Jan 18
One of my goals as a teacher is to let children drive as much of the learning process as they’re ready for. I’ve been working with this group for years on how to take responsibility for their own learning and the learning of their peers. This month, we’ve reached a new milestone: managing our own schedules. …
Sep 14
This week in Beit Shorashim/Shteelim (Nursery/Kindergarten), we have started preparing for ראש השנה (Rosh Hashanah-The beginning of the New Jewish Year). We prepared a celebratory meal and tried תפוחים (Tapuchim–apples) and דבש (Devash-honey). We learned a new skill, pointillism (pointillism is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in …
Mar 31
When children get to make decisions about how they work and what they create, they build knowledge and learn self-management skills. Also, we’re all happy. This week, our 3rd – 5th grade Anafim (“Branches”) children buzzed with purpose, drive, and joy as we recalled so much knowledge about Pesach (Passover). It felt wonderful to review Exodus 1 …
Feb 19
In Anafim (“Branches”) our 3rd – 5th grade children have a lot of choice about how they want to learn, and how they spend their time. They’re taking responsibility for their own learning. It looks like: Drawing a comic of the Torah text, because I love drawing Collaborating on a project, because we love to work …
Dec 02
Wondering Booth (noun): A small, enclosed space in Beit Nitzanim dedicated to conversation about children’s Big Questions. Over the last seven weeks, children have developed Big Questions. These are questions about ברכה (berakha—blessing) that matter to each child personally, questions that indicate a deep wrestling with ברכה (berakha—blessing) as a concept. Sometimes children turn to …
Feb 12
Amidst Shteelim’s explorations of the שמות (Shemot – Exodus) story in designing costumes, we’ve also had what I think is tremendous growth in עברית (Ivrit – Hebrew) over the past several weeks, working on several new goals in kindergarten! Over the past two weeks, as Jewish Enrichment Center staff has focused on Ivrit teaching …
May 07
We are so proud of our Nitzanimers this year who have acomplished so many things in their עברית (Ivrit – Hebrew) challenges. Everyone’s been working hard to challenge themselves and learn more than they knew at the beginning of the year. Including the boy in the video before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ctRCcS8dU0&feature=youtu.be With very little help from the morah, he …
Apr 02
These next two weeks in Nitzanim, we’re spending time learning how to sing מה נשתנה (Mah Nishtanah – the Four Questions), but we’re also spending time learning about symbols on the seder plate, since many are mentioned in the questions asked in מה נשתנה! We put a few puzzles with seder plate objects in the room to …
Mar 05
The past few weeks in Beit Nitzanim, the children have been inventing a new עברית (Ivrit – Hebrew) challenge on their own! It’s called “א–ב (Aleph-Bet) Battleship!” The way it works is that you write numbers along the side of your battle ship chart. Then you select things such as א – 1. If you “hit” …
Jan 29
Nitzanim have grown a lot this year! When they came back from break, they were met with a whole slew of new responsibilities added to their daily jobs, and they’ve totally risen to the occasion! Our most remarkable addition is a brand new job added to פגישה (pegisha; [our daily] meeting): אות יומי (ot yomi) – …
