Mar 07
These are the super happy faces of a bunch of children who’ve FINISHED their Shabbat final projects! And boy are they proud of their teamwork. They can hardly wait to share their incredible ideas and gorgeous projects with you. We hope you’ll join us this Sunday at 9:00am for Family Exploration and Celebration!
Mar 02
As our שבת (Shabbat) projects take shape in ענפים (Anafim, “branches” for 3rd-4th grade children), the children are starting to interview each other to develop their artist’s statements. Sometimes the questions are spontaneous: “Whoa! How did you do that?” Sometimes, great follow-up questions grow out of answers to our set interview protocol: “Wait, that’s really different …
Mar 02
Do middle schoolers still play? Not, play organized sports games, or board games, or video games. But do they still want to let their imaginations run and use their hands to create and get silly together? Just a quick look around the middle school room this week said it all. Here we are… …making a rocking chair, …
Feb 26
Backgrounds painted. Check. Costumes selected. Check. Props made. Check. Script edited. Check. That can only mean one thing… It’s time for Nitzanim to take center stage! We can’t wait to show off all of our hard work and incredible ideas at Family Exploration and Celebration. See you on Sunday, March 11!
Feb 23
One of my favorite parts of project time is the focus and competence radiating from ענפים (Anafim, “branches” for 3rd-4th grade children). Of course, it’s no surprise that ענפים (Anafim) approach their project work with such patience and commitment, since after all, each project grows out of a child’s authentic ideas and discoveries. They’re excited to share their thinking with …
Feb 23
It’s great to be a middle schooler! So capable, so responsible, so caring of everyone around them. And SO engrossed in their projects that we couldn’t drag them away at the end of the day! We got right to work drafting our projects. We tested out building ideas. Here’s the part where you …
Feb 19
All year long we work with the children to activate a sense of community. We can all learn from each other, we say. We practice listening and sharing what we heard our peer say. We practice building with a partner to expose our initial ideas about text to other perspectives. We practice playing Hebrew games together and holding each other …
Feb 16
As the children left the classroom yesterday, I took a deep breath. Wow. ענפים (Anafim– “branches” for 3rd-4th grade children) made a huge leap forward on their שבת (Shabbat) projects this week! Their own personal interpretations of שבת (Shabbat) started to take shape, as they made connections between different concepts and conversations we’ve explored over the past few weeks. Each …
Feb 16
I knew it in theory: eleven year olds are just at the beginning stages of establishing their own identity, they love doing “adult” things, and are increasingly able to take on different perspectives. Still, the children’s enthusiasm for our Shabbat project blew me away. “Can we work more on our characters today?” they asked RIGHT …
Feb 15
Shteelim (‘saplings’ for kindergarten) loves having visitors. This week we had three visitors (okay, they are also related to some of the kindergartners) come to talk with us about ways that they make Shabbat special or different from the rest of the week. We heard about how some families are busy during the week and …
