Feb 26
Backgrounds painted. Check. Costumes selected. Check. Props made. Check. Script edited. Check. That can only mean one thing… It’s time for Nitzanim to take center stage! We can’t wait to show off all of our hard work and incredible ideas at Family Exploration and Celebration. See you on Sunday, March 11!
Feb 05
Isn’t it amazing how just two פסוקים (pesukim–verse) of Torah text can inspire so many different interpretations? Today, Nitzanim encountered the following two verses from Deuteronomy 5: יג שֵׁשֶׁת יָמִים תַּעֲבֹד, וְעָשִׂיתָ כָּל-מְלַאכְתֶּךָ. 13 Work for six days and do all your work; יד וְיוֹם, הַשְּׁבִיעִי–שַׁבָּת…לֹא תַעֲשֶׂה כָל-מְלָאכָה אַתָּה וּבִנְךָ-וּבִתֶּךָ וְעַבְדְּךָ-וַאֲמָתֶךָ וְשׁוֹרְךָ וַחֲמֹרְךָ וְכָל-בְּהֶמְתֶּךָ, וְגֵרְךָ אֲשֶׁר …
Feb 02
Yetzirah (יצירה – art/creativity) is what we create with our hands to show our ideas. Here are just a few of the provocative and insightful ideas that emerged through our yetzirah this week. If we had just used our words to talk about the text, we never would have had these questions and ideas! What’s the difference between …
Jan 25
Joy: connecting with a friend to talk about stuff that matters is fun, and nourishing. To grow our communication skills: we learn to articulate our ideas. To gain Jewish literacy: to know my heritage. To increase sensitivity: we learn to hear more subtleties. We learn to hear the children in a more nuanced way. To imagine: if …
Nov 30
Something new is happening with our 5th – 7th graders: they want it all. Our theme texts for this age group were Genesis 12 – 25, more text than we’ve ever swallowed in a single theme, and still, these children are reaching out to grab more text: texts we’ve read over the last 7 years and …
Nov 28
We’re barreling head first toward the end of our theme (come join us on December 10 to explore children’s incredible ideas!). Today we took a moment to slow down and look closely at our work to notice similarities and differences between our work and other children’s work. We’re learning that “interpretation” means “my own ideas about …
Nov 15
This is our second week exploring בראשית כא (Breishit Kaf Aleph–Genesis 21) in Beit Nitzanim. It’s a tricky text with some complicated relationships between Avraham, his wife Sarah, and Sarah’s servant, Hagar. To sort through all of the complications, children met with a partner to share their ideas about how these three characters might have …
Nov 10
This week in Shorashim we’re continuing to play the story of Avraham V’Sarah! In order to learn about how Sarah made bread for her visitors, we made some salt dough. We added water, flour, and LOTS of salt. Morah Lizzi helped us measure all the ingredients. When the dough got too thick to stir, …
Nov 09
Oh, beautiful middle schoolers! For years, you’ve dedicated yourselves to grappling with Torah text, to listening deeply to yourself and to each other, and now…this week…what a privilege to introduce you to that moment when Abraham takes the fire, and the knife, and walks off with his son. And your reactions! “Maybe the test is that Avraham is supposed to say, …
Nov 06
Wow… just amazing. Yesterday, we started heading in the direction of our final projects in Beit Nitzanim. I won’t tell you much more about our projects so that I don’t ruin the surprise. What I can tell you is that I’ve never seen Nitzanim so abuzz with purpose and excitement. These children truly took charge …
