Torah Day School of Atlanta Home

Ms. Turner's fourth grade class have been exploring the world around them in various ways. They took a nature walk with community member Jan Siegelman through Kittredge park to learn how to identify different types of trees and plants by their leaves and bark. They also visited Mr. Siegleman's garden and spent time with his chicks, chickens and goldfish. The boys also decided to rescue some tadpoles from TDSA's fields and collected over 40. This prompted research into tadpole habitats, frog life cycles and metamorphosis in order to better figure out how best to care for their new pets. The class keeps watching the tank eagerly to see if the tadpoles are developing legs and a student plans to take the tank home to care for the tadpoles over the summer!

Before we say goodbye for the summer, please drop off your TDSA Pushke's to the business office! Every penny is appreciated and makes a difference for your children at TDSA!

There was excitement in the air (and on the ground!) as donors, parents, staff and students joined TDSA for our exciting groundbreaking event! The attendees were treated to a sneak peek at our new track, field and playground. They heard from major donors to our Build Our Future Campaign. Once at the field, Rabbi Cohen, community leaders, and key donors broke ground and then invited the students to take part in the early digging, which was greatly enjoyed! We can't wait to see our field of dreams come to completion over the coming months!

Fifth grade boys' enrichment has worked hard over the past few weeks to write cute stories about lost things. Each student bought their own unique perspective to their stories. This week, the boys visited lower school classes and read them their stories, sparking curiosity and discussion!

In Mrs. Rubin's math class, the boys are racing towards the finish line. As part of their unit on data analysis, the boys raced each other and timed how long it took them to run 40 yards. They will use this information to calculate mean, median mode, and to practice displaying data in graphs and histograms, as well as box and whisker plots.

Ya'sher Koach to all our Middle School Boys who completed all the challenges in the Beautiful Ben Torah program! We hope you were able to use the program as an opportunity to grow in Middos and personal development! To celebrate their accomplishment the boys enjoyed a barbeque and pool party at the Silverman Home. Thank you to the Silverman family for hosting as well as to Rabbi Gruen and the Middle School Boys rabbeim for organizing and stewarding the Beautiful Ben Torah program!

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!