November 11, 2021 | 8 Kislev 5782 | ויצא
Early Childhood Department
Learning Daled in Gan Daled 
We learned the letter daled this week in Hebrew literacy. We focused on the word devek and decorated daleds with colorful devek. In addition, we used only devek at our art center during free play to create collages and put together structures with recycled materials. Finally, in our own honor we created a Gan Daled book in Hebrew, complete with each student's favorite thing to do in Gan Daled!
Kindergarten SEL Update
In Kindergarten SEL we began our unit on The Zones of Regulation, which categorized our emotions, sensations, behaviors and energy levels into 4 colored “zones” (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue) that correspond to different traffic signs (Stop, Yield, Go and Rest Stop). The students played “Follow the Street Signs” to help reinforce the traffic sign cues and what they stand for. They revved up their engines and drove around the classroom following the “driving laws”. Driving calmly in the green zone, stopped for the red zone, slowed down for the yellow zone and laid down to rest for the blue zone. We look forward to continuing to use these colors and language as we learn coping strategies to regulate our emotions and behaviors.
Lower School
Lower School Shmita Fair
At the Lower School Shmita Fair, students learned about different aspects of the mitzvah of shmita in Eretz Yisrael. Students visited different booths to learn about the ideas of "hefker" - free for all - and "kedushat shviit" - that the entire fruit/vegetable is kadosh, even the parts that we do not eat. Students also explored the psukim in Parshat Behar that explain the mitzvah of shmita and how it is parallel to Shabbat. Lastly, students brought in food donations for families in need in our community in honor of shmita, and wrote cards to those families who will be receiving the food before Thanksgiving!
It was so special to teach the students about this mitzvah that our brothers and sisters in Israel are observing this year!

Please send in donations for our food drive through November 19th! 
Click HERE for more photos!
4th and 5th grade STEM Elective Tests Masks
The 4th and 5th grade students in Mrs. Hirschhorn’s STEM electives at Yavneh Academy decided to test the efficacy of face masks, and to also determine which type of mask is the most effective. This is true living science, testing something that affects the students on a daily basis. They used the Scientific Method to design and then implement an experiment to simulate what happens when someone with covid-19 wears a mask.  
Their hypothesis is that masks work to prevent disease. They created an experiment where they used spray bottles of water to simulate breathing. They held the masks in front of the bottles and measured how far they could spray. They found that KN95 masks were the most effective.  
The fifth graders then created public service videos using green screen technology. They shared these videos with Dr. Fauci at NIH. 
First Grade Global Read Aloud
Over the past 5 weeks, Class 1D has been participating in the Global Read Aloud project - reading different books by the author Duncan Tonatiuh and making global connections with students around the world. As a culminating activity, our students voted for their favorite book to use for an engineering activity. The winner was Diego Rivera: His World and Ours, the story of Diego Rivera, one of the most popular artists of the twentieth century. Our student engineers learned how to use the Bee-Bot robot and worked together to program the robot to retell the story and sequence the different events in the book. It was challenging to create the correct programs at first; the class learned from their mistakes to successfully program our Bee-Bot according to the story! 
Grade 3 Chumash
In Chumash after learning about Sarah Emanu dying at the age of 127, Class 3A wrote a “HESPED”- Eulogy for Sara-Just like Avraham Avinu did!! The students used Book Creator to type in Hebrew and add pictures they found online. 
Middle School
Yad Leah Dash for Dignity and Clothing Drive
Yavneh Academy students proudly joined in the Yad Leah Dash for Dignity - 1 mile and 5K on Sunday. In preparation for the race, students heard all about the important work that Yad Leah does sending clothes to Israel and how their running in the race helps raise funds to ship the 
items overseas. Leading up to the race a clothing drive was held. Yavneh collected over 5 huge blue bins of clothes (3 carloads and one truckload!). All items were loaded into cars by chesed team members and were donated to Yad Leah. Thank you to all who contributed to the clothing drive and who ran the race! And, a thank you to those chesed team moms who came to help deliver the items to the Yad Leah center. 
Click HERE for clothing drive photos.
Click HERE for Dash for Dignity photos.
Yavneh Academy is participating in 
The  Annual Bergen County Chanukah Toy Drive. 

We are collecting new and unwrapped toys and gifts for children and young adults going through trying times.

The Bergen County Toy Drive is a great collaborative effort across many Bergen County Jewish schools and synagogues and donates to 18 different charity organizations. Your donations will help us share the excitement of Chanukah with thousands of children and young adults. This is a great opportunity to involve your children in the mitzvah of tzedakah!
Yavneh Academy is a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.