Spotlight

Back again! Join the TDSA PTA for an exciting Fall Festival on November 22nd from 11:30 AM-1:30 PM

TDSA's book club students gathered for their first Book club meetings this week and last week. The students enjoyed delicious hot cocoa and cookies and compared notes and their impressions about the books that they read. The students shared what they enjoyed about the books, what they gained and what sparked their curiosity. They then received their next books to read, which many have already made quite some headway on! They can't wait for their next book club meeting!

This week in Gym, 5G played a new and exciting variation on dodge ball invented by our very own Coach Stevens! Instead of just standing on the side when out, the girls had the opportunity to run across the "canyon" between the two teams and if they made it through without getting hit by the ball, could then rejoin their teams. In addition to being fun, the game also involved a fair amount of strategy to win!

Mazal Tov! Mazal Tov! The second grade girls have completed their first Perek in Chumash and on Wednesday they celebrated their first ever siyum. The siyum was complete with Divrei Torah, yummy treats, balloons and dancing! At TDSA learning Torah is sweet, fun, and exciting! May our second grade continue to grow and learn!

For the last few weeks Kindergarten has been investigating everything there is to know about Pumpkins. The students got a chance to handle real pumpkins. They measured them, guessed if a pumpkin could float and tested their hypothesis (It can!) The students also estimated the number of pumpkin seeds inside a pumpkin and counted them and then rounded out the unit by putting their measuring and counting skills to the test by baking delicious pumpkin muffins!

Did you know that October 21st is Reptile Awareness Day? In honor of the occasion, the students in 2B learned about the different features that distinguish reptiles from other animals. They used this knowledge and their own boundless creativity to develop their own unique reptiles. The students drew pictures of their reptiles, and wrote a short paragraph describing how their new reptiles looked, as well as if they were venomous or had anti-venom. A surprising feature that most of the new reptiles had, was the ability to breathe fire! After drawing and writing about their creations, the students practiced public speaking and presented their new reptiles to the class so they could learn about them too!

This past week in Mrs. Castle's science class, the 6th grade learned all about wave mechanics and how energy is transmitted through solid objects. In order to better understand the difference between longitudinal and transverse wave motion, the 6th graders used a slinky. By shaking the slinking back and forth and moving it from side to side the students were able to visualize the differences in how transverse and longitudinal waves move through space.

There are no words to describe the focus, pride, and intensity with which our students worked this past Monday. In conjunction with the incredible organization, Boots for Israel, our students unboxed and packaged boots to send to IDF soldiers in Israel. The students took the time to write personalized messages to the soldiers who would be receiving the boots to express their appreciation for the soldier's hard work and sacrifice on behalf of Klal Yisrael. All together, the students packaged 650 boots for shipment to Israel. A special thanks to Mr. Yakir Wachstock for all the tireless organizing that you do for Boots For Israel and an extra special thank you to Judah Holland who generously sponsored most of the cost of purchasing and shipping the boots as well as the many TDSA parents and families who contributed to the endeavor as well!

The 4th grade boys worked with a variety of hand tools, and discovered just how incredibly difficult building the teivah must have been. After coming back inside, and reviewing the rashi, Rabbi Rubin posed the same question he asks in his Spotlight Dvar Torah this week: "How could Noach have spent 120 years working so hard on building the teivah and not really believe that the flood was coming?" The hands-on experience really brought a new level of understanding and meaning to the Torah's message for us all.

In honor of this week's Parsha, the kids in Kitah K made Keshes Fruit skewers. After the mabul Hashem sent a beautiful rainbow/Keshes as a sign to the world that He would not bring another mabul so our students arranged colorful fruits in rainbow order and made rainbows of their own...that they could eat! Yum!