This week in Nitzanim, we learned a new משחק (mischak – game). Our משחקים (mischakim – games) always have three primary goals:
- Physical play: we love to run around!
- Ivrit: it’s so easy to learn Hebrew when we’re having fun.
- Community building: we practice friendship skills.
In this week’s new משחק, children stood in a circle on pieces of differently colored tape. One Nitzanimer would make eye contact with another one across the circle, then try to trade places before the tagger caught him/her. Upon arriving at a new color tape, the Nitzanimer would shout the name of that צבע (tzeva – color), signifying s/he was safe.
What extraordinary fun! As we played, children began to understand and share strategies for safely trading places. Children who stood still on a single color for the first few minutes began to take risks, first making small trades, then all the way across the circle. Children reminded each other about the names of the צבעים (tzeva’im – colors). What smiles!
At the end of the game, Nitzanimers spontaneously decided that it had been such a great game that everyone should shake hands and congratulate each other. Boy, did we feel good about our group!
