Color War 2014: Recap

Color War 2014 Generals

This year's color war was a huge success from start to finish. It began with a secret breakout in a form of a school-wide prank on Friday, March 21st where all the students switched classrooms and floors at the 8th period bell. Seniors, Ethan Isayev and Ovadia Fteiha were kind enough in calling down the class presidents to explain to them where there classes were going and what to do. The students were told this was a fun prank to do for the spirit of Adar and it would lighten the mood on a Friday. It worked perfectly because even the teachers had no idea what was going on! After these few minutes of chaos, Rabbi Levy called the students down for an assembly to rebuke their wild behavior and "cancel" color war. When he said he had no choice but to declare the start of color war, the SGO stormed the stage while the generals and black team ran up the aisles. The SGO and black team took the stage and jumped up and down to the blasting music and flashing colored lights to get the students pumped up and excited for these next few days of intense competition. We introduced the thoughtful and inspiring themes for this year by changing things up a bit. We created a fun video to show what color war is all about. It was so thrilling to watch the students full of laughter and big smiles on their faces. Then the next videos describing each theme came on screen. This year's color war was all about inspiring the students to leave a legacy and make their mark on the world. Each of us have a talent that Hashem gave us that we have to search for and be proud of. Four of them being fortitude (yellow), persuasion (green), creativity (red) and logic (blue). It is our job to use these talents to change the world and this color war helped the students believe in their ability to do just that. No matter where we go, be it North, South, East or West, each and every one of us have the ability to leave a legacy behind us and be remembered for something good.

Blue Logic Banner

After that, the teams went to their team time locations where they were handed their team's color t-shirts (with the beautiful color war logo we created to represent the themes) and a bandana to match. Their generals: Blue- Abie Tawil and Rita Sharaby, Green- Morris Bijou and Lital Ben-Zikry, Yellow- Joshua Sitt and Lauren Levi and Red- Victor Dweck and Alison Kassin taught them their team's cheer and invited them all to a Saturday night meeting and to Sunday Morning Learning on Sunday to help their teams decorate their school hallways in their colors. Saturday night was a blast, each team actively working on skits, videos, games, songs, banners, hallway decorations and so much more. On Sunday they heard a beautiful shiur by Rabbi Prag and began decorating the school's hallways portraying their team's theme and color that told a story.

Red Creativity Banner

The next two days were jam-packed full of fun games and activities. On Monday, we began with "SGO says" during breakfast, played red and blue team's dvar torah and mascot videos in class, played minute to win it (unwind the streamers around both arms, stack 5 dice on a tongue depressor in your mouth...) and had creative games for each grade incorporating the themes (superhero making, cake decorating, body language, poetry creation, bananagrams...) We then had an intense marathon at the end of the day where the teams had to do challenges such as build a gingerbread house, shave a balloon with shaving cream, eat 3 slices of pizza at Pizza Time, eat a watermelon, eat a pie and so much more! The teams worked together so well and did these tasks as fast as they possibly could which showed their devotion and drive to win.

Yellow Fortitude Banner

On Tuesday during breakfast we played a huge game of musical chairs and watched green and yellow's dvar torah and mascot videos in class. We then had our first ever food games where the students had to guess the soda, guess the amount of chocolate chips in fluff, eat the bubble gum in the whipped cream and blow a bubble, eat saltines, get a cookie from their eye into their mouth and eat it, eat a smores blindfolded and so much more! Then we played a game of limbo where the freshmen girls showed us how talented they were at it! It was still anyone's game at the end of the day because it was now, unfortunately, time for our closing program. The students arrived into the assembly cheering their team's cheer and were so excited! We then proceeded to watch the spectacular skits, commercials, songs, banners, and the beloved boys' dance from each team. They were so superb, it is hard to imagine how they perfected them in just three days time!

Green Persuasion Banner

After closing speeches from Rabbi Levy, Mrs. Zerykier and SGO President, Lauren Berkovits, and a slideshow full of pictures recapping the events over the past few days and interviewing team members of what legacy they want to leave behind, it was time to announce the winner, team Blue Logic!

Congratulations to all of the teams for their outstanding hard work, to the teacher generals for all of their dedication and devotion and to all of the students for their active participation, enthusiasm and involvement. Special thanks to the SGO, Mrs. Zerykier, and our black team generals Daniel Hoffstein and Sylvia Dweck who helped this color war run so smoothly and prepare each event to make this the best color war yet! We hope you loved it and truly learned something meaningful from this experience! We saw true leadership abilities in each and every one of you and we were so proud to see the Flatbush family so united and happy together! We hope you had a blast and enjoyed every minute of it, we know we did! Hold on to this experience of a lifetime and never forget it!

With great pleasure,
Your SGO 2014
Lauren Berkovits, Jeffrey Nussbaum, Charles Chakkalo and Rachel Linfield