Class update – Middles, April 2010

We began our class by talking about where Jews live in the world today. The kids were amazed to realize how Jews make up such a small portion of the entire population and also while there are nearly the same number of Jews in the US and Israel (around 5-6 million), Jews make up a much higher percentage of the population in Israel than in the US. I think they were also surprised to find out that the country with the third highest Jewish population is France (500-600 thousand). We also talked about how Jews have moved all over the world, especially in Europe and about how many Jews ended up settling in Eastern Europe, where many of the students ancestors are from.

Muriel visited our class and showed us photos from “A Vanished World” by Roman Vishniac of Jews in Eastern Europe iin the 1930s. We also learned a song in Yiddish about children studying in the cheder. The students sang very well…in both English and Yiddish!

Continuing our discussion of Jews in Eastern Europe, we learned about Shtetl life; how these were tight knit communities made up mosty of Jews where they would speak Yiddish on the streets and in homes and would use Hebrew in synagogue and when studying the Torah and Talmud. The marketplace was the center of the Shtetl where many people made their living selling the wares and where people would come to buy their food. We talked about how most people in the shtetl did not have a much money and made just enough to get by, but that it was important to help others in need within the community.

We finished up the class with the students starting to make their own dioramas of a shtetl. They were so involved, they are not yet complete, so we will continue the work in may.

 

Class Update – Middles, March 2010

We worked on phase II of our Mezuzot project…painting! The painted mezuzot are ready to be filled with their scrolls and mounted to doorways. Muriel Sterne provided our Hebrew lesson while also teaching us about Passover. For the last portion of class, we were joined by the pre-schoolers. We all worked side by side making beautiful Matzoh covers for the Or Emet seder and to take home.

 

Class Update – Middles, February 2010

In our last session we enjoyed learning and singing new songs with Rabbi Miriam and the rest of the adults…although the students may not have enjoyed hearing Scott singing “Peace Be With You” over an dover again throughout the class, but he just couldn’t get it out of his head!
Once again, we learned played a trivia game. This time the focus was on Purim. See the PowerPoint presentation to see all of the interesting things we talked about reelated to Purim; from foods we eat to the Babylonian origins of the characters in the Purim story.
The students had a great time making their own Mezuzot out of clay and our looking forward to painting them during our next class. Each student was asked to work with their family to decide what they would like to put on their scrolls that will go inside their finsished Mezuzot. In the PowerPoint are some ideas families could use to decide what to write on their scrolls.
While working on our craft we had a visit from Rabbi Miriam. It seems the kids were excited to meet a real Rabbi!

 

Class Update – Middles, January 2010

The focus of the session was on Tu B’Shevat and trivia was back! We played Tu B’Shevat trivia to learn more about the Jewish holiday that essentially celebrates trees, nature and agriculture. We talked about everything from the ancient origins of the holiday (celebration and worship of the goddess Asherah) to the foods we eat (typically fruits and nuts that grow in Israel) and we even talked about what a Kibbutz is (a communal “village” in Israel).

After trivia, we read a series of poems about trees including one from Karen Shragg, a poet from Richfield, MN. The kids had the opportunity to share what they felt the poets were saying through their poetry. Each student then created their own tree poem. It was a combination of art and poetry, where they both wrote a poem and depicted an image of a tree on the page as well. Some drew a tree and wrote the poem n it, some wrote the poem around their tree and some wrote the words in the shape of a tree. If any parents would like to email us their child’s poem, we can certainly post here on WordPress!

Before joining the adults for the Tu B’Shevat seder we spent a few minutes on some Hebrew words related to Tu B’Shevat. It would be great if the parents would spend a few minutes going over these words with their children prior to the next session.

This link includes our Tu B’Shevat Trivia, the poems we read and the Tu B’Shevat Hebrew words.

 

Class Summary, Middles – December 2009

We spent some type talking about famous Jewish people. Many of the students talked about famous Jews they had learned about themselves such as Albert Einstein, Shel Silverstein, Natalie Portman and Anne Frank. Of course we talked about Hanukkah and in our Hebrew lesson with Muriel we learned words associated with the holiday. We also sang the song S’vivon which we later taught to the pre-school students. The remainder of the class was spent rehearsing for the Hanukkah puppet show. We has a great time practicing and hope the audience enjoyed it!

 

Class Summary, Middles – November 2009

The main focus of last session was on the Ten Commandments. The students were introduced to the story of the Ten Commandments in a puppet show-type format. We followed the show with a discussion of each of the commandments. Of particular interest was the second commandment (commonly known as “do not make idols”) which in the details actually states that only were the Israelites not to make idols or any images of Yahweh, but they were to not “make any sculptured image or any likeness of anything that is in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.” We talked about this essentially meant people could not make pictures, sculptures, drawings, etc of anything in the natural world. I think they all decided that is not necessarily a commandment they felt they would want to follow (or one that makes sense to them).

 

Class Summary, Middles – October 2009

Last session our focus was primarily on Sukkot. We played Sukkot Trivia (download here) and learned about how Sukkot is both a celebration of the harvest and a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt. The kids really had a great time with the trivia game. We also discussed how Sukkot is about cooperation…working together to build and decorate the Sukkah, just as people work together during the harvest. To practice cooperation we played one of the students’ favorite games…the human knot. Everyone stands in a circle, reaches across the circle and takes the hands of others, and then the group works together to untangle the the knot and make a new, untangled circle. We had a great time and no one lost any limbs! The students made paper lanterns to decorate the Sukkah at Tom and Barbara’s.

 

Class summary – Middles, September 2009

Session
Sept 13, 2009

We spent the early part getting to know each other. We introduced ourselves and each shared the favorite thing we did this summer.

Next the topic of discussion was about what it is to be Jewish. Quite a bit of time was spent talking about the major holidays throughout the year:

Rosh Hashanah
Yom Kippur
Sukkot
Chanukah
Tu B’Shvat
Purim
Passover

We also discussed some key Jewish values (Tzedakah, Tikkun Olam, taking responsibility for our own actions) and talked about how we would be working with the pre-school class on a Tikkun Olam project throughout the year.