LYA Blog

 When students entered Mrs. Toll’s room today, it was as if summer wasn’t over! They jumped rope, blew bubbles, and threw a football, all while enjoying strawberries and lemonade. After about ten minutes, they returned to their desks and put their heads down. They were instructed to think about summer memories that these activities triggered. Students shared these memories with the class, and their classmates helped them decide which memory would be best to write a personal narrative about. These personal narratives will incorporate the elements of fiction. Middle school students will begin writing their first drafts tomorrow! This is a fun way to transition back into school while simultaneously working on writing skills.

Welcome to a great school year 2010-11! 

Students, staff and parents arrived to LYA full of cheer and excitement on Monday, August 30, 2010.  It was a super day and we are sure that everone has some wonderful experiences that they would like to share.  LYA looks forward to reading all about your exciting day.  Please post the best things of day one here.  Remember there are 179 more great days to school!!!!

 Shalom to all of our friends at LYA!

The Rudermans have settled in to our new home in Eretz HaKodesh. School starts on September 1st. All of the classes will be in Hebrew but there is a special teacher to help us learn.

Devora has been busy with a new coloring book and new markers. A lot of kids like to color with something called Panda- they are oil pastels.

Yosef has a lot of new friends and they all like Lego. He learing about shekels because there is a store in Bat Ayin where everything is kosher and they have lots of candy. Yosef and Devora have both learned to blow bubbles with all the bubble gum they have been chewing.

Eliyahu likes it here too and he is still singing the songs he learned at LYA.

We are sending some pictures of our new house for you to see.

Shalom for now,

The Rudermans

The wedding of Dr. Joshua Toll to Miss Amanda Singer was beautiful.  LYA middle school students had a wonderful time dancing and enjoying the absolutely delicious food.  They really appreciate the fact that their teacher invited them to her wedding.  The students made LYA and their parents proud with their excellent behavior.  Congratulations Mrs. Toll.  It will take a little time for us to get used to your new name.

   

It was a truly amazing turnout to the annual LYA Summer Barbecue.  You would not have realized that it was raining.  When the LYA staff began to set up the sky was beautiful and sunny.  As soon as all the tables were out, the sky opened up and rained down.  This did not stop LYA.  The staff quickly regrouped and in no time the barbecue was set up inside.  We were thrilled that 193 people attended this successful event.  It was fun to play the carnival games and jump on the inflatable obstacle course.  The food was delicious and plentiful.  Thanks Rabbi Wolff for the great kick ball game when the rain stopped. 

Well, today is your first day of summer vacation.  After a busy year of academics and educational activities you all deserve a break.  At LYA we are busy planning for another exciting school year.  We want to hear from you and know what you are doing this summer.  Please post your summer adventures on the blog.  If you want to, please include photos and email them to lyaadmin@comcast.net with a heading that tells the office that the photo is for the blog.  Any students that post summer activities on the blog will receive character trait tickets on the first day of school.  Have a great summer.

LYA Graduates and their families enjoyed a Graduate Banquet on Thursday, June 10.  In addition to enjoying a delicious meal, students and staff reflected on students accomplishments at LYA.  Each teacher presented awards to the graduates.  Graduates shared a special memory from their years at LYA.  It was a beautiful evening.  

The LYA Choir did an outstanding job performing at the Educator's Banquet.  They stole the show with their singing, enthusiasm and energy.  They sang one song that they had originally sung when NEASC visited.  Their second song was about Hebrew names.  Since they could only sing about one name in the chorus, they chose to sing Mr. Grinspoon's Hebrew name.  His name is Heshel and the kindergarten prepared a portrait of his name that was presented at the end of their song.  Special thanks to Alla Goldman, Rochel Leah and Chaya Kosofsky for assisting the children.  Thank you to the parents who supported the choir and came to hear them and cheer them on.  The students of course deserve all the credit.  Great job!!!

Miss Singer received the Award for Excellence in Jewish Education on Thursday, June 3.  She celebrated with family, friends and LYA staff at the Educator's Banquet.  Miss Singer spoke beautifully about her life as an educator and how lucky she is to work at LYA.  LYA is truly blessed to have her on our staff and as part of our terrific team.  We are all very proud of her.

The first and second graders took a field trip to look park on Wednesday, June 3.  At the park we went on a scavenger hunt, took a train ride, went to the park zoo and enjoyed a beautiful picnic lunch! Mrs. Ertel also made an appearance and helped out on the scavenger hunt!

The second and third graders went on a field trip Thursday, May 27 to Forest Park.  We went to pick up trash...this ended our year long community service project that the second and third graders participated in.  We had a great time cleaning up trash, playing in a kickball game and enjoying the beautiful weather.  

It was a very busy day for the volunteers at Longmeddowe Days at the LYA Falafel Booth.  Business began at 11:00 a.m. and LYA served many community members delicious falafel.  By 3:15 p.m. we had sold out all of our food.  Thank you to the following volunteers who helped make this event such a great success:  Rabbi Noach & Esther Kosofsky, Rabbi Chaim & Rochel Leah Kosofsky, Chaya & Bracha Kosofsky, Ari, Jenna & Rachel Parzivand, Lois, Steve and Joe Koltz, Devon Walterscheid and Edy Winokur.  Look who came and enjoyed our falafel.  Mr. Grinspoon and his granddaughter. 

The Learn-a-thon was a huge success.  Thank you to all the students who participated, staff who tested and parents who blogged.  It was truly a beautiful sight to see LYA students learning Torah.  Below are the winners of the prizes.  Congratulations!!!

Well, it is hard to believe that the Learn-a-thon is almost over.  It has been a pleasure watching the students study and meet their goals.  Thank you to all the Judaic staff for testing the students.  Prizes will be pulled at 3:15 p.m. on Tuesday, May 18.  Below is the last mission of this year.

1. Read Chapter 6 of Pirkei Avot

2. Help prepare some food in your home

3. Greet someone (not a family member) and wish them a Shabbat Shalom 

The First grade and Preschool reading buddies met together on May 5, 2010 with a task.  Each group set special goals together.  They worked  in groups to brainstorm obtainable goals.  Each first grade buddy was the scribe, who recording their groups goals.  An example of some goals was "help my mommy set the table" or "share my toys with my friends".  The reading buddies are now working toward meeting those goals.  We look forward to hearing about how these goals worked at the end on the month.  Good luck!!!