Spotlight

The Lower School Playground is about to get some beautiful flowers and yummy vegetables as the fourth grade girls’ enrichment group brings their months-long passion project to life. Over the winter the girls have been planning their garden. Together with Mrs. Bendicoff, they researched which plants would be most successful for our climate.The girls designed a fence to protect their garden from scavenging animals and worked out how to haul the soil. This Friday, they took a trip to Pike's Nursery, collected their plants and planted them. Over the coming weeks, they'll nurture their plants and help them to thrive! We can’t wait to see what they produce!

Get ready for an exciting new PTA program at TDSA! Friday Pizza Days will be starting on April 21st! Stay tuned for more information coming soon!

Mrs. Castle's fifth grade students are hard at work preparing for their long-awaited trip to Lake Lanier. They're currently working on understanding acids and bases and how to test if the water has the correct pH to support marine life. In class, they used test strips to test the pH of different cups of water and see how acidic or basic they are. When they visit Lake Lanier next week they'll be able to use these skills to test the pH of the water on Lake Lanier.

In Mrs. Lewis's art class, the eighth grade students have been learning about famous artists and their diverse artistic styles. Working in pairs, the students studied all they could about the artist of their choice, down to the tiniest detail. How tiny? They made tiny rooms dedicated to the artist they researched and their art. The rooms are complete with workstations, art supplies and recreations of the artists' most famous pieces in miniature. Over the last few weeks, the students planned, designed and created their miniature models and iIf you walk the halls of TDSA you'll be able to find their miniature rooms dedicated to Jackson Pollack, Edvard Munch, Alma Woodsay Thomas, Bob Ross, and more.

This week in STEAM class, TDSA's students have been taking advantage of the beautiful weather to experiment with homemade volcanos. What makes a bigger explosion? Baking soda and vinegar? Coca cola and mentos? What about other combinations? The students split into groups and tried different combinations of ingredients trying to produce the biggest eruptions. They had a blast testing their hypotheses! What a great way to reinforce the scientific process as well as practice basic chemistry skills!

As a culmination of weeks of learning about the Seder and Pesach, our kindergarten, first, and second grades had a fun mock seder, where they went through the arbah kosos (4 cups of wine), Matzah, Maror and parts of Magid! Everyone is more than ready for the Seder night next Wednesday! Chag Sameach!

Our fourth grade boys had a fantastic time getting in touch with nature on Stone Mountain this week. After learning about the geology of Stone Mountain in class, the boys earned a trip to Stone Mountain through in-class teamwork. This same teamwork was on display as they hiked up the mountain. The hike itself was a great activity for teambuilding, resilience and geology. Everyone had a fantastic time!

Our very own Final Four took place last night. Mishna Madness culminated with a playoff event at the Atlanta Scholars Kollel and the energy in the air was palpable. All of TDSA's Middle School Boys worked incredibly hard and learned an absolutely astronomical 65,076 Mishnayos altogether! With good food and a lot of good cheer; parents, peers, and community members came to support our final four contestants. The finalists were tested on their knowledge of Mishnayos by Rabbi Pransky, Rosh Kollel, and wowed everyone with their knowledge and understanding. More than anything, what stood out was the camaraderie among the boys as they encouraged each other and spurred each other on to greater heights of learning, and their enthusiasm and love of Torah!

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry! We only have 18 minutes to turn this dough into Matzah! Do you think we can make it? This week, TDSA's gym lobby was transformed into a real matzah factory. With the timer running down the minutes, the students rolled, and poked holes in freshly made matzah dough and rushed it to Rabbi Rubin who was manning the real matzah oven! Some of the classes made it in under 18 minutes and some didn't but everyone had fun, making (and eating) their own matzah!

TDSA's second grade girls are learning the Haggadah in three languages. Together with Morah Cohen, the girls are learning how to say the Mah Nishtana (the four questions), using American Sign Language. The girls are hard at work practicing their new skill so that their ready to wow their parents at the Seder! By learning the Mah Nishtana in the Hebrew of the Haggadah, English and ASL the students are gaining a deeper understanding of the meanings of the four questions in multiple ways!