Back from Pesach Break

Yesterday, we returned to our Edot studies after a two-week combined Spring and Pesach break. We only have five more weeks until the final day of Religious School - our Spring Fling - on May 17th, and we have lots to learn and accomplish in the interim.

After reading from "The Circlemaker," as I do at the start of each session, it seemed a good idea to get everyone moving - get the blood flowing, so to speak - with a rigorous session of Hebrew Through Movement. After reviewing basic vocabulary words introduced throughout the year, I introduced the students to vocabulary relating to Yom Ha'Atzma'ut - Israel's Independence Day - which falls this year on Thursday, April 23rd. We reviewed the verb "l'hatzbee'a" (to point), and I introduced the Hebrew words for map (mapa), the State of Israel (medeenat Yisra'el), and the Hebrew names for Jerusalem (Yerooshalayeem), Haifa (Cheyfa), the Mediterranean Sea (yam ha'teechon - literally, the middle sea since they believed in ancient times that the Mediterranean Sea was the middle of the world; in fact, the Latin name Mediterranean means middle of the Earth), the Dead Sea (yam ha'melach - literally, the Salt Sea), and the Sea of Galilee (ha'kinneret - literally, the little harp, so named because of its shape). I also pointed out the resort city of Eilat on the Red Sea, as well as Tel Aviv.

Jake, l'hatzbee'a al Spencer (Jake, point to Spencer); Spencer, l'hatzbee'a al tochneet ha'yom al ha'loo'ach ha'lavan (Spencer, point to the day's schedule on the white board)

Morrie, l'hatzbee'a al yam ha'melach al ha'mapa shel medinat yisra'el (Morrie, point to the Dead Sea on the map of the State of Israel)

Baneem, l'hatzbee'a al he'chalon (Boys, point to the window)

Following our Hebrew Through Movement session, we turned our attention to an important period of time on the Jewish calendar - the Counting of the Omer (s'feerat ha'omer). Even though we are not teaching decoding until the 6th grade, we have been introducing a Hebrew letter each week to the students, along with Hebrew words beginning with the letter. Since we are now near the end of the alphabet, it seemed a good time for a review. Since most Jewish calendars use Hebrew numerals (i.e. Hebrew letters) rather than Arabic numerals, I introduced our Edot students to these, which afforded us a chance to review the letters introduced to date up to the letter "mem" (which represents the number 40). I then had the students fill in the dates on a blank "Counting the Omer" calendar, using the Hebrew letters.

Then it was time to play the Shekel Game, a group review game we play whenever we end one or more units of study. Just before our holiday break, we finished studying about the Jews of India, and also concluded our unit of study about the laws, rituals and customs relating to the Pesach holiday. While the students are having fun betting on whether they can answer questions I pose to them correctly, I'm learning which important material most of the children recall, and which I'll have to review during upcoming lessons. Thankfully, there's not much to review since almost all the questions were answered correctly.

Each group chooses a treasurer to keep track of the sh'kaleem (Israeli currency) - here is Ella, the Treasurer!

 

There is also a recorder in each group (that's Aaron filling this group's role) to record the amount the group bets, and a reporter (Jake, at the end of the table), who is the only one allowed to give me the group's agreed-upon answer

Each group is given 30 seconds to come up with their answer. At the beginning of the year, there were students who would shout out the answers, but they've learned to make sure that everyone in the group agrees on the answer before the reporter presents it to me.

Just before our holiday break, some of our 6th grade Edot students worked with Rabbi Miller to prepare for Creative Tefillah, which they presented yesterday. As always, they came up with a wonderful theme to tie together the prayers in our service. This time, the theme was "celebrities and how they relate to our prayers". Below, you can hear how Mackenzie, Sydney, Ella, Carmen, Lauren and Stephen worked in the celebrities into the service. They, along with Jenna and Mara all deserve a very big YASHER KOACH - job well done!