SSSQ: Week of May 17, 2018

Week of May 17, 2018

Butterflies in Shorashim

The Shorashim class spent the last month watching our caterpillars grow and mature into butterflies! First they needed to eat a lot of food in their jar and make their way up to the top of the container. Then we transferred them to a butterfly habitat, so that they would have the proper space to grow into adulthood. We checked on their progress each day , as they each became a chrysalis and eventually shed the protective coating and were beautiful Monarch butterflies. We read many stories about butterflies, both fiction and nonfiction. We created butterfly collages, and even pretended to fly like them! We set them free in our playground and excitedly watched as they flew away. We surveyed the children and asked where they thought the butterflies might travel to--the farthest location was Israel!

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Middle School Visits Albany

This Tuesday the middle school went on a meaningful trip to Albany where the students had the opportunity to learn about advocacy and to meet numerous elected officials. The students met with State Senator Todd Kamensky, Assemblymen Ron Kim, Daniel Rosenthal and other distinguished politicians. In addition, Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, an alumni of SSSQ, addressed the students and presented a legislative resolution to our school. Below is an email we received today from Sydney Altfield, Associate Director of the Grassroots Engagement and her feedback from these politicians and their reaction to our students who attended.

Thank you all for joining us in Albany yesterday! It was a day filled with civic engagement and advocacy. I hope you and the students enjoyed as much as we did!

We received great feedback from all of the legislators. One even said people always come to ask them for things to be done, but rarely do they ever come to say thank you for what has been done. That should be a great lesson in life as well to always say thank you.

In that regard, I am compiling all of the addresses for the legislators so that your students can send them thank you notes and even send them a copy of the pictures that were taken. They may even hang them in their offices!

I look forward to continuing the strong relationship between Solomon Schechter School of Queens and Teach NYS. Thank you again!

Best,

Sydney Altfield

This letter demonstrates the positive impression our students have made while in Albany. We are continuing to cultivate these relationships as our students are writing letters of appreciation this week to these politicians. We look forward to continue to teach advocacy to our students and for them to recognize that they can make a profound impact in their communities and in the world at large.

Please visit our Facebook page to view more photos.

SSSQ Celebrates Yom Yerushalayim

This Monday, students at SSSQ celebrated Yom Yerushalayim throughout the school day. The students learned about the importance of this day in history by participating in numerous fun and innovative activities. In the morning, Ariel Magal and a group of Shinshinim-Israeli scouts came to the classes and engaged the students in numerous activities, centered on the theme of Israel and Yerushalayim.

In the afternoon, Morah Podovich led the 5-8 grade students in an interactive Kahoot game which specifically dealt with questions related to the history of Yerushalayim and Israel. The students had a blast while learning about Yom Yerushalayim in the process. The assembly ended with a few 7th grade students singing a heartfelt song to their classmates. We thank Morah Podovich for all of her efforts in making this assembly such a success.

This Yom Yerushalayim was especially meaningful, as the U.S. embassy moved to Jerusalem. We had many of the classes show the footage of this momentous occasion and discuss the meaning of this ceremony to their students. Overall, the day successfully created a greater pride and appreciation for the day, for the land of Israel and our capital city of Yerushalayim.

Please click here to view photos on our Facebook page.