Journey of Discovering G-d

Children are very curious about their world. We speak to G-d in community giving thanks for bread when we recite the  Ha Motzi and when we sing in the sanctuary. Every child in these  instances of prayer is developing their own unique relationship with G-d. We will be exploring and developing prayer books as they continue their journeys of discovery.

To date we have had the following comments and inquiries . 

Audrey said " G-d is mysterious" 

Reed said " G-d is real " 

In the sanctuary we recite the V'havta in English and in Hebrew as we sign "We shall love Adonai our G-d with all our heart, our soul, and with all our might.
After reciting this prayer Lilah asked Sasha "What is a soul?"

What a question!!!

Do you know what the best part of sukkah is?

Ben was determined to complete his vision for decorating the Sukkah. The yarn was found, untangled, and his theory was put test. He thought it was long enough. The ladder was secured and the yarn was put through the beams. Ben was off to look for a decoration found in nature. He carefully wrapped the pipe cleaner around the pine cone and it was ready for hanging. Afterward Ben asked the teachers "Do you know what the best part of a sukkah is?" Feel free to post your thoughts. Ben said, "The best part of a sukkah is that you can be inside and outside at the same time." 

The Building Process

 Sophie Ganot made some observations prior to building her sukkah. It was quite the process. She started with two sticks and then looked again and noticed that she needed some walls to her sukkah. She proceeded to construct her walls out of clay. Then as she made more observations and remembered what she already knew about sukkahs, she decided she needed to see the outdoors through the top. How was she going to do this with clay roof? She  proceeded to make holes in the top of her roof of clay with a stick. Good problem solving. Then she remembered she needed a door to come in and out. She showed teachers and said, "See it has a door."  A scientist and architect in the making.

Think, Think, Think, Think, Think....

 Reed wanted to make his own Sukkah and looked at some pictures for inspiration. Teachers noticed he seemed unhappy with the process. He had some clay, but it didn't look like a sukkah. We asked him if there was anything we could do to help and if there was anything wrong? He responded, "No, I am just waiting for something to come into my brain." Yes, it does take time to plan and think. As one can see the thought came to him and a beautiful sukkah was created!!

Decisions, Decisions... What to do??

 In the Ruach classroom we provide opportunities for the children to make decisions and then plan accordingly. We asked the children if they thought they could make a Sukkah. If so, what materials and tools might we need? After reading some books for inspiration, one of which was It's Sukkah Time, it was determined that we could build one. Some children thought they could build a BIG one from Straw connectors and some thought with blocks. After looking at more pictures which provided many different kinds of Sukkahs it was determined that we all had different visions for a Sukkah. How could we solve this problem? We could each built our own Sukkah according to our individual design plans. After some observation of the Sukkahs, children decided  that we needed the following materials: "grass, tall grass," "sticks," "bricks," "wood," "decorations," "tape," "blocks," and "metal." We did not have all these materials in the classroom so off we went to find some natural materials in the woods.

"There is something WRONG with the Sukkah"

Ben asked the teachers to come to the Sukkah because there was a problem. When asked what the problem was, Ben responded, "look up." It looked secure to the teachers. No problem there. Ben said that was not what he was thinking. When asked again he responded that there were NO DECORATIONS. A sukkah needed decorations. He went on to solve this problem and gathered some sticks to start. When asked how we could possibly put decorations at the top, Ben said that we just needed string to throw over the top. Eliana soon joined in and suggested that we get a "tall ladder" to reach the top. I wonder what will happen when we try both ideas. Stay tuned...

The Announcing Tool

You may want to ask your children why they searched to the east and searched to west for the kind of tool that would work the best to announce the New Year. Many tools were found and tried. A hammer, wrench, a harp, and a gong. But none was perfect. There was something not quite right about each one of these tools. Why you may ask ?? The perfect announcing tool was found and it was the shofar! 

Shabbat blessings

Jack, Audrey, and Mia welcome light of Shabbat.

Sasha and Jacob help light the candles and lead us in blessings.

We were delighted to welcome Sasha into our classroom to come celebrate Shabbat with us. We gathered as a community to welcome the spirit and light into our hearts. How do we encourage children to reflect upon Adonai, our G-d, in a way that is meaningful to them? The rituals unique to our tradition are the building blocks to our journey of inquiry and discovery. We recite the motzi, the blessing over bread, on a daily basis, thanking God for bread. Our morning message was to ask children what they were thankful for.

 Reed responded that he was thankful for "G-d." When the teachers asked Reed what made him think of God, he said it was because God "brings us challah." Audrey responded, "I thought God was a superhero because he is in the sky."  What do you think? Stay tuned for further exploration.

Jacob said he was thankful for "juice". Yes, blessings of drink. Jack, Sophie Ganot, and Lilah were thankful for their families. Families are such blessings for sure.

The journey of inquiry and discovery has started. Please stay tuned as the children continue make inquiries, hypothesize, and build their own understanding, and relationship with G-d. A true life long journey has begun!

Olivia, Lilah, Jacob, and Reed welcome the light of Shabbat. 

Audrey helps with blessing for juice.

Early morning Shabbat fun ...

Eli is busy preparing tea. 

It is a very special day. It is Shabbat and we have our finest china out. Everyone is invited to celebrate for early morning tea. It was a wonderful time.

Adam and Olivia share tea, but oh no, it's empty!! What should we do??

No problem Olivia manages to pour some anyway. 

And we are off.....

On Friday the Kohavim class took an imaginary trip to Israel with Sammy the Spider and our special visitors, Eliza's nana and grandfather. They shared with us that this was their very first visit to Israel as well. They decided to go this year as a celebration of their 65th birthdays and also Israel's 65th birthday. We took a virtual tour along with them and Sammy! Thank for sharing your experiences with us! We enjoyed traveling with you to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Dead Sea, Western Wall, and riding those camels. Thank you for s sharing your gift of time and your bag of goodies!

Jewish Identity

 It was a beautiful day and Rachel was inspired to draw. When asked to tell us about her picture Rachel responded it is a "Chavurah". "We get together at my house with other families, I think 5 families."  I was struck by the facial expressions of joy depicted in the illustration of this event. When I looked up the root meaning of Chavurah I read that it was the Hebrew word for a gathering of friends, and that a Chavurah is one way to celebrate the gift of friendship with one another. What a positive sense of Jewish identity and love of being Jewish that Rachel communicated.

Building Our Castle

After listening to the story of Esther, the children wanted to build an area in which they could be active participants in the story. After some discussion it was decided they needed a castle. The castle needed a draw bridge to keep the "bad guys" out. Thus began the design and plan for the construction. Through trial and error they discovered that thin yarn was just not "strong enough".

There were many directives for the placement of the blocks to get the desired effect. Dylan said, "that won't work because the blocks would move with you" they needed to be tied differently. Max Goldberg, was very busy securing the rope with many knots. Lily, Ryan, Jacob, Max Greenstein, and Noah all offered their expertise in the building process as well.  Molly decided that the bridge need to be "this way" and demonstrated the placement of the block. Many architects navigated through, each offering advice, until it was completed to their satisfaction. Nice team work boys and girls.

Wackiness for Purim??

On Purim, more than any other Jewish holiday, we are encouraged to rejoice and have fun!! There was no lack of fun in the Kohavim class!!! You might want to ask your children what our morning message said?? (hint) They discovered a few things that were wacky or out of place. We had two days of wackiness, Monday and Tuesday. You might want to ask them how many things. Today there was no wackiness, but who knows what tomorrow will bring??

The Story of Esther ~ It happened in Sushan ~

We have been listening to the story of Esther. We heard about King Ahasueros, Queen Vashti,  Mordecai, Esther, and , and two guards.  We asked the children to think about what they liked best in the story, what they would eliminate in the story, and wonder about what would happen in today's world? What would they do? Brett wondered if Haman was Christian as he could not  be Jewish, or  he would have known that Jews only  bow to G-d! Very interesting question!   Children have been acting out the story and developing their own twist.  A couple of the children are changing the story to be 'good guards'. Many want to be brave Esther who, thou she was scared, went ahead and approached, telling him she was Jewish too. Stay tuned.

We've Got That Chanukah Feeling

The Etzim class has been abuzz with Chanukah activity over the last two weeks.  We've made every variation of chanukiah imaginable - paper strips, stamping, gluing, playdough, snack, and, finally, our gorgeous menorah tiles!  We're learning new songs, reading new books, and playing Chanukah Bingo (check out Ben and Josh!)  What a joyful time of year!

We take care of.... Core Judaic Values

We welcomed our parents with a Dvar Torah, words of teaching inspired by the Torah, below...

"Let me be ready this day to hear the need beneath the surface of the people who address me; let me listen with special attention to the words of old people, for they have seen much, and to the words of the young for they see with new eyes what I may have taken for granted. Their words, too, may be Torah." -Rabbi Chaim Stern 

The idea that our actions matter and that, through how we live, we have the opportunity – the responsibility – to positively impact the way that others live is one of Judaism’s core values.

In the Kohavim class, along with developing the curriculum around the children's emerging interests,  we will be focusing through out the year on ways we can
take care of ourselves ~ Shmirat Ha Guf, 
each other ~ G'Milut Chasadim ~
and our environment~ Shmirat Ha Teva.

Simchat Torah ~ Celebrating the Joy of Torah ~

We started our week celebrating the gift of "Torah" in our classroom and then later as a community in the sanctuary. First we emphasized that the stories in the Torah are guidelines that help us to be better people, and suggested that perhaps we could write our own classroom Torah.  We became the sofers (Torah scribes). One of the core Jewish values and responsibilities is to use our actions to help others and our world. Some children thought that the following guidelines would help us on our journey:

1) If someone is sick, we could help them, mommies help us when we are sick. 2) Be nice to our brothers and sisters 3) Be helpful 4) Say nice things 5) Take care of G-d's critters 6) Water the plants 7) If someone is sick, we could write them a card 8) You can say thank you and you are welcome 9) We can share our medals when we win with someone who did not win

We will be exploring the many way we can take care of each ourselves, each other, and our environment and our responsibility to do so!

Kohavim Sukkah

Sukkah Time~ What does it take? Teamwork

Sukkot is a joyous time....

Barukh atah Adonai, Eloheinu, melekh ha-olam

asher kidishanu b'mitz'votav v'tzivanu

al n'tilat lulav (Amein)

Blessed are you Adonai our God, who instructs us to take up the lulav (Amen)

Rabbi Todd welcomed the Kohavim boys and girls to our Sukkah where we gathered to further explore and experience the lulav and etrog. We learned that there is a special blessing that one says prior to shaking the lulav and etrog. It is very similar to the blessing one says when we light the candles for Shabbat. (There are only two words that are different)It is a mitzvah to gather and invite our family and friends to share in activities in our sukkah.

There are some important guidelines to building a sukkah: we need to see out of it and see the stars. Some boys and girls thought that we could also "see the morning in our sukkah, see the sun in our sukkah, but we see it differently, not like in your house. We decorate our sukkah with things we make or find in nature, like branches and leaves. It is a time in which stop and think about all the good things we have in our lives for which we are thankful.