Spotlight

Teacher Appreciation week has been in full-swing all week at TDSA! After the wonderful coffee pick me up on Monday morning, the PTA continued with an amazing week by showing appreciation in a number of exciting ways. They gifted the staff beautiful and sturdy TDSA Staff umbrellas (perfect for this week's rainy weather). On Wednesday, they treated the teachers to a delicious catered lunch, and on Thursday they provided a delicious and very appreciated brunch! On Friday, the ushered in shabbos with beautiful bouquets of flowers and cookies for the teachers. They even went above and beyond creating adorable signs and slogans for each day to show their appreciation. One of the most appreciated things PTA has done this week? Send out a an adorable thank you video featuring our adorable students! Thank you so much to TDSA's staff and administrators for everything you do for our children! And thank you to the PTA for going above and beyond to show our teachers how much appreciate what they do!

Beth Jacob is hosting Level Up Your Happiness: Five Paradigm Shifts to Improve Your Family’s Joy Trajectory - a talk especially geared for parents and grandparents, with Mrs. Beth Perkel at 10am on Sunday morning, May 17 in the Conference Room. Mrs. Perkel is the honors director at Touro University’s Sarah Hartman Women’s College in Chicago, beloved podcast host and and author of her recent book, Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel: Wiring Our Children for Happiness.

This week Torah Day School was very excited to welcome our new Limudei Kodesh Principal, Rabbi Chaim Siff. In preparation for assuming the role as Limudei Kodesh Principal for the 2026-2027 school year, Rabbi Siff spent two days meeting with staff members and observing classes in action so that he can get to know our staff members and students better! On Wednesday night he also enjoyed a beautiful dinner hosted by Rabbi Meir and Mrs. Daliah Cohen, to welcome him to the staff and then hopped over to the house of Amir and Shira Shuster where many of the school's parents were waiting to welcome him to the TDSA community!

To mark their conclusion of their unit on produce in Ivrit, the second grade girls made "Salat" (Salad) with Morah Helen. After identifying various vegetables B'Ivrit the girls picked the vegetables they wanted and cut them up themselves to create beautiful and delicious salads. The girls enjoyed their "Agvania" (tomatoes), "Palpel" (pepper) and "Melafifone" (cucumbers) and had a great time comparing and discussing their favorite salad vegetables!

As a reward for their hard work, learning, davening and doing chessed over Pesach Vacation, the middle school boys joined their Rabbeim and a few chaperones for a packed evening trip. After a stop at Brewster's to enjoy some ice cream the boys headed over to bowling and had a great time celebrating their accomplishment! Keep up the good work!

Of the many dramatic moments in Sefer Beraishis, Birchas Yaakov-Yaakov's blessings to his children before his passing, is a particularly poignant one. Fourth grade girls completed their unit on Birchas Yaakov and treated their parents and family members to a beautiful and dramatic play outlining the various blessings each Shevet received and why. The care and effort the students put in was evident in every line they delivered and every song they sang. Their play was a captivating reminder that we should embrace the beauty of our differences, because our unique strengths can all be used to serve Hashem in a personal and meaningful way!

This Tuesday at TDSA was a joyous occasion. The school celebrated Lag Ba'Omer in a number of ways! Lag Ba'omer marks the 33rd day of the Omer with bonfires, outdoor play and bows and arrows to commemorate the Yortzeit of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. While the 6th-8th grade girls took off to Thompson Park for a fun Lag Ba'Omer activity, the lower school students gathered around the "bonfire" to hear a beautiful story from Rabbi Freundlich! Rabbi Freundlich was a riveting as always and the students hung on his every word. When they returned to their classrooms there was more lag-baomer fun, 1st graders made mini bonfires out of pretzels and red twizzlers and and "roasted" mini marshmallows before enjoying actual smores. The second grade girls made their own bonfire out of shoes and danced around it, while the Kindergarteners went outside and did some target practice with toy bows and arrows. The middle school boys marked the occasion with an edge-of-your seat volleyball tournament as a capstone to their Beautiful Ben Torah Program! All-in-all TDSA had a lot of fun on Lag Ba'Omer!

Monday marks the first day of teacher appreciation week and it's off to a fabulous start. Our amazing PTA and parent volunteers visited every classroom and provided teachers, staff members and classroom assistants the perfect morning pick-me-up to show our appreciation for everything they do. There's plenty more amazing appreciation coming our teachers'' way so stay tuned to see what the PTA does the rest of the week!

In Mrs. Castle's science class our seventh graders launched themselves into the study of physics. Physics, as a science, provides us with an understanding of motion and energy. To bring these concepts to life, students are building roller coasters out of paper to increase their understanding of potential and kinetic energy, gravity, friction and more! They can't wait to learn more about the fascinating physical forces that direct our lives (and amusement park rides!)

Mark your calendars! We're ready to break ground! Everyone is welcome to join us on June 7th as TDSA breaks ground for our new Track/Field and playground! Looking forward to seeing you there!