Torah Day School of Atlanta Home

This past Wednesday, marked the yearly anniversary (Yahrtzeit) of the passing of the Chacham, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Thank you so much to Rabbi Levy or the Netzach Yisrael Shul here in Atlanta for coming to speak to our third grade boys about Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and his legacy. The boys learned about the importance of always trying in their learning and about focusing not just on their own spiritual growth, but on the growth of everyone around them. The boys especially enjoyed the yummy treats he and Mr. Moshe Boroosan bought along so they could make a Beracha li'illuy nishmas Rabbi Ovadia Yosef!

In Third Grade our students learned all about the sale of the bechora between Eisav and Yaakov. Rabbi Cohen's students discussed how Eisav was so hungry that he asked Yaakov to pour the lentil soup down his throat. The students practiced this part of the text by having a friend "pour" lentil soup down their throats!

In Mrs. Pelishev's STEAM class, the students were challenged to sail a group of marbles across the "sea" (a kiddie pool) by building them a sea-worthy boat. The students used everything from egg cartons to silver foil to create their ships. Then they tested them to see if they could hold the marbles up and not sink!

Every month, fifth graders join our own head of Ruach, Morah Cohen in decorating a beautiful bulletin board in honor of the new Chodesh. This month's bulletin board calls upon the Teva to bring out the yearly theme of Hasmadah-Grit and hard work. It was definitely hard work building the Teva for 120 and even harder to take care of all the animals on the Teva during the Mabul. The girls demonstrated this with a stunning bulletin board celebrating "30 Days of Hasmadah!"

The Rosh Chodesh Spirit spread through-out the school as students from Kindergarten marked the start of a new month in a number of exciting ways. The Lower School kicked off this year's theme: Hasmadah, with a performance by the 4th graders and then split into their Family groups for a fun activity, while the Middle School showed their hard work by engaging in rousing games of dodgeball!

Enrichment passion projects groups started out with a lesson on the importance of being precise. Our color reading robots can follow color coded directions but only if we draw our track neatly and follow the correct color patterns.

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!