In preparation forTu B’Shevat (the birthday of the trees), the families of Shalom Chaverim (“Welcome, Friends!” for infants and toddlers with a grown-up) got to know the trees that live at the park across the street!
Category: Tu B’Shevat
Feb 07
Celebrating Tu B’Shvat!
This week, we’ve been celebrating Tu B’Shvat – the Jewish New Year of the Trees! In Anafim V’Alonim (“Branches” for 4th Grade, “Oak Trees” for 5th Grade), we have been sharing fun facts about trees and the environment, making crafts together, and exploring different Tu B’Shvat rituals. At the end of the session, we had …
Feb 06
Tu Bshvat in Community!
On Sunday and Monday of this week, children of all ages came together to celebrate Tu Bshvat, the birthday of the trees! Days like these are where we really get to see the magic of mutli-age community in action. When we pair older children with younger children, both cohorts rise to occasion and bring their …
Jan 30
Tu B’Shevat Is Coming!
This week Shalom Chaverim (“Welcome, Friends!” for infants and toddlers with a grown-up) is getting ready for Tu B’Shevat, the birthday of the trees! We painted flower pots to get ready for planting!
Jan 21
Working the Room
What happens when you are the only family in Shalom, Chaverim! (“Welcome, Friends!” for ages 0 – 3 and their grown-ups)? You get the whole place to yourself! This week this guy and his dad worked the room while exploring Tu B’Shevat, the Jewish celebration of trees. He built a forest out of brick blocks, affixed …
Feb 04
We Are Trees
Tu B’Shevat is coming, and we are getting ready! For the birthday of the trees, which this year falls on Sunday, February 9, and Monday, February 10, we are celebrating everything about trees! Children in Nitzanim (“buds” for 1st-2nd grades) played a variation of the game known as Wax Museum or Sculpture Garden. They pretended …
Jan 25
Tu B’Shevat, Ethical Eating, and Conscientious Objection
It was a full week in Middle School. In three days, we touched THREE topics. How unusual! We’ve been exploring Jewish decision-making. Soon, our imaginary characters will spring back to life with topics like organ donation, ethical kashrut, and conscientious objection as part of their world. Our three topics came as we concluded one topic …
Jan 20
Tu B’Shevat in Shalom Chaverim
Tu B’Shevat is a special holiday for young children. The past two weeks in Shalom Chaverim have been all about exploring trees, growing things, and planting. Look at all of the wonderful things we did! There were trees to count, to touch, and to press into play dough. We even built our own trees using …
Jan 11
Anafim Gets the Band Back Together
Are you ready to rock?! Beit Anafim (“Branches” for 2nd and 3rd graders) is gearing up to drop the HOTTEST singles of 5779. In honor of Tu B’Shevat, we’re writing songs that are all about etzim (trees). We started by exploring our instruments. We experimented to see the different ways we could use them to …
Jan 10
Shorashim V’Shteelim Made It Out of Clay
This week in שׁוֹרָשִׁים (Shorashim– ‘roots’ for nursery) and שְׁתִּילִים (Shteelim– ‘saplings’ for kindergarten) we celebrated (Tu B’Shevat) by getting our hands dirty making sculptures for etz’im (trees). First, we saw what it was like to manipulate the clay however we wanted. A lot of us felt like making flat discs. Some of us used our …