Torah Day School of Atlanta Home

After weeks and weeks of preparation, our 1G parents were treated to a phenomenal performance by their adorable children. In the weeks leading up to the siddur play, the first graders had multiple conversations with our eighth grade girls and they discussed in depth what tefillah is and means to them. At the siddur play, the eighth graders and first graders shared what they had learned from each other with the parents. Then, the students danced and sang their way through song after song about the beauty and importance of Tefillah. All the parents, grandparents, and family members present were bursting with pride as each girl came up to the front of the stage to receive her very own siddur! Congratulations Kitah Alef on this amazing milestone! May you continue to grow and strengthen your connection to Hashem through Tefillah!

How much do you really know about how a library runs? Our 5th Grade ELA Enrichment group got a behind-the-scenes tour of the Toco Hills Library. The students met with Mrs. Brook, the youth services librarian. She gave the students a tour of the library and explained how the library is organized. Following the tour, the students completed a scavenger hunt, found books to take out and flexed their engineering skills by building with the library's Lego kits.

In STEAM this week, the Kindergarten Boys did some deep thinking about Groundhog Day. They were wondering if an animal like a groundhog can really predict the weather. They discussed the myth of Groundhog Day and where the light needs to be in order for Punxsutawney Phil to see his own shadow. They then modeled this by creating their own groundhog models and testing the direction their models would have to stand to see their shadow.

TDSA's Kindergarten, First and Second Grade enjoyed a fabulous trip the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts. The students were able to watch a hilarious performance of Pete the Cat, saw how the Puppet Masters handle their puppets, and even made and performed for their friends with their own paper puppets. The trip certainly sparked the students' imagination and creativity!

The Young Women in STEM Fair is designed to expose
girls in the 7th-12th grades to a variety of educational
and career options in STEM, and connect teens with
women in STEM fields. This initiative is open to the
greater Atlanta community, including other local Jewish
schools, other private, independent schools, and public
schools.

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!