Entering the Home Stretch

I am sure that we have more than a few students eagerly counting down to the last day of school (and maybe a few teachers, too). It has (thankfully) gotten warmer and feels like summer is just around the corner. And each group of students is starting to think about themselves in the next grade up.

We’ve started marking these transitions this week with the Fourth Grade Kabbalat Tikkun and the Fifth Grade Siyum. Our fourth graders have concluded their introduction to reading Torah and have read in front of the fourth/fifth grade minyan. Each of them left school Wednesday evening clutching a new Tikkun (the special book that includes the text of the Torah as it appears in the scroll without vowels and another column with vowels). This gift from the Malcmacher Fund has provided every Schechter student with a Tikkun and even replaced a few that wore out from being lovingly used to read to learn a Torah reading.

Our fifth graders mark the transition to Middle School with their Siyum. This isn’t a graduation (we’ll have one in two weeks for our eighth graders), but rather a way of marking the end of one period of study and the beginning of another. Our fifth graders are eager to explore the Middle School hallway for more than just math with Mrs. Markus.

Step Up Day, our annual tradition of treating our students to a taste of the grade to come, is just around the corner. It’s just another sign that we are entering the home stretch of an incredible year of learning.

Shabbat Shalom,

Dr. Ari Yares
Head of School