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It's hard to learn world history without a solid understanding of the different countries in the world and where they are. This is why Ms. Turner's Middle School Social Studies classes are starting the year with an in-depth unit on Geography. In addition to learning to identify the flags of various countries, the students are working on their own large-scale maps on the wall, as they map out and identify different countries together.

5B had fun mini-enrichment lesson with Mrs. Bendicoff. They learned all about using Caesar Ciphers to send coded messages. Then they used their new knowledge to construct their own ciphers and stump their friends with coded messages of their own!

TDSA's fifth grade girls let their creativity soar! Together with Morah Cohen, the students created a beautiful Bulletin Board display for the month of Elul complete with three dimensional elements. Their great display inspires the other students at TDSA to "Reach Up And Connect To Hashem" in this month of introspection and change.

Rabbi Wholfarth's 7th grade Gemara Shiur is started off this year's learning with a new Perek in Gemara! The boys delved into the perek's first Tosfos (one of the many Rishonim-primary) commentaries on Gemara) with enthusiasm! They're well on their way to a deeper and more complex understanding of Gemara and we can't wait to see how much they grow over the year!

It might only be the second week of school, but our Kitah K students have jumped right into some very important learning! The students started learning the alef bais, starting with the letter Alef! As a fun tactile activity, the students used playdough to sculpt the shape of the letter Alef. Exploring the letters using all our senses is an excellent way to ensure that these critical lessons are absorbed and retained!

Mrs. Pelishev started off the year in STEAM class with an important message. After listening to the book, Eraser by Anna Kang, the students discussed the importance of recognizing different talents and working together as a team to accomplish your goals. They also explored the idea of using mistakes as a means of growth. To illustrate these ideas the students made reverse pictures using pencil lead and erasers. After rubbing the lead over a blank page, the students used the erasers to create beautiful pictures on their page.

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!