MIVASERET MERCAZ
מבשרת מרכז
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Mercaz Academy students have prepared for Thanksgiving by cultivating their gratitude through tefillah (prayer), but that's not the only way they demonstrated their thankfulness. They created, painted, led, taught, and learned. They read stories and read Rashis, classified and curated, and always remembered the things for which it's most important to be thankful. Scroll down to catch a glimpse of a week in the life of Mercaz Academy...
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Educational Technology at Mercaz Academy |
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Mrs. Last, right, coaches Mrs. Papaciolli on an upcoming fifth grade project. |
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As Mercaz Academy’s full-time Director of Technology, Mrs. Lynda Last devotes all of her attention to making sure that every teacher is well-equipped to use the best technological solutions in their classrooms, and that every student is prepared to benefit. She works with each teacher to integrate technology into every classroom and offers support to staff and students alike.
The Mercaz learning community is blessed with plenty of the latest educational technology (“ed tech”) to make learning better, faster, and smarter, like a Chromebook and/or an iPad for each student and the very latest in interactive touchboards in most classrooms. Mrs. Last orders, studies, and helps teachers use at least a dozen apps designed to make learning more robust and fun, from Torah apps like Lomdei to generalized learning apps like BrainPOP...
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Fifth Grade Performs a Two-Act Play, The Miracle of Spring
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Mrs. Papaciolli’s fifth grade reading students explored the genre of plays as literature that can be performed for an audience. They read a play in their reading workbook that, as a bonus review tool, contained their newest vocabulary words. Students carefully paid attention to production notes, stage directions, and how the characters' communication through dialogue moved the plot along. They enjoyed the exercise so much that, after the reading, they performed the entire two-act play, The Miracle of Spring. Even without costumes or sets, the impromptu actors displayed plenty of acting chops and enthusiasm.The fifth grade, no doubt, looks forward to their next dramatic opportunity.
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Mercaz Academy third graders have begun learning Rashi, the most famous and respected Torah commentator, whose work appears alongside the text in Tanach and Talmud. Morah Chaya's Kitah Gimmel students learned how he became the most well-known commentator and that his name is actually an acronym that stands for “Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki.” Students also learned how to read Rashi script, the unique font in which his work appears. They gained fluency in reading the script by playing Rashi-it (a version of the popular game Spot-it), which was both great practice and great fun.
Now, after learning a pasuk, Kitah Gimmel puts on their “Rashi Caps” to think about questions Rashi might have answered with his commentary. What is it about certain words and phrases in the Torah text that caught Rashi’s attention? After they spot the question, they are always impressed by Rashi’s ability to resolve it with a perfect solution.
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Second Grade Classifies Animals, Learns Picture Writing |
Mrs. Kirschenbaum’s second grade students have been very busy this week and are well into their unit on animal classification. Students have already learned the special characteristics of mammals, reptiles, birds, and fish, and are able to explain the difference between “warm-blooded” and “cold-blooded.”
The upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving will be the capstone for the second graders’ study of Native Americans. The class is currently learning about picture writing and arrowheads. Students will be making model Native American villages to display all that they have learned about Native American houses, cultures, and ways of life, as well as to celebrate these heroes of Thanksgiving.
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Kitah Daled Discovers Sigd, a National Holiday in Israel |
Kitah Daled has been learning about another upcoming holiday that is not as well known as Thanksgiving. It is called Sigd, and it was brought to Israel by the aliyah from Ethiopia. The fourth grade discovered that Jews called the Beta Yisrael have been living in that area for thousands of years, mostly isolated from other Jewish communities. Most Beta Yisrael have been rescued by the Israeli government from what had become a war zone, beginning in the 1980s with Operation Moses and continuing until as recently as last year.
As they became a presence in Israel, the Beta Yisrael introduced the holiday they celebrate on the 29th day of Cheshvan–Sigd. This date falls exactly fifty days after Yom Kippur, and memorializes the day that tradition says Moshe “saw” Hashem. When in Ethiopia, the Beta Yisrael fasted on that date, climbed to a high place, and prayed to be returned to Jerusalem. Now that prayer has been fulfilled, a powerful testament to the power of tefillah. Today, they gather on the promenade of Armon Hanetziv, a neighborhood on high ground in Jerusalem, and pray for the rebuilding of the Beit Hamikdash. Kitah Daled is creating a bulletin board to share their newfound knowledge with Mercaz Academy students.
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Nursery Aleph Creates Thanksgiving Centerpieces |
Morah Esther’s Nursery Aleph students have created beautiful turkey centerpieces to grace their Thanksgiving tables. These fanciful creations are made of recycled cardboard and paper, which Nursery Aleph students lovingly painted with brushes. After they glue on a beak, eyes, and beautiful feathers, these turkeys will be ready to stand festively alongside their tastier brothers (or their vegetarian equivalents).
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Kitah Bet Takes Last Step Before Learning Chumash
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Kitah Bet has just received their “Hachana L’Chumash” workbook, which is the last step before they begin learning Torah inside the text. Building upon the vocabulary and conversational Hebrew that the students have already learned, this workbook formally introduces the concept of gendered language as an introduction to text-decoding in Hebrew, as well as preparing students to recognize the construction of words with the building blocks of prefix, root, and suffix. Finally, Morah Tikva will explain the way in which words change when they are plural, and then Kitah Bet will be ready to launch themselves in Torah learning with Sefer Bereisheet. These second graders are excited to be so close to the beginning of “grown-up” Torah learning.
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Kindergarten Conducts Impromptu Math Lesson |
Mercaz Academy students are always observing the world around them and integrating what they’ve learned. Our Kindergarten students enjoyed an impromptu math lesson at recess this week. As they played outside, students were thinking about the mathematical concepts of “greater” and “lesser” that they had learned in class. They started collecting flowers, rocks, leaves, and twigs and comparing the collections to determine which was greater and which was lesser in number. Kindergarten students know that learning happens everywhere.
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Parshat Chayei Sarah in the Mercaz Academy GrowTorah Garden |
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Our Mercaz Academy GrowTorah garden always brings to life the connection between Torah and Hashem’s natural world. In this week’s parsha, Chayei Sarah, Avraham sends Eliezer to find a wife for Yitzchak. Eliezer knew that the right person would be compassionate, and he prayed that he would be able to discern her compassion immediately by witnessing her offer to water his camels as well as himself. Hashem answered his prayer–Rivka offered water to Eliezer and to his camels as well, displaying her generosity and sensitivity to all. Farmer Menuchah led a discussion of how to implement this Torah value of compassion for Hashem’s creatures in our daily lives and our garden.
When students entered the garden, they noticed that the first frost of the season had affected some plants, while others were still growing strong. They composted the plants that weren’t growing anymore to make space in which to plant carrot and parsley seeds, as well as garlic cloves. Farmer Menuchah explained that planting the garlic in the fall gives it time to grow large, sturdy roots underground, and those will enable our garlic to grow faster and stronger come springtime.
Finally, students built upon their own trait of compassion as they harvested beans and carrots for donation. They also took the opportunity to taste carrot greens and dill. Mercaz Academy students look forward to more chilly days in the garden because they understand that there’s still more to harvest, plant, and do to prepare the GrowTorah garden beds for winter.
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Fifth graders harvest beans for donation. |
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Kindergarten students discover carrots for harvesting. |
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ECC Unveils Kindness Rock Garden |
This week, the Early Childhood Center unveiled their Kindness Rock Garden. Located next to the Mercaz Academy GrowTorah garden, the Kindness Rock Garden stands under a sign suggesting that passersby “take one for inspiration, share one for motivation, or leave one to help our garden grow.” Nursery Bet students, inspired by stories of Rivkah’s kindness from this week’s Torah portion, Chayai Sarah, are adding their own words of kindness on beautifully painted rocks. Nursery Bet is proud to do their part to spread kindness throughout Mercaz Academy.
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Heard in the Hallway:
What Are You Thankful For?
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Nina Boxer says: "I am thankful for Hashem." |
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Simcha Barzideh says: "That Hashem gave me my family." |
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Sivan Levi says: "My dog!" |
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Tuesday, November 22
Wednesday, November 23
Thursday, November 24
Friday, November 25
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No school, Thanksgiving break
Monday, November 28
- In-Person Parent-Teacher Conferences
Tuesday, December 6
- Google Meet Parent-Teacher Conferences
Thursday, December 9
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