Thank you to all the families and friends who zoomed on and came in person to our Early Childhood and Lower School STEAM Showcase. Students had a great time showing off all that they learned throughout the year and teaching students in other grades via various activities. Throughout the day-long event students enjoyed bubble experiments, creating butterflies with confetti poppers, making paper airplanes and boats out of recyclables, making Oobleck, learning about force, nature, safe roadways, bridges, volcanos, plants, the first telephone, the human heartbeat, catapults, structures, Hydrophilic vs. Hydrophobic, surface tension, and what it is to be a mensch. They enjoyed an apple stacking engineering challenge and coding and patterning with robots. A huge thank you to Adriana Price, Sarah Morrison, Jay Dela Cruz, and Fredis Cardona for putting the wonderful day together.

Students in Morah Tsippi's ECE2 class worked on making special, personalized surprise flowers for their mothers for Mother's Day. They also learned about Israel, its flag, and other unique facts about the Holy Land.

With the end of middle school in sight, our 8th graders are working hard to prepare for life in high school. In Rabbi Kellerman's class, this means getting used to learning Gemara with a Chavruta (study partner).

This week in Morah Sandy's ECE3 class students practiced counting numbers and the calendar by counting down the Omer on their own cards. They learned all about the days between Pesach and Shavuot when we celebrate receiving the Torah.

Students in Morah Aviva's ECE4A class are getting ready for Yom HaAtzmaut and are very excited to celebrate Israel's 74th birthday! The students created their own Degel Yisrael (flag of Israel) with tweezers, pom poms, paint, foam, and felt pieces. They learned that a Magen David is comprised of two triangles, one point up, and one pointing down. Each student drew their own triangles, traces them with a glue brush, and added blue foam and felt pieces to produce their own unique Magen Davids on their flags.

This week parents delved deep into our new slab roller at the Horim Lomdim ceramic session. They learned how to roll out a slab of class just like our 3rd and 4th grade students did for their washing cups that were painted this week. Parents also experimented with making impressions in clay just like our 1st graders did to create ceramic turtles and patterns on its back. Next week, the parents will paint their plates and turn them into beautiful platters ready for Shabbat. This week 2nd graders learned how to coil pots and how important it is to score and slip the layers, while 5th grade students explored pop art ceramic food creations.

Middle school students in Ms. Ruben's English Language Arts class are learning to write argumentative essays to present multiple perspectives but lean towards one side. Each student has to choose a topic that interests him/her, write a thesis statement that s/he will support, and include counter arguments and refutations.

This week 6th grade students in Mr. Polanski's science class learned about energy in ecosystems and populations. 7th grade students learned about water quality, and the composition and structure of Earth's oceans. Students in 8th grade learned about chemical formulas, chemical equations, and types of chemical reactions.