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How high can you swing on a flying trapeze? 4G investigated the patterns of motion exhibited by trapeze by building a model trapeze. They made observations and took measurements of the motion of the model and used that data to predict the motions of the real trapeze.

This past Friday and Monday, Mrs. Bolnick's third grade classroom was transformed into a "Math Bakery" as students dressed up as bakers and rotated through fun, hands-on learning centers! Using creative activities and teamwork, students practiced important math skills like multiplication and division fact families, the distributive property, and the commutative property. They followed center directions independently, worked together to help one another, and even created their own “sheet cakes” using graham crackers and decorations. It was a joyful and engaging way to build confidence, cooperation, and deeper understanding, all while having lots of fun baking up some math learning!

Many of the enrichment students' passion projects include elements of 3 Dimensional design. The fourth grade girls started the process of learning this skill by learning 3d design with block coding. Students learned how various code elements worked and used their knowledge to customize their own keychains to their preferred design. Not only did the students get a great personalized keychain out of the activity, they also gained skills that will be invaluable in actualizing their passion projects.

TDSA's seventh grade girls learned all about Gedolim from Jewish History and used their knowledge to create adorable picture books. The girls then shared their picture books with the Kindergarten Girls. The older and younger girls sat and read the books together. It was a beautiful way to share important knowledge about great Torah Scholars and Jewish History with our younger students!

Ms. Turner's fourth grade students are now experts in vintage cars! The boys read the classic story "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" by Sir Ian Fleming. They used that as a spring-board to learn about various models of vintage cars and about different car designs. To finish off this fascinating unit, the boys created their own model cars out of carboard and paint. Aren't they impressive?

The mood was somber throughout the school as we remembered the fallen Israeli soldiers of the IDF and victims of terrorist attacks. Boys and girls in the Middle school participated in a Yom HaZikaron ceremony that explained the meaning of the day, recited prayers for the z'chus of the fallen and their families, a bracha for the current soldiers, and tehilim for all of Klal Yisroel. Mrs. Kalnitz shared stories about Capt. Dekel Swissa, a valiant young man from Bar Giora who served as a Captain in the Golani Brigade,13th Battalion, and was killed at the Paga outpost on October 7 while saving his platoon. Dekel was TDSA's Shinshin in 2018 and lived with the Kalnitz family during his stay in Atlanta.
The lower school visited a display in the lobby depicting a timeline of the wars since the State of Israel's inception. Tomorrow, the mood swings as we celebrate Yom HaAtzmaut as a TDSA community.

How do you know the agenda for the day? You read it, of course! I walked into this Kindergarten class as they were learning the day's plan through a reading activity. This boy was asked to find a blended sound of "ST" within the letter about their major activity. Can you find it? He did!

Escape rooms involve critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration; all excellent skills to build in an academic experience. 8th grade Humanities is learning about the Cold War. Throughout the hallway and the classroom, small groups of girls were intensely focused on escaping from the communist, East side of the Berlin Wall to the West side of Germany during this escape-room-style learning activity. In this picture, the group is using Google Translate to understand German documents to help them on their journey. It was amazing to see these girls engaged in such a creative and valuable way while learning!

8G invited me to view their Ivrit presentations today. Working in pairs, they thought of rooms that served a useful purpose. Then they wrote about these rooms in Hebrew and put it on a slide show or poster. Each group presented their project entirely in Hebrew! It was amazing to see their pride, creativity, and skill

These 5th grade boys didn't even notice me walk into the classroom - they were so intensely engaged in this group discussion. Mrs. Bendicoff split the class into sections, some worked independently while this group shared their thoughts in a literature circle format on the the historical fiction book: "If I lived at the Time of the Signing of the Constitution". They came up with some insightful ideas!

"Which two arctic animals will never meet?" This is the question a kindergarten girl asked me as I observed them making polar bears, arctic hares, walruses, snow foxes, and the like. Each table featured a slew of arts and crafts supplies for the excited girls to create their cold-climate animals they learned all about during science. The answer - which I was proud to get correct - is penguins and Polar Bears. Each is native to a different pole of the globe (North and South). Ask a Kindergartener which lives where!