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Mazal Tov to our Second Grade girls on receiving their Chumashim! Before getting called up to receive their Chumashim from Rabbi Cohen, the girls wowed their parents, grandparents and guests with a beautiful performance. They’ve been hard at work practicing their Chumash play to show their parents everything they’ve learned and how they are so ready to learn Chumash inside their brand-new Chumashim!

Rabbi Gold's 9th grade class at Yeshiva Ohr Yisrael took a trip down memory lane this week and visited TDSA's Kindergarten Boys. The ninth graders shared their loved for Torah and learning with the younger students. They danced and sang together in honor of Chanukah! The older boys then learned "BeChavrusah" (In partners) with the younger boys and helped them review their alef-bais and kriah skills. What a beautiful way to pass on the legacy of pride in themselves and their Jewish faith that the ninth grade boys gained at TDSA!

Morah Mindy's kindergarten class has been doing a deep dive into fire safety over the last couple of weeks. They completed fire safety booklets, checked on their smoke detectors at home and learned how to "Stop! Drop! Protect! and Roll!" which they practiced in their classroom. The students also learned some very useful fire safety techniques including ways to prevent fires and respond in case of a fire or another emergency. In order to practice these rules, the students worked in groups to make informative signs which are now hanging on display in the hallway!

Chanukah time is a good time to reinforce the importance of fire safety! The kindergarten through fourth grade students were visited by the Dekalb County Fire Department in order to discuss what they do and how they keep us safe. The firefighters exhibited the various kinds of gear they use to fight fires and rescue trapped individuals. They even demonstrated how quickly they’re able to don their gear by engaging in a fun race between two firefighters to see who could gear-up faster! The Kindergarteners were able to ask the firefighters all sorts of fire-safety questions to tie into their class unit on fire safety, while the older students had many thoughtful inquiries about fire fighting and disaster rescue!

Mrs. Kaplan’s fifth grade students are proud to be “publishing” their personal narratives. For weeks now they’ve been working on drafting, using descriptive language, editing and revising a personal narrative. This week, they’ve finally completed their narratives and had a party where they read each other their personal narratives and played Minute-to-win-it to celebrate their accomplishments!

In STEAM this week, the fourth grade boys learned all about snowflake design. They made their own yummy snowflakes using marshmallows, toothpicks, and gummy dots in honor of Chanukah.

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!