Yasher Koach to all students who led the Tfillot this past two week:
Chazzanim/Chazzaniot: Sophie Sorkin, Ethan Katz, Judith Roisman, Aria Jochnau, Rachel Gittleman, Ofir Kadosh, Sophie Kalmin, Grace Gotesky, Janey Daniels, Abe Behar, Julia Danziger
Torah readers: Samantha Sorkin, Sarah Erani, Eli Cowan
Aliyot: Aria Jochnau, Daniel Leibman, Aaron Stein
Gabbaim : Abby Cowan, Sam Toubin
Yasher Koach to our Kabbalat Shabbat leaders on Friday:
Ella Trubek, Jordan Blum, Willa Berry, Taylor Bazarsky, Ryan Diamond
*To follow our services schedule and assigned leaders please go to http://byds.org/academics/jewish-community-highlights/judaic-studies
- Mensch of the Week
- We continue our character education program which includes a monthly value that will be discussed during the school day and during services. Our December theme is Being a Mensch (Person of Integrity) נעים הליכות , and we emphasize the importance of helping others, acts of loving kindness, helping the elderly.
- Number of the students presented high values of kindness and entered the Mensch Box (which is located in the Administration lobby):
Talia Schwartz, 1st, packing up for her friend.
Micah Weinstock, 2nd, helping carry a friends backpack when they hurt themselves.
Sam Whitman, 2nd, always looking for ways to help put things away in the classrooms.
Maya Friedberg, 2nd, helped a friend find a missing page from his story.
Brett Bazarsky, 3rd, opening the door for all of 2nd grade.
Sophie Kalmin, 3rd, shared her snack with a friend who did not have one.
Aria Jochnau, 3rd, helping a classmate pick up a box full of markers that fell without being asked.
Koby Sheldon, 3rd, helping a classmate pick up markers that fell without being asked.
Abby Cowan, 3rd, helping a classmate pick up markers that fell without being asked.
Ofir Kadosh, 3rd, helping a classmate pick up markers that fell without being asked.
Daniel Liebman, 3rd, helping a classmate pick up markers that fell without being asked.
Bergen Friedman, 4th, behaving with excellent Derech Eretz and being respectful to her teacher and classmates.
Brett Bazarsky, 4th, acting with Derech Eretz and being respectful to his teacher and classmates.
Marisa Loev, 4th, behaving with excellent Derech Eretz and being respectful to her teacher and classmates.
Kai Rubenstein, 4th, writing a nurse's note for a friend so the friend would not get blood on the note.
Noah Berry, 5th, acting with Derech Eretz and being respectful to his teacher.
Harvey Gibbs, 5th, finding Cantor Dorf's wedding ring when it fell off.
Tzedakah
Thanks for the wonderful participation this past week. 100% Tzedakah was collected by all classes grades K-5!
Thanks to Jacob Trachtenberg and Noah Berry for coordinating this weeks' project. We continue to collect coins every week and we are very excited to see such an overwhelming participation. The students will decide be the end of the semester where these monies should go to.
Kufsat Shabbat
BYDS Third Grade students took to the main podium this week with their Presidents of the United States Project. The Reiches Hall event capped a month-long research project that began before Thanksgiving. Students did research in the library using traditional reference sources plus books from the library's main collection. In addition, students were guided toward reliable educational web sources to help with historical information. The process of choosing which president to research and enact was partly random, with individual preferences factore
d in: teachers conducted a lottery, and number one selected first from his/her three picks, then number two selected, etc. Everybody was happy with the process and the outcome. 
Parent volunteers put on their garden gloves, grabbed their trowels and cultivators, and got dirty this week outside the Pre-K classrooms. The garden boxes were installed in the summer of 2011, and last year Pre-K students planted herbs that produced an abundant harvest for last spring's Pre-K Farmer's Market. The plan is to do the same this year, with some enhancements to the produce being planted. Can you devote an hour sometime in January to helping us prepare the boxes? If so, contact Mr. E at 
