If we needed to use just one word to describe Sunday's Family Fun and Giving Day Kick-off event we would go with INCREDIBLE! This was by far the largest Sunday Funday gathering on RMBA's campus of over 230 people to participate in creating and eating the world's largest kosher pizza, measuring at a circumference of over 8 feet, weighing over 100 lbs., feeding over 150 people, and being 100% delicious! A huge thank you to event underwriters Stephanie and Steven Mitzner, and to UOS's Rabbi Yitzchak Sprung for helping Dirt Road Cookers go kosher for the day. Be sure to check out the JHV next week for a full recap.

Mr. Cell's high school AP World History class was delighted to have RMBA alum Rena Schwartz (Class of 2020) share her experiences and knowledge gained helping to excavate a tel in Israel. She shared her love of the Phoenicians and anthropology. Everyone learned from the discussion! Thank you Rena!

After reading a special book about how bees make honey, Morah Aviva's ECE4 class worked hard at making their own glittery bowls for Rosh Hashana. The students also enjoyed showing off their objects for the letter "D" during Share and Tell. Objects included dinosaurs, drills, doggies, dolphins, and dolls.

Mr. Simon's Third Grade class showed off their punctuation this week! The class has been studying pronouns and how they are used in a sentence. Students played a listening game and wrote down the pronouns they heard from each sentence. The class successfully picked pronouns faster than Peter Piper picked peppers!

Middle school students in Ms. Ruben's English Language Arts class are busy at work on their first essay of the school year. This quarter's focus is on narrative writing, focusing on descriptive imagery, word choice, and creative elaboration. The excitement is palpable as students consider and share their topic ideas.

Following davening on Tuesdays, high school students are treated to a special chabura (learning group) given by Rabbi Yitzchak Sprung on the sefer (book) Chovat HaTalmidim (The Students Obligation). The group is delving into the essence of education and its application to our everyday lives.

Students in Morah Sandy's ECE3A class learned all about parshat Ki Tavo this week. They learned that Jewish farmers were to bring the first ripe fruits of their fields to the Beit Hamikdash and declare their gratitude to Hashem. The first buds were marked with a red string, cut down, put in beautiful baskets, and then these bikurim (first fruits) were taken to the Beit Hamikdash. The class gathered some budding twigs, practiced tying strings around them, recorded what they were grateful for, and put them in their own baskets.

Students in Morah Tzippe's Kindergarten Judaic Studies class made Shana Tova cards for their grandparents and mailed them this week! Some of the cards are going all the way to Israel and even Argentina!

Seventh grade students in Mr. Duke's social studies class are learning a variety of woodworking skills, including woodturning, which they will need to complete various social studies projects throughout the school year.

Mrs. Rosenzweig's seventh grade on-level math class learned how to add and subtract integers by walking on the number line. The students learned that when a number is added they should walk right, and when a number is subtracted they walk left. The students then played different games that reinforced the concept.

Students in Morah Ester's 3rd grade Judaic Studies class learned all about the 3 things that we increase in the Jewish month of Elul: Teshuva (repentance), Tefilla (prayers), and Tzedaka (charity). The class connected each one of these categories to the 3 categories of Mitzvot that we have in general. They matched Teshuva to Mitzvot ben Adam L'Atzmo, deeds that one does for himself, Tefilla to Adam L'Makom, deeds between man and G-d, and finally Tzedaka to Adam L'Chavero, deeds between one and other people. The class realized that we can improve ourselves in all of the 3 areas which covers the general aspects of different mitzvot that we have and can perform every single day.

This week students in Morah Tsippi's ECE2-B class worked on a Rosh Hashana art book. Each page represents an item we use during the holiday and was decorated with various art mediums. In addition to reinforcing the concepts of the Jewish New Year, this provides the children with different ways to exercise their fine motor skills.

Students in Mrs. Rosenzweig's middle school BIMA Makerspace elective are proudly showing off their first projects that they worked on this semester. Ari Meckley (pictured right) 3D designed and printed a beautiful netilat yadayim, hand washing, cup. Jonathan Kluger, Eliezer Gerenstein, and Ari Rosenzweig learned how to sew using the sewing machine and sewed a double sided bag. The remaining students are working hard on designing and coding a virtual reality learning game which will be ready to play in the next couple of weeks.

A group of high school students are working on a special grant called Better to Serve. Led by Rabbi Kellerman, this group of students are exploring the different kinds of organizations in Houston that provide for the many needs of our community. In addition to service learning, students will eventually choose one organization to partner with and organize an ongoing initiative to allow RMBA students to make a difference in our community.

To enrich their experience learning 200 national flags from around the world, sixth-graders in Mr. Duke's social studies class were challenged with researching the culinary trends of foreign countries and to fashion edible representations of national flags based on those countries' local tastes.

Middle school students had a great time this week during the Bnot Sherut, Talya and Moriya's opening program for middle school. Students got to know the Bnot Sherut and each other better through team building games and guess who challenges.

RMBA's Wednesday after-school Kung Fu Kids crew has been practicing holding their horse stance and incorporating new moves.

The preparation of the upper school oneg cholent has become somewhat of a big deal at our Friday Onegs. Whether it is high school's or the middle school students' turn for oneg, how that post singing and learning cholent has been prepared is really important. This week in addition to Rabbi Asher Block leading Oneg and sharing Torah thoughts with the group, shlicha Aviva Friedmann will face off against Rabbi Ari Kellerman to determine whose cholent reigns superior. The big highlight is that both cholents will include meat this week!

This week early childhood students enjoyed visiting Ms. Emily, RMBA's librarian, in the library where they got to read the books We Don't Eat our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins, and The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch. The students enjoyed listening to the stories and talking all about them after!

RMBA's high school Drama Society has returned! Upper school students are proud to announce that they will perform the play Larceny and Old Lace, a fun spoof on the classic Arsenic and Old Lace, this December. Students are already working hard learning their characters, lines, blocking, and creating the set designs. Thank you to Mr. Stanulonis and Ms. Rantz for making this fantastic program happen! Stay tuned for playbill advertisement opportunities.