Mivaseret Mercaz #6, Parshat Noach

Volume 1, Issue 6 | October 28, 2022

MIVASERET MERCAZ

מבשרת מרכז

Mercaz Academy students have jumped back into learning after a beautiful Sukkot vacation. They are exploring the feel of pine cones and the insides of geodes, learning about both prophecy and halachah, building better words and bigger numbers. Scroll down to catch a glimpse of a week in the life of Mercaz Academy...

An exciting announcement from our principal, Rabbi Kalman Fogel

I am delighted to share some very exciting news for Mercaz Academy. Rav David Lau, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, will be visiting Mercaz Academy on Friday, November 4, from 9:00-9:45 a.m. This is a remarkable opportunity for our fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students to meet a man who is a leader in both Torah and Medinat Yisrael, the State of Israel.

At Rabbi Lau's request, his time at Mercaz Academy will be spent communicating directly with our students. We are honored to be chosen for this educational opportunity and confident that our students will grow with this memorable experience.

Mercaz Academy's Learning Center: More Than Just a Resource Room

"...Mrs. Debbie Simpser, Director of Mercaz Academy’s Learning Center, has been a familiar figure to parents and students for a long time–she started working at this campus in 1985. Her experience extends back even farther. Mrs. Simpser, who holds a Master’s in Special Education, started teaching afternoon Hebrew school while still in high school herself. She now directs our Learning Center, offering and coordinating all the services Mercaz Academy students need and deserve, but now with additional staff and enhanced capability to assist more students in more ways than ever before..."

What new services?

Fourth Grade Travels Through Time to the Book of Joshua

Kitah Daled is studying Nevi'im, Prophets, a subject added in the fourth grade. Kitah Daled always begins with Sefer Yehoshua, which requires a giant leap forward in time from the material being studied in Chumash. To conceptualize this time jump, Morah Levy distributed pictures of some important events on the Torah timeline among the students.

Their challenge? To sort themselves into the correct order without speaking. After a great deal of gesturing and some shuffling of places, Kitah Daled sorted themselves into the correct chronological order from the creation of the world to the death of Moshe Rabbeinu. Kitah Daled was then ready to move on to learn about B'nei Yisrael as they return to their homeland, led by Yehoshua bin Nun.

Counselor Corner: Kindness Flowers, Bracelets Are Reminders

Kindergarteners and Grades Two and Three have been learning about kindness and how their actions can make the world a better place. After reading some helpful books and discussing ways to change the world with kindness, students in Kindergarten and second grade decorated "kindness bracelets" that they can wear to remind them how incredibly kind they are and what they can do for others. The students in Grade Three created beautiful "kindness flowers" that list all the ways each individual child feels that he or she will spread kindness to others.

Sixth Grade Starts Gemara

Rabbi Rubel is preparing his Kitah Vav students for the study of Talmud with the use of Bright Beginnings, a workbook that teaches step-by-step methods for how to learn the material. They know about the world of the Gemara and have defined some Aramaic vocabulary. Now, students are focusing on "mini-lessons" designed to break down Gemara discussions into predictable steps, using the workbook's sample texts from Masechet Brachot. As Kitah Vav enters the world of text-based Talmud study in earnest, these practiced steps will make it a more familiar and less intimidating experience.

Kindergarteners Can Read!

Kindergarten students have been working on sight words this week, and now they can read the words I, like, a, the, and, to, see, and we. Students practiced their words in many different ways, including writing, reading, and spelling out the words with magnetic letters. While students usually ask a teacher how a word is spelled, a few of them checked the board where the words are posted to see for themselves instead. This was an excellent idea, displaying initiative and out-of-the-box thinking.

Word-Building With Kitah Bet

Kitah Bet has given a new meaning to word-building by incorporating a Jenga game into their kriyah (reading). Each Jenga block has a Hebrew word on it and, after removing blocks from the stack (very carefully), students sound out the word. What goes up must come down, but whatever happens to their Jenga structure, Morah Tikva's Kitah Bet class is building their Hebrew vocabulary and winning the learning game.

Second Grade STEM:

Discovering Geodes

One of the Mercaz Academy second graders, a budding geologist, generously donated several geodes to Mrs. Gonzalez-Spagnuolo's STEM lab. When the students broke them open, they discovered that some rocks have crystals inside! They learned that water can seep into the rock, and over many years crystals form as the water evaporates.

Second graders also learned about density, discovering that dense rocks are probably not geodes, as geodes are hollow. They tested their hypothesis by also breaking some ordinary, dense rocks they found on the Mercaz Academy campus. They were not geodes, but students did observe crystals embedded in the rock.

First Grade Puts a New Twist on Colors

The leaves are changing color and there's a famous rainbow in this week's Torah portion, Parshat Noach. Therefore, Morah Shani's Kitah Aleph students are learning their colors in Ivrit. They learned a Hebrew song, "Shir HaTzva'im" ("The Color Song,") and read a book called Pilim B'chol HaTzva'im (Elephants in All Colors). However, it was incorporating the game of Twister that truly made their studies a full-body experience. To finish off these colorful exercises, Kitah Aleph enjoyed playing games using multicolored discs provided by Coach Mikelberg.

Fifth Graders Circle Back in Math

Reviewing material for an upcoming math test doesn't have to be more of the same old thing, as Mrs. Papaccioli's fifth graders have discovered. Each student received a recording booklet and rotated among ten different math centers. These included math journaling to compare values between whole numbers and decimals; "This or That," to determine the correct number by reading clues; "Making Numbers," in which students use number tiles to create numbers with the least or greatest values; cutting, sorting, and gluing standard form, word form, and expanded form numbers; and more. The "Rotation Review" left our fifth graders feeling confident and ready to go.

Nursery Bet Fall Sensory Table

Morah Jo's Nursery Bet class fell into fall with an intriguing fall-themed sensory table. Students examined straw, wheat stalks, pumpkins, pine cones, and gourds up close--touching them, smelling them, and handling them to their hearts' content. In Nursery Bet, students don't just observe fall--they plunge right in and get to know it personally.

GrowTorah's Farmer Menuchah Visits Mercaz for Parshat Noach

In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Noach, Hashem instructs Noach to save two (or possibly 14) of each animal from the Flood. Farmer Menuchah led students in a discussion about why Hashem saved Noach's family and the animals. Students reflected on the value of compassion for creatures and ways to incorporate that into daily life. Farmer Menuchah "zoomed in" on the creatures in the Mercaz GrowTorah garden: insects. Students searched for the garden for insects, shared their sightings of their favorite bugs, and learned how many insects are beneficial to the garden. Farmer Menuchah helped them plan how to create and support an environment for these insects.

Mercaz students also learned that Noach's first act after the Flood was to plant a vineyard. They harvested beets for donation and sampled and picked dill flowers for friends and family, spreading the kindness and compassion that Hashem wants in our new world. Finally, getting their hands in the dirt to plant parsley was a great way to emulate Noach.