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TDSA's Kitah K continued with their unit on Brachos with the brachos of Ha'adamah and Shehakol. After learning all about the vegetables (and some fruits) that are Ha'adamah, and which foods we make Shehakol on the students trekked down to Krogers to buy a Ha'adamah food. They then finished off the trip by stopping at Bruster's to make a Sheakol on some yummy and refreshing ice cream!

TDSA's students sure are a brainy bunch!! In library this week the students read the story Baby Brains and learned a bit about the brain. After discussing the reading, Mrs. Rabinowitz provided brain themed projects including a Brain Baby puppet, and wearable "brain caps" showing all the different areas of the brain!

There wasn't a single dry eye in the room as Morah Cohen's second graders completed their Shmoneh Esrei play. Mothers and grandmothers watched as the girls demonstrated their understanding of all the Brachos in Shmoneh Esrei and shared their deep connection to tefillah (prayer). The girls sang beautifully and treated their mothers to a beautiful slide show performance highlighting how much they've grown. The mothers even surprised their daughters and joined them on stage for one final song! After the play the girls and their guests decorated beautiful cards to help make their davening more meaningful. We know that this wonderful experience will linger for our students and their mothers and will enrich their tefillah for months to come.

TDSA's Middle School had the honor of welcoming Rabbi Eli Eleff, Director of Kashurus Education at the OU, on Tuesday afternoon. The students received an in-depth crash course on how modern Kashrus organizations certify our food. From understanding sourcsing kosher ingredients, ensuring kashrus of the factory and how certification is documented. Then Rabbi Eleff went through various foods, from soft serve ice cream to slurpees and soda dispensers and clarified how we can know if they are kosher or not. The students were fascinated with all this incredibly relevant information and asked incisive follow up questions to ensure they truly understood what Rabbi Eleff was teaching them.

Over the last few weeks the sixth grade boys at TDSA were hard at work. The boys have become experts on the various kelim (items) in the Miskhan and built beautiful displays and to-scale replicas to demonstrate their knowledge. This past Friday, the boys welcomed their parents and teachers to a fantastic display of the Kelim of the Mishkan and taught their visitors everything they knew. The Mishkan project bought the Mishkan to life for the students and those who visited.

In STEAM class, Mrs. Pelishev's fourth graders expanded their knowledge of the engineering of bridge construction. After experimenting with budling a bridge between two books, the students now attempted to span the distance between two tables. The longer distance presented a unique challenge. The students used Lego to construct their bridges and played around with various bases, widths, and support structures to help their bridges span between the two tables and support their Lego "passengers."

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!