Third grade went to the Minnesota Zoo in preparation for the ZOOMS STEM Design Challenge. They learned about white-cheeked gibbons, met an armadillo, and took a class on developing enrichments to improve an animal's life at the zoo.

Some of our youngest community members joined us for a 🕎 Chanukah-themed 🕎 Heilicher Sunday Family Fun Day yesterday! They enjoyed festive crafts projects, sensory activities and holiday books with PJ Library. We had a full room full of schmoozing, refreshments, and fun!

Some of our students participated in a chess tournament and took home trophies. ♟🏆♟ Congratulations to both the fourth-grade and third-grade groups for winning first place!

Today we welcomed Beth El Aleph Preschool for a Taste of K! We enjoyed introducing the pre-kers to kindergarten with circle time and story time, song and movement in music class, and free play. We look forward to some of these students joining the Heilicher family next year! #hmjdslions

It was a close game for the Heilicher 7-8 boys team against Benilde-St. Margaret's yesterday as they opened their season. The girls also played their first game against Carondelet. 🏀 📸 Steve Teener

Our head of school, Dr. Dan, played his bass for first grade! He told the students all about his instrument, and each kid had the opportunity to pluck strings and make some music. In addition to his Doctor of Education in Leadership, Policy, and Administration, Dr. Dan has a bachelor's and master's degree in music and has previously served as a music teacher.

Shabbat shalom! Wishing everyone a RESTFUL Shabbos filled with good FRIENDS and FAMILY. 🧡 Heilicher

🦁🏀 The Heilicher 5-6 basketball teams were a blur on the court! Both teams won their first games of the season yesterday! 🏀🦁 #hmjdslions

Heilicher's School's Out Ozrim are putting together a donation drive this Sunday, December 8! Our donations will go to STEP: St. Louis Park Emergency Program. Drop off items to the Heilicher dining room between 9 a.m. and noon on Sunday. If you can't make it, please bring your donations to the HaBonim room ahead of the event. Please donate: • nonperishable food • hygiene products • warm winter clothing • new undergarments and socks • home cleaning supplies • bedding • shoes

The Heilicher 2024-2025 basketball teams are getting ready for their first games this week! 🏀 Let's go, Lions! 🦁

As we close out National Native American Heritage Month, kindergarten learned about Native legends and crafts and made their own dreamcatchers out of paper plates, yarn, and beads. They wrote on them, using symbols from Native American early language.

Math class is getting us hungry for some pumpkin pie leftovers! What's your favorite Thanksgiving food? ➕➖✖️➗ The fourth graders weighed and measured pumpkins to make estimates and solve math problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. After the students counted the pumpkin seeds, Chef Liz roasted the seeds for them to enjoy!

What a joy to have former faculty members return to visit with both past colleagues and new staff last week. They reminisced, got to join us for t'filah and see our school today, and offered valuable insights. 🧡💙🧡💙

Heilicher's "Broadway Sings!" elective took a field trip to the Orpheum Theatre to see Les Misérables. 🎭 Did you know composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyricist Herbert Kretzer are Jewish?

This National Native American Heritage Month, our fifth grade had the opportunity to visit the Bell Museum for a special experience called Kapémni: From Earth to Sky, a Dakhóta Perspective. The students saw a planetarium show, went on a guided tour of the museum's galleries, and participated in a hands-on activity. Thank you to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community for helping to make this experience possible.

Heilicher has a loving intergenerational community 💗 Today students welcomed some of the people who make their lives — and the Heilicher community — special for Yom Dor l'Dor (Generations Day), or Special Persons Day! Here are just a few of the special guests we got to share Shabbat with. Shabbat shalom!

If you missed the Heilicher Annual Benefit, it’s not too late to give! Please consider being a part of Heilicher’s impact in your Give to the Max Day giving. The Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish Day School is a community school that provides academic excellence elevated by a deep commitment to Jewish core values. We nurture students to become lifelong learners, leaders, critical thinkers, and mensches (good people). Our graduates enter the world with the curiosity, critical and ethical decision-making skills, and global competency to succeed in their future endeavors. Donate through Heilicher’s secure donation portal: hmjds.org/donate Thank you for your generosity and support!

The a-MAZE-ing first-grade students followed a path of Hebrew letters and words, reading in pairs to get to the end of the maze. Kol hakavod, first graders! Good job!

$85,000! We raised $85,000 in the room on Sunday evening for our fund-a-need, dedicated to professional development for Israel education and Hebrew language instruction. A special thank you to Russ Hilk for leading the fund-a-need program, to the generous Heilicher grandparents who matched $10,000, and to all who gave. #hmjdslions

Thank you to all who celebrated with us at the Heilicher 2024 Annual Benefit and helped us raise $380,000 with your sponsorships and attendance! Your support will help Heilicher continue the legacy of academic excellence imparted by Audrey Goldfarb and all the incredible leaders of Heilicher in its first 40 years. On we grow!