JKHA middle school was abuzz with programming over the week of Chanukah. This week saw the first ever middle school Hackathon. Groups of students were tasked with coding a solution in Scratch or Python (depending on their grade level), to solve a Chanukah challenge in groups in a fixed amount of time. They all showed such skill, tenacity and ingenuity!

The eighth grade buddy program, MiddotMentors, pairs eighth grade with fifth grade students to build and foster community in the middle school. The eighth graders and their fifth grade buddies met this week for a Chanukah activity. They played a creative version of the dreidel game in order to get better acquainted with one another. Students had a blast with their buddies!

The bnot sherut planned an amazing Chanukah carnival with Hebrew activities for EC and lower school that was run by the eighth grade girls. The eighth grade girls enjoyed their leadership roles as they created Chanukah-themed face painting, led dreidel-themed games, Menorah ring toss, a Chanukah candle challenge and more! The talented students of middle school showed their skills for a Kushner’s Got Talent competition, and middle schoolers enjoyed a festive photo challenge all over the building

Middle school went on a Chanukah STEM scavenger hunt around the building. Teams were tasked with locating a variety of scientific examples around the building and to photograph or record it, such as a video with an inclined plane, the sound of something with friction and more. At the end of the “hunt” teams returned to the Rosenberg Beit Midrash and had to then build something with the given materials that either flies, floats or spins!

The week culminated in a Moadim L’STEAMcha Chanukah Parent Child Learning where students learned together with their parents about Chanukah then worked on a STEM project together creating a Chanulah card illuminated with a light that they wired. Everyone closed out Chanukah at the program together with a communal singing of Chanukah songs.