MIVASERET MERCAZ
מבשרת מרכז
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Mercaz Academy celebrated Chanukah by standing up, communicating, looking out for each other, singing, acting, spinning, studying...and a few other things, too. Scroll down for a peek into a week in the life of Mercaz Academy. |
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A Message From Our Assistant Principal, Ms. Karen Leeper: Raising Children Who Are Upstanders |
As you may be aware, last week our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students participated in a webinar hosted by Afikim Foundation. The message was powerful: your words and actions affect others. Lessons such as these continued this week and will continue throughout the school year. Today, our first through sixth graders attended an assembly that focused on being an upstander.
Officer Steven Glenz of the 110 Detective Squad and Officer Stephanie Vacchio of the Intelligence Division of the Nassau County Police Department visited Mercaz Academy to encourage children to stand up against bullying, both in-person and online. They told students that the actions of each individual child can contribute to making the world a better place. Our principal, Rabbi Fogel, emphasized this by pointing out that it took the actions of only five brave upstanders–the Maccabees–to overthrow the evil of an empire...Read more
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Sixth Graders Prepare to Take On Teacher Role in STEM |
Sixth grade STEM students are preparing to take on the role of teacher and take control of Mrs. Gonzalez-Spagnuolo’s class. The students are choosing subjects they’re interested in–including space, satellites, the ocean, and spices–and preparing a lesson to present to their classmates on their chosen topic. Research and preparation has already begun, and students are looking forward to taking the reins and directing these science-based subjects and projects in the coming weeks. |
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Smart Kids Code Smart Trains |
The second and third graders sharpened their coding prowess as they served as conductors of our new Intelino Smart Trains with Mercaz Director of Technology Mrs. Lynda Last. Students worked collaboratively in groups to complete a list of assigned tasks, each designed to help them deduce which colored chip would perform which task. The second and third graders directed the train to make it stop, speed up, reverse, and turn by laying the colored “action tiles” along the tracks, controlling the action with actual coding blocks. Mrs. Last can always engineer a good time. |
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Spinning the Dreidel in Grades One Through Four |
Students in grades one through four enjoyed a spirited game of dreidels as an after-lunch Chanukah activity. Fourth graders played with second graders and third graders played with first graders, forming groups of three, four, or five children, and pennies and dreidels were distributed to each team. Older students taught younger students how to spin dreidels, with some tricky upside-down spins observed in play. Students who landed on gimel were most pleased, but even those who landed on shin a few times were consoled by the fact that everyone got to keep the dreidels as gifts.
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Fifth and Sixth Graders Visit Mid-Island Y JCC, Perform Chanukah Songs |
Under the leadership of teachers Rabbi Moshe Rubel, Mrs. Katharine Papaccioli, and Mrs. Francie Goldberg, and trained by Mr. Craig Resmovits, fifth and sixth graders visited the Mid-Island Y JCC to perform Chanukah songs. The students performed throughout the day for various groups–special needs young adults, elderly people with dementia (many of whom sang along to “I Have a Little Dreidel” and “Maoz Tzur”), and survivors of the Holocaust.
Beyond the pleasure our students took in doing an act of kindness for others, they received a gift in the form of an impromptu speech from one of the survivors. This elderly gentleman brought tears to everyone’s eyes as he shared a very brief synopsis of his survival of the war. He told students that, after the war ended when he was sixteen years old, he emigrated to the United States, learned English, and made his way through a college degree and rabbinic ordination. He charged the Mercaz Academy students to always remember that, no matter what, Hashem is always looking after us.
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Kitah Gimel Has Some Little Dreidels, They Made Them Out Of… |
Kitah Gimel students designed and created dreidels, but they did not use clay, gum, sand, or bread. Instead, they used marshmallows and toothpicks, which anyone can see would never work in the iconic Chanukah song (too many syllables). Nevertheless, the Kitah Gimel class was very pleased with the results of their construction, having eliminated the tedious drying phase. However, during testing, the design was found to be flawed when they discovered that no amount of torque was sufficient to keep the dreidels spinning. Next year, they look forward to testing some new material, and are considering chocolate as a possible binding agent. |
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Acting Out on Chanukah–Kitah Daled Enacts a Classic Israeli Chanukah Song |
Chanukah fun abounded as Kitah Daled enjoyed singing along to and acting out an Israeli Chanukah song, “The Tale of the Latkes (Chana Zelda).” This classic folk song tells the story of Rabbi Kalman, who just wants to eat latkes on Chanukah, and his wife Chana Zelda, who can’t make them because…well, there are lots of reasons. Students designed the look of the production with props and costumes, and delighted in acting out the silly song about a husband who ends up returning to the store a lot, a wife who is not interested in cooking, and the solution: Rabbi Kalman learns to make latkes. Click here or on the photo to watch the video they made, which displays the acting and comedic talents of our fourth graders.
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Building Menorahs–And Communication Skills |
Grades one through six played a game designed to practice communication skills called “See, Run, Build.” This Chanukah activity separated each grade into two teams, “Latkes” and “Sufganiot.” Within these smaller grade-based groups, two students were designated as “seers,” two more as “runners,” and the rest of the team as “builders.” The “seers” would be the only people on the team to see the picture of the item that was to be built (spoiler alert: they were all increasingly complex menorahs). The “seers” would then convey that information to the “runners,” who would in turn tell the “builders” what to build. The teams were awarded prizes based on how close they were to the original drawing, how well they communicated, and how well they worked together. |
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Nursery Bet Examines the Letter Chet |
Did you know that Nursery Bet students study the Hebrew language just like the older students? Morah Levana Gil’s Ulpan students are learning the Hebrew Alef-Bet, working on recognition of Hebrew letters and the sounds they make, letter order, and building their vocabularies. Both students and their Morah were very surprised to find out the letter of the week is ח (chet), which begins the the name holiday’s name of חנוכה (Chanukah). What a remarkable coincidence–and a great opportunity to learn many immediately useful Hebrew words that begin with the letter chet, like chanukiah (often called a menorah in the US) and chalon (window).
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ECC Enjoys Interactive Puppet Show |
Nursery Aleph, Nursery Bet, and Kindergarten students were treated to a very special performance of The Story of Chanukah by Small Wonder Puppets. The children became part of the story by playing the part of the Jewish people, shouting “No!” when the Antiochus puppet told them to bow to a statue or eat non-kosher meat. When asked, “Who are we?” the students enthusiastically shouted, “Maccabee!” and offered helpful suggestions to the puppets (“Look behind you!”). The puppeteer, Rabbi Yehuda Horowitz, is a second-generation performer who flew in from his home in Plano, Texas, to perform these shows in the New York area, and the ECC is grateful for the opportunity to see the Chanukah story so vividly brought to life.
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Kitah Bet’s Dreidels Land on Reading Adventures |
Morah Tikva’s Kitah Bet students played a Chanukah-based reading game which added reading into the dreidel-playing process. First, a student who spins the dreidel had to choose a random reading card from a deck prepared by Morah Tikva. Then, after the word was read successfully, the next student ventured a spin. All students read their words without any trouble; if only the dreidel spins had been as consistent in producing the desired results! Still, a great time was had by all. |
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Monday, December 26
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No school: Last day of Chanukah
Tuesday, December 27 and Thursday, December 29
Tuesday, December 27
Wednesday, December 28
- Challah Baking/Tzitzit Making
Thursday, January 12
Monday, January 16
- Chag HaSiddur
- Basketball game at NSHA, 6:45 pm
Thursday, January 19-Sunday, January 27
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