MIVASERET MERCAZ
מבשרת מרכז
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Mercaz Academy collaborated and cooperated, separated into a rainbow of colors and came together. We wrote megillot, taught our friends, and piloted drones high over our school. Mercaz Academy remembered things, described things, and turned things upside down. We planted seeds and prepared for the future. Scroll down for a glimpse of the last week at Mercaz Academy...
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Surprise! Color Shalom Came Early! |
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Color Shalom: Cooperation in Competition |
Spring seems to have arrived early this year, and just in time for Color Shalom! Friday morning line-up began with what seemed like a sixth-grade quarrel, but it was all a ruse: signs and confetti poppers revealed that it was a Color Shalom breakout. As always, the school was divided into four teams: Team Torah (blue), Team Tzedakah (orange), Team Tefillah (green), and Team Ma’asim Tovim (yellow). This year, the themes of Color Shalom were collaboration and support for Israel in the war. Each team was assigned an active-duty IDF soldier to support with letter-writing, and Israel was on our minds and figured prominently throughout Color Shalom.
In the first collaborative event, each team stood in formation to shape one Hebrew cursive letter, which in combination spelled the words “Mercaz” and “Torah.” This was an impressive lesson on the power of working together, particularly when photographed from the air by the school’s new drone.
In addition to clever and thoughtful skits and divrei Torah explaining the significance of their team names, there was fun and collaborative competition throughout the three-day program...MORE PHOTOS
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Sixth Grade Pilots Take To The Air With Media Lab Drone |
As mentioned previously in Mivaseret Mercaz, a technology microgrant from the Jewish Education Project gave us the first Mercaz Academy Media Lab in the form of a video recording studio, complete with a new iPad for recording and editing, a green screen, a teleprompter…and a drone for aerial recording.
Working as a team, and during recess and lunch enrichment time, sixth graders have been learning to operate the drone. The activity allows students to acquire expertise in piloting techniques, photography, and coding. Piloting the drone is also an exercise in collaboration, as the pilot looks through the lens of the drone (seeing what the drone sees) and the spotter watches the drone in the sky to ensure that it is operating safely and not flying into danger. The sixth graders have learned the necessary safety rules–the drone can fly no higher than 400 feet, must be grounded if there’s a plane nearby, and must stay clear of trees and wires. The first team of drone pilots photographed Color Shalom from the air, and all the students at Mercaz are enjoying their new birds-eye view of the school.
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Nursery Bet Students Write Their Own Megillot
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After hearing the story of Purim, Nursery Bet students were asked to draw each of the five main characters in Megillat Esther–Achashverosh, Vashti, Mordechai, Esther, and Haman–and dictate a short description of them to be put into their own megillot. The literary exercise allowed the Nursery Bet students to practice memory and empathy and incorporate logic and creativity, and helped make the information more personal and comprehensible to them.
Many students chose to include their own ideas and worldviews into the descriptions of the people from the Megillah. King Achashverosh, many agreed, liked parties; additional (speculative) details contributed by Nursery Bet answered their unspoken questions about motive. Why did Achashverosh like parties? Of course, children related this information to their own experiences at parties with additions such as, “He liked to dance to the music,” “he liked to eat cake,” and the very specific “he ate a lot of cupcakes.” One empathetic Nursery Bet student described Vashti as not feeling well due to the red spots on her face, adding “She took off her high heels because her feet hurt,” a clever and successful attempt to quite literally walk in Vashti’s shoes. The illustrations are beautiful and filled with color and detail.
With the addition of four pages for the mitzvot of Purim, the Nursery Bet Megillah will be complete, and we’re sure these megillot will add greatly to their parents’ enjoyment of the holiday.
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Kitah Daled Turns Classroom Roles Upside Down For Purim |
Kitah Daled students have been examining the four mitzvot of Purim: megillah, mishteh (the Purim feast), matanot l’evyonim (gifts to the poor), and mishloach manot (sending gifts of food to one another). The class was divided into four groups, each with a mitzvah of Purim to research. Each group was charged to find at least four dinim (laws) and four minhagim (customs) to enable the mitzvot to be properly fulfilled, and then to present the information to their classmates. The Kitah Daled students designed clever, creative, and thorough presentations that included posters, slideshows, and computer games.
Kitah Daled truly relished their opportunity to “v’nahafoch,” turn things upside down, and take on the teacher role. How appropriate for Purim!
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Second Grade Studies Light, Finds Rainbows |
Second graders have been conducting some experiments, and the results have prepared them to shed some light on…light. The students began by shining a flashlight at various objects to determine if the items were transparent (a window), translucent (a piece of paper), or opaque (a table). Discovering that light and heat are connected, they expanded their thinking and performed additional experiments to determine what sort of materials conduct heat well or not, and learned of two different scales to measure heat, Fahrenheit and Celsius.
However, these young scientists were quite surprised by the results when Mrs. Kirschenbaum gave them prisms to use to view ordinary daylight. The prisms refracted the white light into all the colors of the spectrum, and the students were shocked to discover that white light is actually made up of all the colors working together. The second graders enjoyed shining beautiful rainbows around the classroom, using prisms to demonstrate the lessons of Color Shalom: we can be so much more united in a whole that still contains each beautiful and individual color.
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Fifth Grade Enjoys Several Pieces of Pi Day |
The fifth graders celebrated Pi Day on March 14, so named because 3/14 correlates with the first three digits of the mathematical constant. Students learned that pi describes the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter, and that the digits of pi never end.
Mrs. Papaccioli wondered which fifth grade student could memorize the most digits of pi, and seven students took up the challenge. After an impressive exhibition by the contestants, the winner was determined to have memorized 83 digits of pi. This was quite an accomplishment because the numbers in pi don’t repeat, and though mathematicians have calculated pi up to trillions of decimal places, there is no pattern evident.
The lucky winner was rewarded with three homework passes for his numerical feat.
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GrowTorah Returns to Mercaz Along With Warmer Weather |
It’s been feeling a lot like spring, and GrowTorah is back to guide our Torah-based gardening. This week, Farmer Menuchah introduced a Hebrew saying: “Kedushah tzricha hachanah, holiness requires preparation.” Students prepared the garden for spring by removing the plants that had decayed, adding fresh soil, and composting twigs and leaves. They also prepared for Pesach by planting wheat and parsley. Wheat is necessary to make matzah for Pesach, while parsley is an excellent spring vegetable to dip into salt water as karpas for the seder. After all, Pesach is only seven weeks away–not much time from the perspective of a seed.
The students examined the garden beds closely to determine which plants had survived the cold and which had not. Second graders were delighted to note that the garlic bulbs they planted in the fall were showing bright green shoots, and Nursery Bet students were surprised to see last year’s parsley already flourishing. They made a bracha and tasted the collard greens (hearty enough to survive the winter) and the new parsley. Mercaz students are looking forward to planting a variety of vegetables and herbs this spring!
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Last chance to register for the PTA Family Friendly Megillah Reading and Breakfast Purim Seudah! Click the flyer to register. |
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After the Family Friendly Megillah Reading and Seudah on March 24, visit the Mercaz Academy booth at Mid-Island Y-JCC's Purim Carnival, with face painting and games! |
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Kindergarten students wearing Torah crowns in honor of the completion of Sefer Shemot in the weekly Torah cycle! Chazak, chazak, v'nit'chazek!
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Tuesday, March 19
- ECC-Grade 6 Remote Parent Teacher Conferences
Thursday, March 21
- Regular dismissal, ECC-Grade 6: Ta'anit Esther
Sunday, March 24
- Purim
- PTA Family-Friendly Megillah Reading and Breakfast Purim Seudah, ECC-Grade 6 (and friends)
Monday, April 1
- Deadline to register for district busing for the 2024-2025 school year
Wednesday, April 3
- Grade 5 State Fair (note change in date)
Wednesday, April 17
Friday, April 19-Wednesday, May 1
Thursday, May 2
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