Chadashot Online

*3rd Grade Rashi Breakfast*

Third grade students, parents, and grandparents gathered in the lunchroom Wednesday morning for the annual Rashi Breakfast. Rabbi Krauss welcomed everyone with the story of his visit to Rashi's yeshiva, envisioning a grand building. Instead, he found a small, simple one-room building and shared how even more impressed he was that this small room inspired so much Torah, learning, and teaching. Ben Stern (3W), Malkey Rosensaft (3X), Tamar Hoch (3Y), and Eli Landes (3Z) each shared a d'var Torah, each on one of the parshiyot studied this year and describing the mural in the lunchroom that his or her entire class created. Each d'var Torah was greeted with a round of applause from the guests and a hand shake from Rabbi Krauss. The students, happy to participate, smiled all the way back to their seats. The students then rashi1

paired with their familial chavruta to learn from Rashi's commentary together. In culmination of this year's M'Dor L'Dor theme, third graders Manny Cohen (3X), Taly Kronish (3W), Leora Schloss (3Y), and Hadley Kavuar (3Z), shared excerpts from letters they received from their grandparents over the course of the year. Many told a funny or meaningful story of growing up around the time of their third grade year. One grandmother ate a goose egg from the refrigerator, while another described her school assembly announcing the declaration of the State of Israel. Yardaena Osband, third grade parent, thanked the teachers on behalf of all the parents by quoting one of her daughter's favorite Rashis learned this year and comparing it to the learning at SAR. Rashi questions the meaning of Yaakov and Esav "va'yit'rotz'tzu" inside Rebecca womb. Just like Yaakov, the children of SAR "va'yit'rotz'tzu" to get into the school rashi2

building each day to learn. Back in chavruta, each family created a generation chain, beginning with the generations from Avraham and Sarah to Mordechei and Esther to Rashi, and continuing the chain by labeling each link as a different member of the family, and ending with each third grader. Just before enjoying breakfast, the crowd received an extra-special screening of a music video of "V'ahavta L'rayacha Kamocha" starring every third grader lip syncing, dancing, and learning Rashi. Click here so you can view it too!

*5th Grade Intergenerational Day*

On Thursday, June 10th, the fifth graders welcomed grandparents, older relatives, friends, and special guests to SAR. Morah Milly Rosner, General Studies Principal for grades 3-8, welcomed the warm, happy group, telling our guests how blessed we are to have such a beautiful turn-out for Intergenerational Day. "I just want to let you know," she said, "not to be scared that Hatzalah is outside. The ambulance is part of a workshop that a grandparent is giving this morning!" Rabbi Krauss also welcomed our visitors telling them that last night he went to the Apple Store. He expected that when he got there everyone would be talking about the iPad, but that wasn't the case. Instead, all the talk was about the iPhone 4 which is to be released in fourteen days. "Imagine," he said, "the iPad is old already! What I was thinking was that while we are so excited about everything new, we can forget about what came before us. What we are here to do today, and really every day, is to learn that new is really great, but to also say, 'How awesome are those people that came before us.' We can recognize the great privilege we have in learning from previous generations, from people who are closer to the mesorah, closer to Har Sinai. Thank you to all our staff, and teachers, and to everyone who is here helping us to learn." Fifth grade teachers then read aloud some of their students' compelling writings about their grandparents.

Invited guests and fifth graders also took part in grandparent-led workshops in the gym. Traveling from station to station, workshops included: a Boggle competition, a yoga session, making balloon animals, riddle telling, playing casino, using a Class A scale to measure things, learning how to: make chocolate soda, fold an American flag, make a family tree, and much, much more.

Outside the gym, families walked through "The Living Museum" created by fifth grade students

with Morah Aviva Feit, who works on special projects in our school. The museum was comprised of various artifacts housed in galleries called: "Decorate and Design"- with decorative arts objects that are special because of the people who created them or because of what they symbolize, "Let Us Never Forget"- with objects hidden during the war, "Israel, The Holy Land"- with objects related to the holy land and the birth of the State of Israel, "Mitzvoth With Meaning"- with religious objects that tell the story of our families and of the Jewish people, and many more interesting galleries. Students stood behind their heirloom and explained its significance to passers-by. Each heirloom was also accompanied by a certificate stating the student curator, the name of the artifact, its measurement, materials, the artifact's story, and the significance of the artifact to each family. Every gallery was decorated with painted canvases hanging above it, which the students created with Morah Chani Jaskoll, our art teacher. "Look, I painted this," called out one student with pride. Our students have rich family histories, and it was such a pleasure for them to share their family stories with their peers.

Thank you to the many grandparents and special visitors who enriched our students with their diverse talents and interests today and always.

*Spring Concert*

Third through seventh grade gathered together in the gym last Friday afternoon for the Second Annual SAR Spring Concert featuring performances by the SAR 6th Grade Percussion Ensemble and the SAR 3rd-8th Grade Choir. The Percussion elective opened the concert with "Balafon" by Walt Hampton. Among the ten student musicians, they played one bass xylophone, some alto xylophones, some soprano xylophones, and four glockenspiels. Their different rhythms blended together to create a beautiful song. The student audience began clapping halfway through and the performers smiled at the involvement. They ended at a fast pace, building to crescendo and ending with a flourish.

The SAR Choir took the stage with solid, bright-colored t-shirts and black bottoms. Morah Naomi conducted the choir and introduced each song. The choir sang in harmony, in rounds, and in partner songs, where half of the choir sings one song and half sings another at the same time, fitting the two songs nicely together. This half and half method was especially prominent during the Coffee/Latte song from the 16th Century German Cannon. The repertoire included a range of music from classical Beethoven to Rodgers and Hammerstein to Craig Taubman. The choir worked hard all year performing at the SAR Dinner, at the Hebrew Home in Riverdale, at Yavneh Academy in a Choir Exchange, and last Friday at the Second Annual Spring Concert. Kol Hakavod to all the performers this year.

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Sixth Grade Percussion Ensemble Members:
Jeremy Berger, Solomon Bergwerk, Yakira Cohen, Eitan Hain, Jessica Hecht, Nathan Herszaft, Ariel Smith, Eliran Sobel, Evan Sterman, and Jonathan Lederman

Choir Members:
Ayelet Bar-David, Estie Ben-Meir, Nattie Ben-Meir, Yakira Bergman, Aderet Brenner, Shmuel Crisafi, Danielle Dorfman, Joshua Dorfman, Yonatan Fine, Noa Garfinkel, Aura Glazer, Sara Rose Greenberg, Ariel Greenwald, Avital Hirsch, Naama Kobrin, Avigail Maayan, Shira Michaeli, Rebecca Ordan,

Malkey Rosensaft, Leora Schloss, Nina Siegel, and Jonah Stadtmauer

*Chess Tournament*

On Sunday, June 6th, SAR Academy hosted sixty-three chess aficionados who competed in the Tri-State Chess Tournament. Eleven of the players were students from SAR.

Many of our students won individual trophies. In the Novice division, SAR won the second place team prize, missing 1st place by only 1/2 point!

Go to www.TriStateChess.com to see the standings.