May 13
We’re coming to the final weeks of our Bikur Cholim (Visiting Sick People) theme. Each week I have been moved by the way that children are thinking so deeply about our theme and sharing such empathetic insights. The depth of their ideas speaks not only to the individual children themselves and their amazing brains, but …
Apr 21
Last week in Nitzanim (“Buds,” for 1st grade children), we explored a text from the Talmud that said that when someone visits a sick person, they take away 1/60th of their suffering. To help us understand this idea, we looked at a picture of a pie with one tiny little slice taken out of it. …
Jan 20
Why do you think someone might choose to say שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ (Shehecheyanu) when they get something new that they needed? The children in Nitzanim (“Buds” for 1st grade) have been exploring this question as a part of our שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ (Shehecheyanu) theme, and there have been all sorts of ideas (and questions!) that have come up in …
Jan 14
Hey! Did you know that the Hebrew word חי (chai–life) is the root of our new theme, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ (Shehecheyanu)? This week, children recalled times that they felt super alive: Child 1: When I swung for the first time by myself. And I felt really good on the inside and the outside. Child 2: One time …
Oct 04
Today, a child was feeling stuck. He wanted to show Adonai Elohim (God) removing the rib bone from the adam (human) and building ishah (woman) in Genesis 2, but he wasn’t sure how to draw it. I posed the question to his peers, “How might Child A show this part?” and immediately we had a …
Sep 25
We’re a few weeks into our Adam v’Adamah Torah theme, and Nitzanim first and second graders have been working hard on listening to their “inner voice” when we read and discuss text together at כיבוד (kibud–snack) Their inner voice is a reaction to the text that might come in the form of a question, feeling, …
May 09
This week, Nitzanim children are diving into the Book of Ruth to search for examples of נוֹשֵׂא בְעֹל עִם חֲבֵרוֹ(nosei v’ol im chaveiro–helping a friend carry a burden). After hearing the text read aloud, children created comics, buildings, and collages. This second pass at the text is an opportunity to extend their thinking, use their …
Apr 15
Over the last two weeks Nitzanim (“Buds” for 1st grade) children have been wrestling with some really tough stuff. They had to keep straight the Mishnah, which says to tell the story at the seder from the “hard stuff” to the “awesome stuff” (Mishnah Pesachim 10:4). Then they had to keep track of two different …
Feb 25
We’re in week two of frenzied final project mode in Beit Nitzanim, but today we took a few moments to slow down and share. Children took turns telling their לְהִתְפַּלֵל (L’hitpalel) stories to a peer. They showed photos of their buildings, explained project planning pages, and some of our big first grade readers even read …
Apr 19
A father and son are hunting together. The son accidentally left his safety off and the dad accidentally shot his own finger. Another time, the father and son are hunting again, and the boy says, “Oh, I need to put my safety on.” The dad replies, “Yeah, we don’t want a remake of last time.” …
