May 23
This past week, the Shteelimers were given new puzzles to explore Hebrew letters. When the children saw that both puzzles could be figured out by arranging the Aleph Beit in order, they got to work! The strategies they used were all cooperative and mostly carried out without any guiding hints from the morot (educators). This …
May 02
This week Shteelim dug into the Aleph Beit in new ways. When we realized the children were especially excited to play a colorful Aleph-Beit matching game we kept on adding steps and challenges to deepen their exploration and enliven their learning. Here is how you play! Step one: Line up the Aleph Beit cards face …
Apr 26
This week in Shteelim, we all came together and played an Ivrit memory game. What started out as a two-person game, evolved into the whole group playing together (sometimes as individuals and sometimes as teams.) The game itself evolved as well, from finding matches, to helping our חברים (chaverim – friends) remember where certain אותיות (otiyot – …
Apr 18
Over the past two weeks Shteelim has been learning about Yedidut (friendship). That’s meant really exploring compromise, communication, and learning new partner games. The Shorashimers have had some new exploration of their own in pretty big ways. Shorashim has also been exploring communication, compromise, and new partner games…. but in a whole new space! These …
Jan 10
After a nice long break, Shteelim finished working on the Alef-Bet sign for Pinat Ivrit. After all the pieces were finished and the children wrote their שמות (shemot – names) on their work we were able to put the Alef-Bet together to make a sign for Beit Shteelim. Once we carried the sign over to …
Jan 10
This week, we added new writing materials into Pinat Ivrit. “This is so cool!” one boy said, and a chorus of “yeah!” came from others at the shulchan (table). As we wrote, we noticed new things about Hebrew letters: “Hey! The כ are the same!” Someone noticed that we write the כ (khaf) the …
Dec 20
This week in Shteelim we wrapped up our Chanukah activities and focused on Irvit (Hebrew). We practiced the Alef-Bet and traced the letters with stencils. When we come back from break, we will be able to hang our new Alef-Bet banner in Pinat Ivrit for all the children to use as an Irvit resource.
Dec 19
Last Sunday when the Shorashim-ers were presented with materials to make Hanukkah decorations and play dreidle they combined everything on the table to invent a brand new game- dreidels on the loose! When a dreidel landed everyone picked up the decoration with a matching letter. As a morah, this was a great reminder in how …
Dec 02
With Chanukah around the corner, Shorashim started the celebration! We began by playing with wooden dreidels and learning the names of the letters Nun, Gimmel, Hey, and Shin. Then we became dreidels! While singing Chanukah songs, the children spun and danced like dreidels. Each child wore a sign with Nun, Gimmel, Hey, or Shin on the …
Nov 30
Some children in Shteelim were itching for an Ivrit (Hebrew) challenge this week. We decided to see if we could make the letters א and ב with our bodies! The children had to try it out a few times and help each other position their גופים (gufim – bodies) until it was just right. Do …
