Mivaseret Mercaz #7, Parshat Lech Lecha

Volume 1, Issue 7 | November 4, 2022

MIVASERET MERCAZ

מבשרת מרכז

Mercaz Academy students were honored to welcome the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau. They also calculated, constructed, designed, collected and, as always, learned about the world in many different ways. Scroll down to catch a glimpse of a week in the life of Mercaz Academy...

A message from our assistant principal, Ms. Karen Leeper

At Mercaz Academy, our curriculum and master schedule supports a model that includes small group instruction. Small group instruction ensures that children receive differentiated instruction that supports their individualized learning goals.

Throughout my short time at Mercaz, I have had the incredible opportunity to see this in action, even with our youngest of students! It is evident that teachers support their students' diverse learning needs.

Teaching in small groups also allows teachers to adapt a lesson to a student's learning style, which refers to an individual’s preferred way to absorb, process, comprehend and retain information. Four examples of learning styles are: visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic. Research supports that differentiating the curriculum, along with creating purposeful and flexible grouping, significantly improves students' achievement at all levels. We will continue to focus on this model as the year progresses and use multiple forms of assessment and curricular resources to inform curriculum and instruction. Mercaz Academy is committed to providing children with the very best education and small group learning is one consistent component of our commitment.

Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel,

Rabbi David Lau, Visits Mercaz

Mercaz Academy students were honored with a visit from the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi David Lau, this morning. Rabbi Lau interacted with the children with warmth and humor, chatting with the younger students and taking questions from fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Explaining that the relationship to Torah and Israel are built by study and prayer, he inspired students to continue learning and connecting to Torah and Jews worldwide.

To see Rabbi Lau greet students, click here.

Kitah Hay Begins Mishnah

Rabbi Kramer is preparing Kitah Hay for the study of the sidrei Mishnah (orders or major sections of the Mishnah), the first written collection of the Oral Law. Of course, Kitah Hay recognized the topic from the classic Pesach song, "Echad Mi Yodea/Who Knows One?" ("...Six are the books of the Mishnah....")

Students began by learning the titles and topics of these six orders. Rabbi Kramer then reviewed and reinforced the lesson with Blooket, a computer game that creates exciting game play. This game separated students into teams, encouraging collaboration and the pooling of knowledge while making memorization fun.

Second Grade: Learning About the Native Americans

Mrs. Kirschenbaum's second grade class has just begun studying the first peoples of of our country, the Native Americans. They are learning about the tribes and how their practices and customs differed widely from each other. Second graders are excited to discover the different types of homes, clothing, and foods that Native Americans had based on their tribes and locations.

They are also looking forward to building Native American villages and having a celebratory feast at the end of the unit.

Sixth Grade Calculates Percentages

Mrs. Papaccioli's sixth grade math class is learning to calculate percentages. In the exercise pictured here, students were given a recording sheet and asked to walk around the room, finding and solving a number of task cards and recording their answers.

Although this was not a team activity, students were encouraged to consult with and assist their classmates as they moved around the room.

Pajama Night Was a Sleeper Hit

Students in the Early Childhood Center kicked off the first Pajama Night of the school year, and welcomed some new faces as well. Under the direction of ECC Coordinator Morah Jo Mlotok, students wore pajamas to the early evening party and allowed their parents--along with some new families interested in Mercaz Academy--to join them for a delicious dinner of salad and pizza.

Children ran to greet friends and enjoyed the crowd as their parents chatted and ate. After the meal, Morah Jo read a bedtime story about some techniques for putting overtired parents to bed while Morah Francie Goldberg led students in a relaxing pre-bed yoga session. The evening was topped off with a late-night snack of chocolate milk and cookies.

Jill Benjamin, who was visiting the school with her son Noah, spoke with a staff member. "We heard how warm and nurturing the Early Childhood Center is," she said. "And I can see that's true." It was clear from the turnout that no one wanted to miss Pajama Night. Everyone went home ready for bed and already counting down the days until the next one.

A family enjoys pizza in adorable matching pajamas.

Morah Jo reads a bedtime story.

Morah Francie and the children assume a relaxing yoga pose.

Fourth Grade Art: Ted Harrison Landscapes

Mrs. Liz Danziger's fourth grade students are creating landscapes in the style of Canadian artist Ted Harrison. Fourth graders learned about the strong lines that show the contour of the landscape, and which are just as important to the look of the piece as the bright color.

These heavy lines are drawn with wax crayons, which resist the paint when it is applied, maintaining the integrity of the line and separating individual areas of intense color. Fourth graders love the beauty and vividness produced by the use of these techniques.

Nursery Bet Looks at Fall Pumpkins In a Whole New Way

Nursery Bet has been focused on fall, with a lot of attention given to everyone's favorite gourd, the pumpkin. Nursery Bet made a pumpkin portrait this week using the less-conventional string method in place of brushes. Students really enjoyed pulling the paint-soaked string along the paper to make interesting lines on the pumpkins and, like all Mercaz students, Nursery Bet loves the color orange.

Third Grade STEM: Marble Run

The third grade has been working with Mrs. Gonzalez-Spagnuolo, popularly known as Mrs. S., to create marble runs out of tape, found objects, and toilet paper rolls. These students are designing a soaring, twisting, fast and furious ride for some lucky marbles.

They are considering factors such as kinetic energy, friction, and gravity, as well as the best designs for their material. Onlookers are eager to see the finished project and a little jealous of those marbles.

Kitah Bet Learning Shorashim

Morah Tikva's Kitah Bet students have been practicing their shorashim (roots). They know that Hebrew words are built with prefixes, roots, and suffixes, and have begun building their root vocabularies with frequently occurring verbs that they will find in the Chumash.

Kitah Bet has been memorizing these roots with a matching game called "Shorashim Addition," as well as using magnet tiles on the whiteboard to rewrite the shorashim. Kitah Bet is moving quickly towards their goal of learning Chumash with the actual text.

First Grade Creates Leaf People

First graders went on a leaf hunt in Mercaz Academy's playground, looking high and low for the most colorful and largest leaves. Students will use these leaves to construct "leaf people" that they will decorate, write about, and display.

They also helped Mrs. Wald decorate the Grade One bulletin board with a big and beautiful three-dimensional tree. The leaves on the tree were traced and cut out by the students, and each was decorated with a new fall vocabulary word.

Counseling Corner: Fifth Grade Enters Poster Contest

Fifth graders have been learning about digital citizenship. Cyberspace can be fascinating, educational, risky, and ever-present in unexpected ways, so it is important to teach students techniques regarding how to act and react when communicating online.

This week, fifth grade students were excited to work on “cyber safety” digital posters. They will use these lessons to design and present these posters, which will then be entered in a statewide contest for the best poster. We look forward to the State of New York taking note of Mercaz Academy fifth graders' cyber-savvy.

Parshat Lech Lecha in the Mercaz Academy GrowTorah Garden

This week, as always, sessions in the Mercaz Academy GrowTorah garden related lessons in nature to teachings of our Torah. In this week’s Torah portion, Parshat Lech Lecha, Hashem tells Avram (later to be known as Avraham) to leave his birthplace and go to the land Hashem will show him, the land of Canaan. When Avram arrives, he discovers there’s a famine.

Farmer Menuchah and the Mercaz Academy students discussed Avram’s feelings and actions, noting that he might have been saddened by this, but did not give up. Although Avram received no further instructions from Hashem at that time, Avram displayed initiative by traveling to Egypt for food. Similarly, Farmer Menuchah pointed out that Yaakov also escaped famine in Canaan by going to Egypt. Students realized that it’s sometimes important to take the initiative, trusting that Hashem’s help will soon follow.

Farmer Menuchah did not instruct Mercaz Academy students on what to do in the GrowTorah garden. Instead, the students worked together to figure out what had to be planted, picked, composted, or tasted in each bed. Together, they composted decayed flowers and squash, creating space where they planted fall seedlings, including collards, curly kale, and celery. They tasted dill, begonia petals, and chives, and smelled rosemary and sage. For a strong finish, Mercaz Academy students tapped into Avraham’s middah of chesed (trait of kindness) by harvesting a huge turnip and beet for donation.

These kindergarten students really enjoyed pulling and handling that enormous beet.