KOL ECHAD | Weekly Newsletter 

October 5, 2023

Connecting Kadima to the World

By Dr. Steven Lorch, Head of School

A quiet revolution has begun in the classrooms of Kadima Day School. We’ve long embraced a focus on 21st-century learning, which promotes the 4C’s: critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. High-quality curricula, such as enVision Math (top-rated by edreports.org) and Reading Like a Historian (developed by Stanford University), demand of students that they construct their own understandings and reflect on what they have learned. Active, engaged student learning is an ongoing feature in every subject, in every grade, in everyday inquiries.

The revolution now underway, therefore, is not in the daily classroom activities. Those innovations have been introduced over the past five years, and they are already well ingrained. The new feature is the way in which relevant technology and exploratory thinking are being added to enhance the underlying inquiry approach.

Here are the key initiatives this year:

• The technological devices in the hands of students and teachers have been upgraded, and the IT infrastructure can now do pretty much everything we need it to do, on demand, with glitches as rare as in other well-resourced schools. Every middle school student is using a new Chromebook, and elementary students have inherited devices that are only a year or two old. Since I teach in every elementary classroom, I can attest that connections are faster, more reliable, and more intuitive than ever.

• The elementary school has adopted Tynker as the platform for students to learn coding and digital citizenship through hands-on exercises. Using puzzles and project-based activities, students progress through icon and block coding, learning in the process to code creatively, design games, and navigate in immersive, augmented-reality environments. The hundreds of hours of lessons our students will be exposed to by the end of their elementary years are fully aligned with both ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) and CSTA (Computer Science Teachers Association) standards. In addition, elementary students practice keyboarding skills in their own time, and their progress is monitored by their teachers.

• The middle school faculty are gearing up to launch two m’gamot (extended interdisciplinary emphases) this year: School Without Walls in the winter trimester, and d.school (Design School) in the spring. As the name suggests, School Without Walls will help students connect their studies to the world through fieldwork, community service, and consultation with outside experts. The highlight of the trimester in each grade will be a week of cross-curricular studies, beginning with coordinated, interdisciplinary classroom learning and culminating in several field experiences (for example, nature studies). The plans for the d.school trimester are still in development, but students will engage in the full design thinking process, tackling challenges by identifying a question, gathering inspiration (while building empathy with end users), generating ideas, making ideas tangible (through building prototypes), testing prototypes to learn, and communicating the story of their design thinking journey in a compelling way.

We’re not sure how or where this revolution will end, but we’re thrilled that you’re joining us on the ride. Exciting times ahead!

Shabbat shalom and chag sameach,

Dr. Steven Lorch

Head of School

Important Dates

Friday, October 6

• Hoshana Rabbah - school closed

Saturday, October 7

• Sh'mini Atzeret

Sunday, October 8

• Simchat Torah

Wednesday, October 11

• Snack Shack

Thursday, October 12

• PTO Meeting - 8:15 am in the library

Wednesday, October 23

• Picture make-up day

Thursday, October 26

• Challah Bake - 6:00 pm in the auditorium

*For the full school year calendar, please click HERE.

And the Winners are...

Middle School students change classes throughout the day and therefore have a locker to store their books and other belongings. Receiving a locker in middle school can be very exciting! Students can personalize and decorate their lockers in their own style, allowing for artistic expression. Students are required to keep their lockers clean and organized so they can find everything they need to do well in school. This week, student lockers were surprise inspected and judged based on various categories, including organization, artistic expression, as well as neatness.

Congratulations to Shailee Keisari for winning the most organized locker, Emma Louria for winning the best decorated locker, and a high commendation to Oriel Hagag. Mazal tov to the winners! Winning students received a special treat.

Challah Bake

Thursday, October 26, 6:00 pm, Kadima Auditorium

Kadima's PTO invites all the wonderful Kadima pastry chefs to a special challah bake, lead by Sivan Kobi of Sivan's Kitchen and mother of a Kadima alum, in celebration of the mitzvah of making challah. Tickets are $36 per person. Please RSVP by October 20. Please click here to purchase tickets.

Rosh Chodesh Lunch Sponsorship

Celebrating a milestone or a simcha?

Want to treat our amazing faculty and staff to lunch?

Here’s your chance!

Rosh Chodesh lunch is a service of the PTO to provide a beautiful lunch to the faculty and staff at the beginning of each Jewish new month. You can participate by sponsoring part or all of this meal, and we will recognize your milestone or simcha with a sign listing all the sponsors at that lunch. It is a highlight of the month for the teachers and a great way to support the Kadima community. We need a combined $500 each month to provide a beautiful meal. If you would like to participate, please contact: Adva Tzvi advatsvi@hotmail.com or Shani Gabay gabayshani@hotmail.com.

Please email or text or WhatsApp with the following information:

• The month you would like to sponsor (September-May)
• The dollar amount you would like to donate
• Family name as it should be listed
• In Honor of/Celebration of/Memory of
• Your contact info

The Finance Office will reach out for payment .

Thank you for your participation,

Adva and Shani

2024-25 Admission Application Now Open

The anticipation is finally over! Admission applications are now being accepted for the 2024-25 school year. Remember, you do not need to reapply annually for admission. For priority consideration for younger siblings, please submit Kadima admission applications by January 31, 2024. Please visit your FACTS portal to apply, or click here.

Yearbook Parent Volunteers

We are in need of parent volunteers to help with this year's yearbook design committee. If you are organized, have great leadership skills, and are creative and tech savvy, please contact Alisha Sela asela@kadimad.co or Alvira Chernichovski achernichovski@kadima.co.

Kadima Spirit Wear

Wearing Kadima spirit wear raises our school pride, promotes community spirit, and provides students with a sense of unity! Click here to purchase Kadima shirts in various colors and styles!

Top 10 Conversation Starters: Parashat V'zot Hab'rachah

By Dr. Steven Lorch

#10 - At the beginning of the parashah, Moshe is described as "איש הא-לקים - the man of God" (D'varim 33, 1). Why is this an appropriate description of Moshe? Why is it a surprising description of him?

#9 - This is the parashah in which Moshe dies. All the action takes place on the day of his death. Why did the Torah wait until now to call him איש הא-לקים?

#8 - At the end of the parashah, Moshe is described differently: "'עבד ה - God's servant" (34, 5). Which description fits the totality of Moshe's life and career better? Which one fits Moshe's situation on the day of his death better? Which description do you prefer? Why?

#7 - Before Moshe gives his final blessings to each of the sh'vatim (tribes), he begins with a brief introduction that reviews the history of receiving the Torah. In 33, 2, he says that God came from different places in order to give the Torah to the Jewish people: Sinai, Seir, Mount Paran, and Rivevot Kodesh. But the Torah was obviously given at Sinai. Why mention three other places? Doesn't that just make the story more confusing?

#6 -When Moshe blesses the sh'vatim, he includes all the tribes except Shimon. Why is Shimon left out?

#5 - When Moshe blesses the sh'vatim, he doesn't bless them according to their birth order. The first five sh'vatim he blesses are Reuven, Yehudah, Levi, Binyamin, and Yosef (Ephraim and Menashe). What's the logic behind this order? Why did Moshe choose this order rather than the usual age order?

#4 - When Moshe ascends Mount Nevo, where he will die, first he looks out over Eretz Yisrael. The pasuk says "ויראהו - God showed him" (34, 1). Why doesn't it say, more simply, "וירא - Moshe saw"?

#3 - If Moshe wrote the whole Torah, did he also write D'varim 34, 5-9, which describes his death, his burial, B'nei Yisrael mourning him, and the beginning of Joshua's role as leader? Explain.

#2 - The Torah describes Moshe's burial as follows: "ויקבר אותו בגיא - He buried him in the valley" (34, 6). Who buried him? Explain.

#1 - The Torah says, "ולא ידע איש קבורתו עד היום הזה - No one knows where Moshe was buried to this day" (34, 6). The Torah gives lots of clues in the same pasuk: in the land of Moav, in the valley, opposite Beit Pe'or. Why, with all these locators, has nobody found Moshe's burial place? Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Why?