May 23
It’s been a tremendous year in Shalom Chaverim (“Welcome, Friends!”) for infants/toddlers and their grown-ups. What fun we’ve had celebrating an entire year of Jewish holidays by baking, painting, building, playing, singing, dancing, and SO MUCH MORE! When I went to choose my favorite photos to post in today’s blog post, I was drawn to …
May 08
We continued our exploration of Shavuot (“Weeks”) this week in Shalom Chaverim (“Welcome, Friends” for infants/toddlers and a grown-up). We made flower crowns, built aronot (plural: aron, ark) for the Torah, and even tasted a dairy treat! What a sweet way to end our Shavuot exploration together!
May 02
Shavuot is coming in Shalom Chaverim (“Welcome, Friends!” for infants/toddlers)! We’re baking cheesecakes Building really tall aronot (plural: arks) for the Torah Investigating Torah objects like the choshen (breastplate) and rimon (crown) and painting petals to use for our flower crowns. I can’t wait to see how children explore next week!
Apr 26
Can you believe it’s the end of April?! Look at the many, many incredible ways our Shalom Chaverim children have grown! When this one-year-old started the year, she explored our Jewish topics while lying on her back or tummy. Now, at the end of the year, she can sit up, crawl, and pull herself to …
Apr 17
This week, families in Shalom Chaverim started our exploration of mezuzah. A mezuzah (literally, “doorpost”) is a small ritual object traditionally hung on the doorways of Jewish homes. Inside of the mezuzah is a parchment scroll, called a klaf, upon which are written biblical verses of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9, 11:13-21). For more information about …
Jan 10
Here is the Torah text that children are exploring during Week 1 of our Yosef (Joseph) theme. בְּרֵאשִׁית לז.א-יא Genesis 37:1-11 א) וַיֵּשֶׁב יַעֲקֹב בְּאֶרֶץ מְגוּרֵי אָבִיו–בְּאֶרֶץ כְּנָעַן Ya’akov lived in the land of Cana’an. This is the story of Ya’akov and all his family. ב) אֵלֶּה תֹּלְדוֹת יַעֲקֹב, יוֹסֵף בֶּן-שְׁבַע-עֶשְׂרֵה שָׁנָה הָיָה רֹעֶה אֶת-אֶחָיו …
Jan 09
We’re exploring Shabbat in Shalom Chaverim (“Welcome, Friends!” for infants and toddlers with a grown-up). Our favorite ways to play yesterday included shaping challah from brown, cinnamon-scented playdoh; exploring Shabbat pictures in the rice table; and painting Shabbat candleholders. We also sang a silly Shabbat song where we added chocolate chips, broccoli, carrots, cheese, and …
Dec 12
What a gift to be able to celebrate our Teshuvah (Return) theme in community yesterday! Children in nursery and kindergarten told teshuvah stories with their grown-ups, choosing at least two different kinds of teshuvah to help make the situation better. 1st-3rd grade teshuvah specialists offered recommendations for how to do teshuvah in various situations. Finally, …
Dec 06
What a joyous final Chanukah session in Shalom Chaverim (“Welcome, Friends!”) for infants and toddlers! We stamped the Hebrew otiot (letters) נ nun, ג gimmel, ה hey, ש shin onto sevivonim (dreidels); practiced our skills for taking toys out of the bin and putting them back in; and tried on sevivon (dreidel) costumes while we …
Nov 14
We’re getting ready for Chanukah in Shalom Chaverim! As always, children in Shalom Chaverim explore the Jewish holidays in ways that are just right for their development. That means our older and younger friends often play in different ways! Our younger friends, who explore everything with their mouths, did lots of mouthing to find out …
