MIVASERET MERCAZ
מבשרת מרכז
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Mercaz students showed their mettle in competition and in life! In the last two weeks, we've raced model cars and robots, mapped out our chess moves and transmitted the chain of Torah, played the harp and read to friends, and made our own sundaes and our own fun--not to mention performing for children, donating toys, and creating a Mitzvah Fair. Scroll down for a glimpse of the last two weeks at Mercaz Academy...
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Mercaz Robotics Team Competes at CIJE Inter-Yeshiva Robotics League Tournament |
Fourteen fourth and fifth graders, bursting with excitement, competed yesterday in the elementary division of the CIJE Robotics League Tournament. It was the culmination of months of hard work in which the extracurricular Robotics Club spent one or more recesses a week working together to build robots for the tournament. Through lots of collaboration as well as trial and error, and under the guidance of Director of Educational Technology Lynda Last, five teams from Mercaz completed robots able to fulfill the assigned tasks at the tournament.
The Mercaz Academy teams joined at least 50 schools–one school flew in from Texas to compete–and more than 150 robots at the event, which was held at HAFTR. Over the course of more than 200 rounds, members of the Robotics Club...MORE PHOTOS
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Chess Club Holds Awards Ceremony |
Mercaz Academy’s Chess Club, part of our popular after-school program, marked the end of the semester with a chess tournament and awards ceremony last week. After gaining experience throughout the early months, players from kindergarten through grade six competed with each other in chess matches at the tournament, moving from one match to the next and accumulating points for a maximum of five points. Chess players with five points were awarded a first place trophy, those with four points received a second place trophy, players with three points earned a third place trophy, and the remaining players were awarded chess medals.
These students learned “The Game of Kings,” while (unbeknownst to them) exercising their logic skills, developing their pattern recognition and their memories, and advancing in information analysis and decision making. These valuable skills will serve them well as they make their moves in school and the world at large.
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Mercaz Student Council Lights Up Chanukah |
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Initiatives Include Toy Drive, Mitzvah Fair, Visit to ELC in Merrick |
Mercaz Academy’s Student Council put incredible effort and creativity into their initiatives over Chanukah. The Student Council, composed of fifth and sixth grade students, organized a variety of impactful programs, including a toy drive to bring joy to families in Israel. Your generous contributions made this initiative a tremendous success, and we are grateful for your support in spreading the light of Chanukah.
In addition to the toy drive, the Student Council orchestrated a Mitzvah Fair at the PTA Chanukah Chagigah, providing our students with meaningful opportunities to engage in mitzvot and support Israel. The Student Council also spread smiles on their visit to the Alan & Tatyana Forman Jewish Early Learning Center in Merrick, where they presented a beautiful Chanukah program. Mercaz Student Council members performed Chanukah songs and an entertaining skit about an olive that longed to make up the pure oil to light the menorah. After the show...MORE PHOTOS
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Kindergarteners Find Appreciative Audience in Reading Buddies |
Once upon a time, there was a group of tiny stuffed animals that were in search of someone to read them a story. When kindergarten teacher Mrs. Reinhardt encountered the group, she knew exactly how to solve their problem. She scooped them up, brought them to her kindergarten class at Mercaz Academy, and offered each of her students the opportunity to adopt one.
The students, each having chosen the stuffed friend he or she loved best, called them Reading Buddies and carried them wherever they went. Now, whenever these kindergarteners find it necessary to read a story–a frequent occurrence, both at home and at school–they can be assured that they have an enthusiastic and appreciative audience.
Thus did the Reading Buddies find forever homes, in which they will never be bored and can always hear wonderful stories.
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Fourth Grade Divides Into Math Stations, Adds Chanukah, Multiplies Fun |
The fourth grade added Chanukah fun to their multiplication skills with some new additions in their classroom practice. Students rotated through three Chanukah-themed stations, sharpening their multiplication skills as they celebrated the miracle of the oil. There was a Multiplication War station, in which the card game War was adapted to require multiplication to play; a dreidel puzzle multiplication game had students solving multiplication problems to know where the puzzle piece should be put in a dreidel frame; and, on their Chromebooks, students fashioned multiplication-based pixel art. Fourth graders loved Mrs. DeMeo’s creative math, and found that, while nothing has been subtracted from their drills, the fun was definitely multiplied. |
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Kitah Bet Models the Chain of Torah Transmission |
As they prepare to receive their very first Chumash, the tool that will enable them to study the written Torah, Kitah Bet has been learning about the chain of transmission of the Oral Law. They know that when Moshe came back from Har Sinai after receiving the Torah, he explained the oral part of the Torah to other leaders, and they in turn passed that knowledge to still more people. But another important transmission had to happen: from parents to their children, who passed the Torah’s teachings down to their children, and so on…and now it has reached Kitah Bet.
The students of Kitah Bet modeled this by making a giant paper chain to represent the Torah being handed down, generation after generation. They can see that each link in the chain is important; that each link represents someone learning Torah, and passing it on to the next generation of young learners. Kitah Bet students are very excited to take their place in this chain of transmission, and know that they will be strong links to keep the Torah going for the rest of the chain.
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First Graders Make Their Own Sundaes at Well-Deserved Marble Party |
First graders have been behaving beautifully for some time, and Mrs. Wald has been adding a marble to the class marble jar every time she sees a student making the right choices. She is proud to report that, on Chanukah, the jar became too full to add any more marbles, and the first graders celebrated the event with a marble jar party! This special celebration included make-your-own sundaes, with students exercising their choices by adding as many toppings as they wished.
Since the party was on the last day of Chanukah, they also played a dreidel game, listened to Chanukah music, enjoyed a viewing of A Rugrats Chanukah and a Mickey Mouse dreidel video, and received Chanukah presents. Mrs. Wald and the first graders agreed that it was “such a fun afternoon,” and look forward to the next time the marble jar is filled. Yasher koach, first grade!
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Fourth Grade Speed Racing in Science |
Fourth graders experienced an exciting science lesson in converting potential energy to kinetic energy by racing model cars down an incline! Students set up racetracks, using piles of books (and some chairs!) to vary the degree of incline on the track. Students began by predicting how far they thought the cars would go on each racetrack variation. After sending the car speeding down the slope, they measured and recorded the distance traveled by the cars. Trial and error showed the fourth graders that the greater the incline, the greater the potential energy and the farther the race cars would go–and if the racetrack started out on a tabletop, the race car might even end up in the closet! As with all lessons, our students’ potential interest in science is converting to kinetic interest as well. |
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Kindergarten Learns to Imitate Serach Bat Asher for Parshat Vayigash |
For this week’s parsha, Vayigash, kindergarten students learned many lessons, including the midrashic tale of Serach, daughter of Asher. The midrash tells us that, when Yaakov was told that Yosef was still alive, his sons wanted to break the news to him gently, fearing that the sudden shock of hearing it could be harmful to him. Therefore, Asher’s daughter Serach sang of Yosef’s survival, accompanying herself on the harp, and he was able to absorb the information gradually.
Kindergartners made their very own paper harps–printing “Vayigash” in Hebrew letters on the top–and are now able to softly sing along like Serach, which their parents will appreciate very much should there be any startling information to convey.
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Monday, December 25
Tuesday, December 26
- Join us! Mercaz Mustangs Girls Basketball vs. Yeshivat Har Torah, 7:30 pm
Monday, January 1
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No school: New Year's Day
Tuesday, January 2
- Join us for a Home Game! Mercaz Mustangs Boys Basketball vs. Yeshiva of Central Queens, 7:00 pm
Wednesday, January 3
- Join us for a Home Game! Mercaz Mustangs Girls Basketball vs. North Shore Hebrew Academy, 7:30
Thursday, January 4
- Join us! Second Grade Chagigat HaChumash
Wednesday, January 10
- Join us for a Home Game! Mercaz Mustangs Boys Basketball vs. YDE, 7:30 pm
- Join us! Mercaz Mustangs Girls Basketball vs. YOF SH, 8:00 pm
Thursday, January 11
- ECC-Grade Six Rosh Chodesh Shevat Shuk
Sunday, January 14
- Join us! Mercaz Mustangs Boys Basketball vs. Barkai, 7:45 pm
Monday, January 15
- Join us! First Grade Chagigat HaSiddur
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No busing: MLK Jr. Day, regular classes
Tuesday, January 16
- Join us for a Home Game! Mercaz Mustangs Girls Basketball vs. YHT, 6:15 pm
- Join us! Mercaz Mustangs Boys Basketball vs. YDH, 8:00 pm
Thursday, January 18-28
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