Feb 21
Sometimes the best things in Nitzanim are unplanned. This year’s Nitzanim group loves to hear stories. For several months, children clamored for ghost, goblin, demon, and witch stories. Turns out there are many scary or spooky Jewish stories available for children, many of them by Eric A. Kimmel. Then we started reading Chelm stories. The …
Jan 18
This week and throughout the next two months we are focusing on a new theme- Boker Tov and the morning blessings (berakhot). Since our mornings start in our homes and with our families we asked the Shteelimers to draw themselves waking up in their homes and to trace over the words (Modeh Ani) which is …
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 21
See the color wheel Morah Naomi drew on the table? During our Keshet theme, we worked with the color wheel to mix colors. Today Morah Naomi made sure we kept our knowledge and ideas about mixing color up up front in our minds, simply by offering watercolor paints on a wheel, instead of scattering paints …
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 05
When Shirah/Tefillah (Singing/Prayer) ends at 5:45, the after-party begins. It started with a group of (now) first grade girls who would stay and play for a half hour while their moms chatted. But this week, one of the moms was out of town, one of the four-year-olds dozed on his mom’s lap during Shirah/Tefillah, and …
Nov 20
These are the smiles of children who argued, took the time to hear what each other was saying, and worked things out!
Nov 12
We chose… …to work together on a puzzle. …to write out the צבעים (tzeva’im – colors) in Hebrew, and to write out the alef-bet with its gematria. …to work on הסיפור שלי (lit., “My Story,” our documentation binders). …to prepare an update, mostly in Hebrew, on מזג אויר (mezeg avir – weather) to …
May 24
This week we continued our Shavuot learning by asking the question: what exactly is a “harvest”? First, we read the wonderful book “Pancakes, Pancakes!” by Eric Carle, which tells the story of all the work required to make a single pancake… (milking the cow, churning the butter, feeding the chicken so it lays an egg…) …
May 17
Shavuot is coming! On Shavuot, we read the Book of Ruth. In Shorashim, we have been reading a Shorashim-appropriate version of the story, with a focus through the lens of Tzedakah vaChessed. For example: ”Ruth shows so much chessed when she picks up all the leftover barley for Naomi,” and, “Boaz does chessed when he asks …
