Wednesday's Weekly Window

They worked so hard!  And for what personal gain? None . . . and so much. The Chasdei Yad Auction was entirely planned, organized, put together, and hosted by our 7th Grade Girls (with a little guidance from their fabulous teacher Mrs. Hiller). They procured prize donations, sold tickets, set up the gym, and ran a beautiful event that brought in lots of profit - all for the opportunity to do chesed by helping the poor. I could see their pride and elated faces as families participated in this chesed effort. They have gained so many middos and skills by running the Chasdei Yad Auction. It was beautiful!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

TDSA students celebrated Israel's 75th year today!  Middle schoolers organized and ran a festive, Israel-themed carnival including blue/white-framed photo booth, large-piece, Israel Map puzzle, IDF obstacle course, and more!  The patriotic spirit was definitely in the air all day.  It was hard to pick just one snapshot for today's window.  I felt these girls truly embodied the feeling of the day!  Mazel Tov to Israel @ 75!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

Seeing these boys lounge around a tree during recess, I was struck by the carefree attitude and purity of happiness as they made use of their natural surroundings. It's great to see how comfortable they are on the campus and how connected they are to each other during play.

Wednesday's Weekly Window

Go Torah Day Thunder!!!  It was thrilling to watch our Torah Day Flag Football Team win both games in a double header today!  Parents and students stood by the sideline to cheer on their Thunder during this beautiful, spring day on TDSA's ball field.  

Wednesday's Weekly Window

Congratulations to the Middle School Boys pictured above (l to r) Aryeh Adelman, Zev Gopin, Aryeh Rabin, and Ben Pinkhasov, who have made it to the FINAL 4 of TDSA's Mishnah Madness, Jr. event.  5th-8th graders competed in a Mishnah-learning contest that paired up "mishnaletes" in a bracket of learning madness leading to these FINAL 4 contestants.  Each week, competitors were challenged to learn as many mishnayos as they could to advance them to the next round.  A total of over 13,000 mishnahs have been learnt over the course of the 5-week contest (that's about 160 per student!).  And now, down to the FINAL 4, the competition gets serious, as they will each need to master 2 mesechtas in hopes of being crowned the first ever, "TDSA Mishna Madness, Jr. Champion".  Yasher Koach to all our Mishnaletes and Hatzlacha Rabba to the FINAL 4!!!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

Shushan Purim was in full swing today!  K-4 girls and boys donned their costumes, wore their smiles, and pranced around celebrating the annual Shushan Purim Carnival run by middle school students.  I love seeing the leadership skills in action as the middle schoolers devised and ran games, held raffles, made cotton candy, painted faces, and did many other fun activities with the elementary students.  It was a fun day for all!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

Song and joy filled the gym air during the first grade boys' Siddur Play.  Both 1B classes joined forces to present the meaningful words and songs related to tefilah to parents, grandparents, and siblings.  I had the great zchus of passing each boy his very first siddur!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

I had the honor of calling out food items for today's Brachos Bee.  K-5 students cheered on the 3rd through 5th grade classroom winners as they showed their knowledge of Hilchos Brachos.  Judges sat at a side table checking answers as contestants walked up to the center-stage mic to name the "before" and "after" brachos.  There were certainly tense moments during the silent thinking.  But, overall, it was an incredible experience for both the observers, the participants, the judges, and me.  Congratulations to this year's winners: Rivka Graiser and Naftali Schwarzmer!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

I caught the 4th grade boys' class involved in a literature circle utilizing the Front Lobby space and furniture.  They were sharing their favorite stories from the anthology entitled "Strudel" they just read.  It connects family history and recipes.

Wednesday's Weekly Window

Walking through the main floor by this time in the year is like stepping into a Children's Art Museum, as our students' masterpieces brighten up the hallway. Strolling through today something different caught my eye: the misspelled word in the picture above - SELebration. Intrigued, I took a step closer to read the strips.  These beautiful messages written during 3G Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) class ("say bye or good afternoon when you leave your classroom"; "when you disagree with someone say, 'I have a different answer'") show how much thought our students put into caring for each person in our community!  

Wednesday's Weekly Window

I stepped into Rabbi Oratz's 8th grade class today as he ran to observe another teacher in action.  He handed me no plans, just said, "they are beginning a review of the gemarah in their chavrusas or small groups".  I was blown away as they organized themselves, opened up their gemarah and notes, and began learning together.  It was exciting to see their enthusiasm for what could be difficult learning.  As they seemed fine working independently, I peeked into the 6th grade class across the hall, and they were doing the same thing!  How exhilarating to see so much textual learning bringing the Torah alive within TDSA's walls.

Wednesday's Weekly Window

A scrumptious bowl of berries is one way to describe the scene in this 2nd grade math class.  Pictured here are the Striving Strawberries who are working with their teacher on how to break apart large numbers to make addition problems easier to solve.  Behind the camera are the Creative Cranberries, Brilliant Blueberries, and Radiant Raspberries!  Each of those groups were actively engaged in a math activity.  One group worked on an I-pad to solve addition problems.  One group took numbered-rollercoasters and added up each car.  Another group used digital number lines and graphs to help with complex addition.  Whatever the flavor, math tasted sweet to these students!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

Rabbi Berenbaum has been a guest lecturer during the 8th grade, Humanities class Holocaust unit.  I walked into this session while he explained the congestion of the camps by showing how their size and the size of Toco Hill is the same, yet thousands of more people were crammed into the same small area.  I could feel the deep thoughts and contemplation of each of the boys as they took this all in.

Wednesday's Weekly Window

It was hard to choose just one picture this week.  The Festival of Lights has been shining bright throughout the school.  I smell the scents of frying latkes and donuts wafting through the hallways.  I see the creative Chanukah Menorahs displayed proudly.  I hear the inspirational stories, the sounds of Hallel, and the joy of song.  I feel the vibrations of dancing students and booming speakers.  What a week!  In the end, I chose the Dreidel Drey.  Older elementary students spread out on the gym floor to lead Dreidel games with the younger classmen.  An activity filled with simcha and middos!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

Parent and Pathologist, Dr. Ari Leifer, explains the images of human cells 7th grade boys viewed during science today.  He brought slides that had cells from the liver, stomach, small intestine, esophagus, and more!   The students were fascinated with the different shapes evident in each type of cell as they rotated through the microscope stations.  Thank you, Dr. Leifer!

Wednesday's Weekly Window

From Process to Product:  I walked into the art room today and saw first grade girls expressing their creativity by designing their own, unique Menorah candle.  They choose their design and colors.  They used their friends to help make decisions and get support.  Little did I know that later in the day I would pass full Menorahs on the window.  It turns out, this was a collaborative project in which each student made one candle for the 55 menorahs that will be placed around the school this year!  

Wednesday’s Weekly Window

Full disclosure, Mrs. Morris took this picture as I am out of town yesterday and today. But I am so excited about the opportunity the 5th graders had this week, I had to share it. You are looking at Chris Grabenstein, the author of the novel Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library being interviewed by a student. It is not often that virtually everyone in a grade loves the novel they are required to read. For this one, students struggled not to read ahead! To encourage their excitement Mrs. Bowles reached out to Mr. Grabenstein to ask if TDSA's two 5th grade classes could interview him over zoom. He first presented and the students asked their prepared questions by stepping up to "camera 1" while other students listened to his answers. I am super thrilled we are inspiring future writers!

Wednesday’s Weekly Window

Nothing disturbed the intense focus of these Kindergarten girls as they built a replica of the well Rivkah used to offer water to Eliezer and his camels. I eventually pulled their attention away to test their mastery of the events surrounding this well.

They earned an A+ for their knowledge and their enthusiasm!

Wednesday’s Weekly Window

Spiderweb Discussion: If you were to plot the flow of this 8th grade Chumash discussion, the picture would look like a spiderweb. Each girl prepared questions or comments on the assigned passukim to ask or express to their classmates. They listened carefully, thought deeply, and offered further comment or potential answers. Some questions were based in grammatical irregularities, while others more conceptual. My favorite answer came as a response to the question of how Hashem can "teach" Torah if we can't hear Him directly? "He placed irregularities in the way He wrote the Torah so we can learn from them". How apropos!

Wednesday’s Weekly Window

I walked into the 2B library class and asked out loud as they worked, "What are you learning in library today"? One boy turned to me, smiled, and exclaimed, "about my favorite animal!". I could see a picture of a platypus, so I asked, "a platypus is your favorite animal?". He responded with glee, "now it is! It's the coolest animal I have ever learned about." I immediately took out my phone to capture the genuine enthusiasm these boys showed for learning about an unusual, web-footed creature through library media.