Name: Elisa Aranoff
Date registered: September 19, 2019
Mar 30
How do you make the second pandemic Pesach (Passover) feel fun and creative? With a socially-distant puppet show! Children who participate in Special Days at the Jewish Enrichment Center enjoy creating a video from a story. Previous examples include The Sabbath Lion, Benjamin of Tudela, The Magic Pomegranate, and the Purim story. To keep things …
Feb 23
No school? No problem! When the children in the School-Day Program have a day or two off from remote learning, we gather for a fun day of Jewish enrichment. In addition to art, building, cooking, and running around indoors and outdoors, our usual plan includes movie-making based on a book with Jewish content. First we …
Feb 08
Have you heard this expression? In Hebrew it’s גַּם זֶה יַעֲבֹר (gam ze ya’avor). It’s a reminder that everything is transient. I am thinking a lot about these profound words nowadays as our School-Day Program comes to a close. The children, along with their families and teachers, are preparing to return to school in person …
Jan 15
The children in the School-Day Program at the Jewish Enrichment Center had a fun challenge last week: they had two asynchronous classes as part of their remote learning. The creative teachers instructed the children to use kitchen items and appliances as part of the lessons. Therefore we had to get creative at the Enrichment Center! …
Dec 09
How do you safely celebrate a child’s birthday in a pod? Here in the School-Day Program at the Jewish Enrichment Center, we have successfully celebrated two birthdays so far this school year, while maintaining cleanliness and social distancing. We started with a birthday banner that children took turns creating and decorating, with their own markers. …
Dec 02
The children in the School-Day Program spent two sequential Special Days last week exploring the journey of Benjamin of Tudela, the Jewish Spaniard who traveled for 14 years during the 1100s through three continents. After listening to his stories and looking through pictures of what his destinations might have looked like, the children enthusiastically painted …
Nov 19
How do you keep things fresh when Zoom-fatigue hits? There’s a Hebrew saying: “Change your place, change your luck.” The children in the School-Day Program at the Jewish Enrichment Center are breaking up the days of remote learning by trying out different places around our one-room schoolhouse. They are also experimenting with various poses on …
Nov 05
When the children in the School-Day Program at the Jewish Enrichment Center recently gathered for a Special Day (a full day of Jewish enrichment when school is closed), they demonstrated remarkable creativity using autumn leaves and other natural materials to make small Shabbat scenes and more! We began by checking out this website of amazing, …
Oct 21
The children in the School-Day Program at the Jewish Enrichment Center built an indoor sukkah out of PVC pipes, fabric, twine and branches. One child commented that he did not want to be transported back to ancient times while in the sukkah, and the concept of a sukkah time machine was born! The children individually made paper chains, then attached …
Oct 08
We are exploring the festive Jewish holiday of Sukkot this week in the School-Day Program at the Jewish Enrichment Center! The children constructed an indoor sukkah out of PVC pipes. One child commented that he did not want to be transported back to ancient times while in the sukkah, and the concept of a sukkah …
