Torah Day School of Atlanta Home

On Friday, the Seventh Grade girls had a special visit with Rabbi David Silverman, Dean of the Atlanta Scholars Kollel. The girls had the opportunity to ask Rabbi Silverman many of their burning questions including questions about the Holocaust, Bechiara and Moshiach. The girls were inspired by Rabbi Silverman's insightful answers and were incredibly grateful for the visit.

The boys in Kitah K are obsessed with Puzzles! Since the beginning of the school year they've worked on their middos, as a team to complete puzzle after puzzle after puzzle. Now that the year is winding down, the Kindergarten has many puzzles in their gallery. Last Friday, the class held an auction to see who would take the completed puzzles home.

Mrs. Duval's 6th grade math class utilized their mathematical reasoning skills in three dimensions. Using boxes they constructed adorable carboard box animals and calculated the total volume and surface area of the animal they constructed. The creative animals are now in display in TDSA's hallway where other students can admire the pig, giraffe, alien dog, platypus and other animals the class created.

What are you grateful for? Fourth Grader Tanya Grant wants to know! As part of her enrichment project, Tanya collected notes from other students on what they are grateful for and then compiled them into a beautiful poster-board that is now on display in our main entrance! It's a wonderful reminder of all the small things that we should be appreciative for in our lives.

On Sunday, TDSA's gym was filled with faculty, family and friends celebrating the accomplishments of our eighth grade graduates. After hearing Divrei Bracha from Rabbi Cohen, attendees were treated to each student sharing a short speech or anecdote about what made their time at TDSA special to them. The graduates' speeches inspired, amused and touched their family and friends. Words cannot express our pride at how much our students have grown and accomplished in their time at TDSA! May they continue to develop and grow as students and Binei Torah in all their future endeavors!

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!

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!