Please keep us informed of important happenings in your personal and professional lives. It will be our pleasure to post your news in our next SKAPPENINGS! Please email us at hspirn@skahalb.org

CLASS of 1998: Stay tuned for information on your grade's 10 Year Reunion

Lilmod Ule'Lamed for Mothers and Alumnae!

Rabbi Eisenbach will deliver his third shiur on "The Power of Prayer" on Tuesday, December 11th at 12:00pm.

Sponsorship is available for this coming week's shiur. Last week's shiur was sponsored by the Spirn family in loving memory of their beloved mother and grandmother, Mrs. Ella Spirn, Yartza bat Shimon Yehuda, a"h.

A Message from Mrs. Spirn

It's Chanukah at SKA and we feel a sense of joy, an appreciation of miracles, and real excitement in the air.

What a beautiful and spirited Chagiga we had with Shlomo Katz (straight from Israel!) and our SKA Talent Show! The ruach was yotzai min haklal. Each grade is enjoying their Chesed opportunities and class trips immensely. We can't wait for our annual Chanukah Goods & Services Auction to be held next Wednesday. Students will have the opportunity to win Shabbos meals at their teachers' homes, class barbecues, shopping expeditions with their teachers, and free homework passes. Much of the Tzedaka money raised will be used to sponsor a wedding for an orphan in Israel through Simchat Tzion, an amazing organization.

We are thrilled that our Basketball Sonics traveled to Toronto where they placed second in the tournament and beat each school before the Championship game. Special hakarat hatov to Helene Myers, Athletic Director, and Shani Marks, Assistant Coach, for guiding and chaperoning our girls on their five day excursion. Mazal Tov to Coach Sheri Brazil on the birth of her son, Moshe.

We look forward to welcoming our parents on Wednesday evening at our first set of Parent Teacher Conferences. Please be sure to sign onto our reservation system no later than
Monday, December 10^th. Effective communication with your daughter's teachers is an essential part of the education process!

Don't forget! Reports cards are being distributed today!

May we feel the simcha of Chanukah and the light of Hashem shining upon our families. Chag Urim Sameach! Shabbat Shalom!

Chanukah Chagiga

and

Talent Show

This Wednesday, the first day of Chanukah, was an exciting day at SKA! The "Talent Skow", which was originally scheduled for the Shabbaton took place and was followed by a, great chagiga with Shlomo Katz! The Talent Show which was hilarious and included acts performed by students from all grades, had some "magic", a game show, talented singers and tap dancers, a sign language presentation, and the "Senior SKAmpede". During the actual chagiga, all four grades, teachers, and principals danced and sang while the band provided us with great music and simcha. The festivities ended with another surprise - Chanukah Treats- warm latkes with apple sauce, chocolate gelt, and soda.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE PICTURES!!

Basketball Team Travels to Toronto

The Basketball team had an exciting weekend! As they traveled up to Toronto on Wednesday evening to be part of a basketball tournament, the girls arrived at Yeshiva Ulpana for Girls Thursday morning, and started the first round of games. SKA beat Ulpana, Maayanot, and Montréal, one after the other. In each game, the scores were very close, yet SKA came out on top.

Spending Shabbos in Toronto was an amazing experience, with a sense of achdus and unity felt by all four schools. Saturday night the playoffs began. SKA played Montréal, and once again showed their skills both on and off the court. Although SKA beat Montréal 65-11, immediately after the game the two teams joined together for a fun game of line-up. The next morning, in the championship game, SKA played against Ulpana. Although Ulpana won, it was a great game. Lunch followed and Alana Genuth (grade 11) and Yael Leiderman (grade12) both received MVP awards. Congratulations to them and "kudos" to our team for their great team spirit and sportsmanship!! Special thanks to Mrs. Helene Myers and Ms. Shani Marks for chaperoning the girls and traveling with them.

Seniors Visit Gymnasia

The Gymnasia Kiruv School in Queens was the destination of the SKA Senior class as they took off for their Chanukah trip. They were split up into groups and sent into different classrooms to make Chanukah projects with the students, learn, sing songs as well as have a chagiga with the older grades in the school.

The seniors then headed to ARTRAGEOUS, a ceramics store, where each girl painted a ceramic piece. Everyone's piece looked beautiful when we were finished. The girls really had fun but felt especially good knowing that they performed the great chesed of kiruv by bringing Chanukah and Yiddishkeit to all the students in the Gymnasia school.

Special thanks to Rivka Fogel, Chany Green and Aleeza Kessler for helping prepare for this fun day and to Mrs. Yudin for coordinating it all. Thank you to the Parent Council for subsidizing this trip.

CLICK HERE TO SEE ALL THE PICTURES FROM THE TRIP!!

Juniors Travel to Dave and Busters Arcade

On Thursday, in honor of Chanukah, the 11^th Grade went on a trip to Dave and Busters Arcade. The students quickly became involved with the great variety of games that were available, from dance dance revolution to air hockey, from virtual jump rope to bowling. The entire 11^th Grade had a great time and especially enjoyed spending time with each other. Thanks to Grade Level Advisors Mrs. Rivka Gross and Ms. Esther Chambre for a great Chanukah day and to the Parent Council for subsidizing the trip.

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Sophomores Pack for Soldiers in Iraq

This week the 10^th graders had a special visit from Mrs. Mullins, a favorite English teacher from HALB Elementary School. She spoke to the girls about her experience of being a mother of a marine stationed in Iraq. Mrs. Mullins described all the emotions she feels daily, knowing her son is in such danger. Though she supports her son's decision and is extremely proud of what he is doing for his country, it takes a large toll on her and her husband. The girls learned how Mrs. Mullins and other parents of marines have joined together to send their support to all those in Iraq by sending "care packages" frequently. Malkie Zoldan, an SKA sophomore, then explained her ordeal of having a brother serving in Iraq. She presented a slide show of pictures of her brother in action. To show their support, the girls brought in different food, toiletries and other necessities and created SKA care packages. Along with the packages each student wrote her own personal letter to the recipient thanking the soldier for all they are doing for all of us. We hope these parcels make a difference to our armed forces and show them how much we care.

Freshmen Celebrate Chanukah With Otsar

On Thursday morning the Freshmen of SKA spent a couple of hours with the members of Otsar, special needs adults, sharing in their Chanukah spirit. First, each Otsar member was paired up with two students, and together they created a beautiful Chanukah project decorated with dreidels, menorahs and other Chanukah symbols. The pieces were put all together to create a quilt. Afterwards, we ate a delicious brunch consisting of bagels, cream cheese, tuna and more. We then danced and had a great time. We hope they'll come again soon!

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SKA Hosts Torah Bowl Competition

On Tuesday, December 4^th, the SKA Torah Bowl Team competed in their second match this season, which was actually hosted by SKA. They won 3 out of the 4 games, with many points to spare and lost their 2^nd game by just two points. Congratulations to the whole Torah Bowl Team and to their faculty advisor, Mrs. Menchel!

SHAC Lashon Hara Hour

This week we introduced SHAC (Shmiras Halashon Action Committee) with many exciting programs. The SHAC heads went around to all the classrooms and told a story about the power of Lashon Hara and how through Shmiras Halashon we can bring the Geulah(IY"H)! We also introduced a raffle that SHAC will be having each month. Each student received a small card with boxes to check off each day that they successfully refrain from speaking L''H or used their mouths for the good. At the end of the month, the cards are entered into a raffle to win AWESOME prizes! (this month was a digital camera!! WOW!!) We also gave out Hershey kisses to remind everyone to keep their mouths sweet!!!

On Tuesday, we had our first official SHAC meeting at which our very own Mrs. Kaminetsky spoke about this months theme- "It all adds up!" it was AMAZING to see how many girls showed up to learn more about Shmiras Halashon! Not to mention the awesome donuts being served!! This months theme included a program called JOH! Just ONE hour!! Everyday, for just one hour, the whole school tries to refrain from speaking L''H. People may feel that one hour doesn't really make a difference, but we learn from this month's theme that IT ALL ADDS UP!!!! It may start out with just one hour, but hopefully over time we will be able to increase our Shmiras Halashon awareness more and more each day! Even if it is "just one hour," think about how good you will feel when you hold back from saying even one negative comment about someone! This act may seem small in this world, but it makes a huge difference to the person who you would have spoken about, and more importantly to HakadoshBaruch Hu in Shamayim!! The harder the action is for a person in this world, the more Schar they will receive in Olam Haba! NEVER forget that every LITTLE word you say (or don't say!)... can make the BIGGEST the difference!!!!

The SKA Family Picture

This past Tuesday, the entire SKA Family bundled up in coats, scarves and gloves to go outside and take a Family Portrait. Despite the snow flurries and periodic wind, everyone enjoyed the fifteen minute photo shoot with over 300 people. Another first at SKA!!

Open Beit Midrash

The second Open Beit Midrash program took place on the Thursday before Chanukah. The evening was dedicated l'iluy neshamot Mrs. Robin Greenstein a"h, Mrs Shari Siman-Tov, a"h and Mrs. Naomi Weintraub a"h. The topic was Beauty: the Jewish View vs. the Greek View.

After eating a great Dougie's dinner, the students gathered in the library to learn the sourcebooks that Ms. Borg had prepared. The sourcebooks contained articles in Hebrew and English showing how the perception of beauty has been warped over the years. The discussion that took place was about the meaning of real beauty. As Jews, we believe that being kadosh is beautiful. As Jews, we are all born holy, and are therefore, beautiful. The Greeks believed in external beauty and external beauty can be tormenting and can take over lives. A movie entitled Lights was shown which depicted the importance of learning Torah and remaining frum even in hard times. It was a great way to learn about Chanukah just before the chag.

Thank you to Dr. and Mrs Joseph Felder and Mr. and Mrs. Shaul Ozeri for sponsoring this event.

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Intergenerational Chanukah Program

Our friends from Woodmere Nursing Home came to SKA for a Chanukah party! Everyone really got into the Chanukah spirit with Chanukah music, playing dreidel, singing Chanukah songs, and even lighting the menorah. The students decorated beautiful pillows with the members of the nursing home and our guests were even given a chance to play "basketball" and Bingo. The party was a great success!

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