Torah Day School of Atlanta Home

Torah Day School of Atlanta really "caught" onto the spirit of fun at this year's Purim Parade. The school float, decorated with banners, balloons and pennants and filled with smiling students waving TDSA flags showed how TDSA spreads the spirit of Torah wherever we go! After the parade, the Atlanta community enjoyed a fantastic carnival organized by the amazing staff at Congregation Beth Jacob! All around the carnival you could see TDSA staff, parents, students and their siblings having an amazing time! What a fun afternoon and we can't wait for more Purim fun to come!

On Wednesday, our first grade boys put on a beautiful performance about the importance of Tefillah. They demonstrated for their parents all their hard work and practice over the last few weeks preparing for their Siddur Play. The boys danced, performed and touched everyone's hearts with their enthusiasm and excitement. Mazal Tov on this incredible milestone and may you all use your siddirum to connect with davening and Hashem!

For the past few weeks the third grade boys and girls have been hard at work with Rabbi Rubin. They chose shapes, cut them out of wood and constructed and decorated their own wooden noisemakers for Purim. The students finished them just in time to parade through the halls with their "raashanim" in honor of Rosh Chodesh Adar!

In STEAM, the second grade girls have been digging into the study of plants, ecosystems and the water-cycle. The students utilized their new knowledge to create their own terrariums in a bottle. The students used different types of dirt and substrate as well as succulents and other plants to construct a contained ecosystem. Now all that's left to do is watch them grow!

TDSA's third grade boys were immersed in scientific discovery on their trip to the Tellus Museum this Thursday. They performed experiments and were treated to a planetarium show. The boys spent an enjoyable time exploring the fascinating exhibits around the museum. Overall the boys were caught up in the spirit of discovery and had a fantastic time!

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!