Jewish Heritage Day at the KC Wizards game
What: Jewish Heritage Day
When: Sunday May 23
Where: Community America Ballpark
Times: HBHA Girls Varsity soccer game @ 11:00am; KC Wizards soccer game @ 3:00pm
Tickets: General Admission- $15 ($3 donation), Stadium Reserved- $25 ($5 donation) Each ticket comes with a JHD T-Shirt!
There will also be a Kosher Subway tailgate beginning at 2:00pm!
Please visit www.kcwizards.com/JHD and click on Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy.

Kansas Students pick 2010 William Allen White Children's Book Award Winner
And… the winner is “How to Steal a Dog” by Barbara O’Connor. HBHA students joined in with approximately 40,000 other Kansas students in naming this book the winner in the 58th annual statewide readers’ choice award program in Kansas.
HBHA’s 3-5th grade students were introduced to the 3-5th grade books through student created powerpoint presentations in the fall. Any student reading at least two of the nine candidates for the award had opportunity to vote in April. O’Conner’s book ranked first among HBHA’s voters also. Pictured with the books are Jared Cambier and Maya Tobin. These two students read all nine books up for the award, making them very informed voters!
The White Awards program, as described on the official website, is the nation's first statewide reader's choice award. It is directed by Emporia State University and supported by the Trusler Foundation. The program was founded in 1952 by Ruth Carver Gagliardo, a children's literature specialist, to honor the memory of one of the state's most distinguished citizens by encouraging Kansas schoolchildren to read and enjoy good books. 

Fifth Grade Attends Exchange City
Fifth graders became entrepreneurs as they attended a day-long experience at Exchange City on April 29.  Students worked the Corner Café, Nature Studio and Public Works businesses.  This followed a unit on economics.  They experienced being employees and managing their own finances for the day.  HBHA was partnered with William Southern Elementary School of Independence.  Other businesses included Community America Bank, where their businesses took out loans and citizens opened checking accounts, City Hall, Sports Shop, International Shop, Health and Wellness (students had to decide if they wanted to take out health insurance for the day or risk getting sick or injured without it), radio station, newspaper and an investment service.  The fifth graders wish to thank Mitch Gold, Colin Picker and Dr. Scott Sher for driving and for their invaluable help in the businesses all day, and Janet Galapo and Debi Davis for driving.  We couldn’t have done it without you!

Reaching the Write Minds Workshop
Ninth and tenth grade HBHA students attended an all day creative writing workshop, Reaching the Write Minds, facilitated by the Coterie Theater on April 13th.  As a result of outstanding work during the workshop, Alexandra de Garay, 9th grader, has been invited to become a member of the Coterie’s eighteenth annual Young Playwrights’ Roundtable.  In the 2010-2011 Roundtable, members will have the opportunity to meet and discuss their developing plays in a series of working sessions held on Sunday afternoons at the Coterie Theatre.  Some of the plays developed from the Roundtable will receive a production or a staged reading on the Coterie’s main stage, using professional actors and directors.  Past HBHA alumni of the Playwrights’ Roundtable are Ethan Kaseff, 2009-2010, and Felicia Sokol, 2008-2009.  The Tom Goldenberg Scholarship Fund has generously sponsored the workshop for HBHA students for the past three years.

International Fair for Second Graders
International Fair, a culminating activity for the second grade social studies program, will be held May 17 at 1:30 p.m. in the Social Hall.   Each student has chosen a country that has not been studied in class to research.   The program will consist of a parade of countries (children will wear original costumes depicting their countries), “International Rights of the Child” poetry, individual travel commercials and an open house where Lower School students and guests will have an opportunity to visit informally with students.

Duke University TIPS Program Honors Student
Sophia Porter, a 7th grade student at Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy in Overland Park, will be recognized at Duke University Talent Identification Program’s Grand Recognition Ceremony in Durham, North Carolina.   Invitees must first qualify to take the ACT or SAT college entrance exam by scoring at or above the 95th percentile on a grade level achievement test and then go on to score at or above the 90th percentile of college-bound high school juniors and seniors on the ACT or SAT in at least one subcategory (math, science, reading or English).  Fewer than three percent of 7th graders who were invited to take the ACT or SAT went on to qualify for the recognition ceremony at Duke, which will take place on May 24th.