Nov 19
It’s our favorite time of the theme! Final project time! We’ve been exploring text from Genesis 6-9 for six weeks, and now children are using collage, watercolor, and drawing to wrestle with their biggest questions and ideas. Children are so excited to see each other’s progress and share suggestions for how their peers might show …
Nov 11
Part of how we help children deepen their questions and ideas about the text is through different kinds of creative exploration. This week in Nitzanim (“Buds” for 1st grade), we experimented with a new modality that we will be using for our final projects: collage! The children came up with all sorts of ways to …
Oct 14
Over the past several weeks, we have been using several different strategies to build community through our screens in Nitzanim (“Buds,” for 1st grade). Last week, we imagined what it would feel like to all be in a sukkah together, and the children came up with words like happy, comfy, curious, excited, and cozy. This …
Jan 29
Hello! This is Morah Shterna (the yetzirah – art educator), here to tell you about the process of creating line drawings at the Jewish Enrichment Center. When introducing a new Jewish text to the younger children (N4 through 2nd grade) we often create line drawings to help them follow along with the text. These drawings …
Jan 09
This week in Nitzanim (“Buds,” for first and second grade children) we are learning the shemot (names) for the different colors in Ivrit! We negotiated together as a group how we would like Musical Yetzirah (art/creativity) to run. We decided when the music stopped to exchange materials, seats, and/or drawings of the different words. The …
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 27
This week children in Anafim v’Alonim (“Branches” for 2nd-4th grades and “Oak trees” for 5th grade) experimented painting with their etzba’ot (fingers). It was a hit! The children only worked with primary colors and white, such amazing mixing they did! Each session children chose a new part of the text we read. So far we …
Sep 19
This week in Nitzanim (“Buds” for first and second graders נִצָּנִים), children heard a section from Breshit (Genesis בְּרֵאשִׁית) detailing the creation of animals and humans on Yom Shishi (sixth day יוֹם שִׁישִּׁי). While listening, the children asked insightful questions and engaged in a deep discussion about whether this was a real story or a …
May 30
It was a short week in Beit Nitzanim, but we filled it it up with joyous Hebrew play… … and designing a masterpiece. See you next week!
May 21
In שׁוֹרָשִׁים (Shorashim– ‘roots’ for nursery) and שְׁתִּילִים (Shteelim– ‘saplings’ for kindergarten), we have been reflecting on all the wonderful ways we’ve played as a community this year. To help us wrap up our year together we are making a memory box with many handcrafted treasures inside for us to look back on in the years to …
