MIVASERET MERCAZ
מבשרת מרכז
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Mercaz students celebrated text-based learning and mixed some chemical concoctions, spoke Hebrew in their pajamas and reviewed books on their breakfast cereals. We floated and painted Baby Moshe, advocated for Israel, spelled our way to the head of the class, and studied kashrut. Scroll down for a glimpse of the last two weeks at Mercaz Academy...
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Mercaz Academy Celebrates Chag Hachumash! |
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Kitah Bet Receives Their First Chumashim, Upgrades Their Torah Study |
Kitah Bet received their first Chumash today, celebrating a milestone in their learning as they begin their text-based Torah study. In their Chag HaChumash, Kitah Bet presented a program including songs, recitations, and some adorable dance moves, delighting their audience of family and friends. Their performance demonstrated not only their knowledge of the Torah they are learning, but their joy in Torah study. After presenting each student with a Chumash of his or her very own, Rabbi Fogel noted the excitement Kitah Bet brought to their Chag Hachumash.
“Jewish people often find themselves shuckling, shaking back and forth, as they learn Torah,” Rabbi Fogel told the students. He connected this to the idea of shaking with excitement, as B’nei Yisrael did when they received the Torah. “The excitement you feel, receiving your Chumash,” Rabbi Fogel told them, “Is the same excitement your grandparents felt, receiving theirs, and the same excitement felt at Har Sinai.”
Having taken their place in the chain of Torah transmission, Kitah Bet and their guests enjoyed delicious cake provided by the PTA. Congratulations, Kitah Bet and Morah Tikva, on this momentous occasion! MORE PHOTOS
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Pajama Night Two: An Immersive Israeli Experience |
Our Early Childhood Center enjoyed its second Pajama Night of the school year, with ECC Coordinator Morah Jo Mlotok welcoming families old and new to check out Mercaz Academy after dark. This Pajama Night focused on introducing younger current and potential students to the Hebrew language learning taking place at Mercaz Academy.
ECC students wore their pajamas to the evening event–but no one was ready for bed yet at Mercaz! Children from the Toddlers, Nursery Aleph, Nursery Bet, and Kindergarten classes and their parents welcomed guest families and ate a delicious meal of pasta, hummus, and Israeli salad. Afterward, the children divided into two groups to enjoy some all-Hebrew language pre-bedtime entertainment, switching midway so no one missed anything...MORE PHOTOS
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Older Students Buzzing About Scripps National Spelling Bee |
Students at Mercaz are buzzing with excitement about entering the Scripps National Spelling Bee. The Scripps Bee is a longstanding American institution since its first spelling bee in 1925, and Mercaz Academy fourth, fifth, and sixth graders are seizing their opportunity to spell their way to the top.
The spelling journey begins with a class spelling bee and, as in all previous years except 2020 (COVID) and 1943-1945 (World War II), the National Spelling Bee will take place in Washington, D.C. after Memorial Day. Mercaz has taken its first step on the road to glory, holding class bees for the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades and selecting the top two or three spellers in each grade, depending on class size. Next week, these talented spellers will compete in the schoolwide spelling bee, and those winners will have a few months to practice before they proceed to the Long Island/Westchester Regional Spelling Bee in March.
Assistant Principal Karen Leeper conducted the three class bees, and she was pleased to see the enthusiasm with which students participated. "Spelling bees add excitement to a subject that isn't often viewed as exciting," she explained. "They also reward hard work and perseverance, which I love!"
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Fourth Graders Cerealize Their Novels: Not A Spelling Error |
Students in the fourth grade have cerealized several novels, adding a sprinkle of colorful fun to the nutritious goodness of their literary studies. After selecting and reading a novel, each student modified a cereal box to share the story with the class. Students used clever wordplay and creativity to come up with a name for their novel cereal (for example, Cereal of a Wimpy Kid). The ingredients on the side–so important for both cereals and book reports–contained a list of characters as well as the setting (another necessary ingredient). Students wrote a summary of the plot on the other side of the box.
Every breakfast-eating fourth grader knows that the back of the cereal box is dedicated to a game or puzzle, so each student used the events or setting of the novel to create one (word searches featuring vocabulary from the novel were a popular choice). Of course, when you finish the book report, you reach the prize inside: an item added to the box representing the book or a character in it.
Fourth graders found these book reports to be nicely sweetened as well as packed with information, and they are highly recommended for readers of cereal fiction.
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Orthodox Union Kashrut Authority Teaches Fifth and Sixth Grade |
Rabbi Dov Schreier, the Rabbinic Coordinator for OU Food Services, visited Mercaz Academy fifth and sixth graders to share his expertise on kashrut.
Rabbi Schreier began by posing the question, “What is kosher?” He explained that it means fit, proper, and that animals must be properly prepared. What makes something not kosher? Rabbi Schreier pointed out that several common ingredients can cause kashrut problems, such as gelatin (an animal product), carmine (a food coloring agent that can be derived from insects), any grape products, and some natural flavors.
When Rabbi Schreier is determining if a product is kosher or not, he checks the ingredients, the equipment, and the manufacturing process. For example, if the machines that process the food have been used to process dairy foods, Rabbi Schreier would certify it as OU kosher, but would add a DE for “dairy equipment.” He explained that shoppers must check labels very carefully to make sure that each product is kosher–if one product bears an OU, it doesn’t follow that all of the other products of the same brand or type are also kosher.
The fifth and sixth grade students found the presentation interesting and informative, and thank him for sharing his knowledge with them.
Reporting by a sixth grade attendee!
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Once More, Mercaz Students Move the Levers of Government for Israel |
Fifth and sixth graders again urged leaders in the United States government to maintain support for Israel, while they reinforced their understanding of how the federal government works and how citizens can seek to persuade elected officials. Building on their prior Israel advocacy session, in which these students petitioned their senators to continue their support for Israel, the students now focused attention on the executive branch and the leadership of the House of Representatives.
The students came to realize that various branches of government have a hand in the foreign policy of the United States. Aid to Israel is approved by the passage of legislation from both the Senate and the House, the students learned, and the President of the United States must likewise be in favor of that foreign aid package. With that in mind, our upper graders sent personalized emails to President Joe Biden and to Speaker of the House Michael Johnson to encourage their further support of Israel in this time of crisis. (They would also have written to the congressional representative for the district in which Mercaz Academy is located—but that seat is vacant just now.)
With these experiences, we are confident that our student activists will continue to act as engaged citizens for the benefit of Israel, our Jewish community, and society as a whole.
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Kitchen Chemistry for Fifth Graders |
What do you get when you add fifth graders in search of scientific discoveries to ordinary household items like cream of tartar, baking soda, baking powder, vinegar, and water?
Fifth grade students divided into small groups to find out the answer, beginning by adding cream of tartar first to water, then to vinegar. After this produced nothing interesting, they continued on, trying baking soda, baking powder, and a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar in both water and vinegar. They hit the biggest jackpot with the baking soda and vinegar mixture, creating a foamy fountain of what appeared to be a new substance with different properties than the original; other combinations either failed to react or, while forming a new substance, reacted with less spectacular results.
After comparing the weight of these new substances with the weight of their component parts, the fifth grade chemists learned that the total amount of water remains even when it changes form, that the total weight of the substances also does not change when combined, and that when you’re experimenting with combinations of chemicals, sometimes you get a bit of a mess…but it’s always interesting!
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Toddlers Learn About Baby Moshe for Parshat Shemot |
Mercaz Academy’s youngest students demonstrated that they are active Torah learners, too! The two year olds in the Toddler class learned the story of a baby from Jewish history, Moshe Rabbeinu. They know that Moshe’s mother wanted to keep her baby safe, just like their own mothers do with their children. Because it wasn’t safe for Moshe to stay at home, Moshe’s mother put him in a basket and floated him on the Nile River, so he could be found and cared for by Pharaoh’s daughter.
After a few experiments floating boats with dolls aboard in a basin of water, the toddlers felt they were ready to bring the lesson home. As an explanatory aid, they painted paper baskets; each student enjoyed adding Baby Moshe to the basket, along with a cozy and colorful blanket to keep him warm. They are looking forward to sharing the Torah they’ve learned with their families this Shabbat, just like the “big kids” at Mercaz Academy!
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Wednesday, January 10
- Join us for a home game! Mercaz Mustangs Boys Basketball vs. YDE, 7:30 pm
- Join us for an away game! 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 for an away game! 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 for an away game! Mercaz Mustangs Boys Basketball vs. YDH, 8:00 pm
Thursday, January 18-28
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