as they walked to the snack bar for ice pops and cool drinks. The water, too, was imaginary, but that didn’t stop them from surfing and jumping some very impressive waves. The first graders also found and decorated some beautiful seashells.
First grade students welcomed Rabbi Fogel to the beach party, and were astonished to find that he had “misunderstood” his invitation to be for a “peach party.” The sympathetic group welcomed him to pose with them anyway, with the peach he had brought proudly displayed in his hand.
This afternoon of summer fun concluded with the first grade writing sense poems to forever capture how it felt to enjoy a relaxing day at the beach.
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Nursery Aleph Jumps Into Brachot |
Students in Nursery Aleph have learned rules about the food we eat, such as which animals are kosher and which are not. Of course, thanking Hashem for the food we eat is very important, and the class also knows that different brachot (blessings) are said for different categories of food.
Nursery Aleph students have been coloring in a bracha workbook and learning bracha songs, and they had a wonderful time sorting out all their play food according to the brachot said on their real-world counterparts. Morah Esther Vaknin guided students as they separated the foods into baskets of foods made with flour (for which we say the bracha of mezonot), foods that grow on trees (ha’etz), foods that grow in or close to the ground (ha’adamah), bread (hamotzi), and most other foods (she’hakol). With each bracha, we remember to remain thankful for what Hashem has given us.
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Mercaz Mustangs Wrap Up Basketball Season With Celebration Dinner |
Mercaz Academy’s boys basketball team, the Mustangs, completed their first-ever season on Tuesday evening. It could be described as a perfect season–though perhaps not in the way they would have preferred. However, as the season progressed, the Mustangs gained strength and experience and fans were delighted to witness their natural talent and rapidly increasing skill. Who can forget the heady thrill of watching Mustangs leave the ground behind as they jumped to make baskets, the swish as Mustangs sank balls, the speed of Mustangs as they dribbled down the court? Each of our players worked hard and accomplished so much, and all of them are role models demonstrating what it means to get out there and bring your best. Their fine sportsmanship and teamwork made Mercaz Academy proud at every game.
The season culminated with a celebration for players and their families at the home of Rabbi and Mrs. Fogel. Catered by the PTA, players ate delicious poppers, hot dogs, and Caesar salad followed by fruit, cookies, and a beautifully decorated basketball cake.
Well played, Mustangs!
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Second Graders Tell Time in Two Languages |
Second graders have been learning how to read analog clocks in Mrs. Kirschenbaum’s class, and immediately translated this skill into Hebrew with Ulpan teacher Morah Levana Gil. Kitah Bet students have learned the vocabulary for time-telling and can effortlessly discuss the time in both Hebrew and English. This new skill will ensure that for the rest of their educational careers, they will never be late for any class, ever again. |
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Using Technology to Update a Very Old Game |
These fifth and sixth grade students, enjoying their recess in the technology lab, used programmable rolling balls to liven up a game of tag. Using iPads, some of the students programmed and controlled robotic balls, while the others dodged the balls to avoid being tagged and becoming “It.” It was a refreshing change of pace that combined technological skills with coordination and cardio. What a clever update by these creative students! |
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What Happens in ECC Afternoon Enrichment on Thursdays? |
After regular Early Childhood Center hours have ended, the students who stay for Afternoon Enrichment get to do even more amazing things with some of Mercaz Academy’s most special teachers. On Thursday, Mercaz Academy’s art teacher, Mrs. Liz Danziger, fosters new forms of expression in the preschoolers. These youngest students explore multiple modalities of art and various media as they create their projects. Mrs. Danziger designs some projects to enhance one-to-one correspondence skills, like matching dot painters to colors of the rainbow, while also sharpening fine motor skills. Some projects are collaborative, while others encourage individual artistic expression.
Most recently, Nursery Bet did a project based on the free exploration of wire and bead sculptures with “found” materials (in this case, Mrs. Danziger was fortunate to receive a collection of huge Styrofoam blocks from Morah Meryl Chaitovsky). The students created unique and colorful pieces using a wide variety of mixed media, including pipe cleaners, beads, paint, markers, and the final touch of toy figurines added to the top.
Nursery Aleph got very creative with painting tools–they used balloons to paint in the first letter of their names. First, students worked on drawing straight lines to outline the letters, then they used small balloons dipped in paint to create circles of color that blended together.
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Director of Technology Lynda Last Wins Another Contest |
Director of Technology Mrs. Lynda Last has done it again! Last June, Mrs. Last attended a conference of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Mrs. Last, who enters several raffles every time she is at the conference, was recently notified that she won again. This time, she won a Redcat Access Classroom Audio System, a very expensive sound system that amplifies a single voice without distortion in a small area like a classroom. This week, her prize was delivered…at the same time Morah Chaya Hecht lost her voice and couldn’t speak above a whisper. Morah Chaya is using the Redcat with Kitah Gimel, and the wireless microphone around her neck amplifies her voice via a speaker in the back of the classroom. The equipment works so well that it’s impossible to tell that she’s not speaking normally. Thank you, Mrs. Last, for sharing your prize with the school (and, of course, we all know who to thank for the timely delivery). |
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Monday, February 20
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No school: President's Day
Tuesday, February 21
- Rosh Chodesh Adar: Dress Like a President
Wednesday, February 22
- Rosh Chodesh Adar: Crazy Sock Day/Sock Drive
- Pizza Day
Tuesday, February 28
Monday, March 6
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Early dismissal: Ta'anit Esther
Tuesday, March 7
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No school: Purim
- Family Megillah Reading and Breakfast Seudah
Wednesday, March 8
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