Girls and Boys Torah Bowl Teams March Into Playoffs
The Boys Torah Bowl team finished the regular season with a perfect 12-0 in league competition, after sweeping the competition at Manhattan Day School last week. They enter the playoffs as the number one overall seed in the league.
One of the most successful seasons in Torah Bowl history was led by eighth graders Meir Flamenbaum and Gabriel Koptiev. Students were asked hundreds of questions on the parshiyos (and respective Rashis) of VaYeitzei, VaYishlach, and VaYeishev.
After finding out the team had clinched the number one overall seed during the day’s competition, Rabbi Daniel Rosenfelt debated resting his starters to prevent a potential injury. After much media scrutiny, Rabbi Rosenfelt simply could not contain himself and was able to have every member of the active roster see the field. However, as the 2007 Patriots found out, an undefeated regular season does not make you a champion.
The girls team also competed at MDS and studied the same parshiyos. Led by Ms. Shoshana Rosenblum, they won two games to close the regular season and enter the playoffs as the three seed.
Kindergarten Reading Groups Begin
Kindergarten classes recently began small reading group instruction. Classes are divided into rotations based on current skills, and the Head Teacher reads with four to six students at a time. The other groups work with the Associate and Assistant Teachers on literacy-building activities such as “scrambled sentences.” The rotational method provides the opportunity for close attention to best meet students’ needs.
Students in the reading group each receives a Flyleaf book, a decodable text, which helps students build phonics and reading comprehension skills. Each book in the Flyleaf series builds upon the next, to further develop their abilities. Under the guidance of Dr. Emily Amie Witty (YCQ’s Director of English Language Arts and Professional Development for Grades K-8), the program enables teachers to implement YCQ’s new reading philosophy, the Science of Reading
Circuitry and ‘Makey Makey’ Electrical Engineering
Students are busy learning about circuits in Mrs. Yusupov’s engineering class. Students are using coding skills to create different devices and cards that utilize circuit technology. Currently, students are using “Makey Makey” devices to make music! Makey Makey “creates invention kits designed to connect everyday objects to computer keys. Using a circuit board, alligator clips, and a USB cable, they use closed loop electrical signals to send the computer either a keyboard stroke or mouse click signal.”
