Trying something new

At the end of last week, Nitzanim children tried something new with great confidence! In small groups, children took turns holding their chalk pastel artwork and explaining their ideas to each other. With a little bit of help from a grown-up, some children were even able to respond to each other’s interpretations with sentence stems like, “I agree with your idea because…” or “I disagree with your idea because…”

Even in first grade, children are working hard on the speaking and listening skills that form the foundation of the chavrutah (partner text study) work they’ll do in starting in 3rd grade. Individual children’s ideas are enriched by this dialogue with peers. So too is our entire community enriched by the diversity of perspectives about Torah text and the care and kindness children show each other when listening and responding.

Nitzanim, what a beautiful accomplishment!