B'nai Mitzvah Prep Workshop #1

Last week, while I was away at my son's wedding in Washington, D.C., my two very able substitutes, Alison W. and Joanne P., guided the students as they wrote skits relating to Beta Yisrael proverbs which I introduced in my last post. I've just finished typing up the skits, and they're wonderful. Yasher Koach to our Edot writers! We'll be performing them this coming Sunday at our Sigd Festival.

We took a break from our Edot studies yesterday, when the fifth graders and their parents (first session) and the sixth graders and their parents (second session) participated in our first B'nai Mitzvah Prep workshop of the year. Fifth graders and parents were introduced to the checklist and timeline for choosing a date and preparing for the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony at Isaiah, and were presented with a special gift from the Women of Isaiah - an abridged English translation of the Torah, which they will hopefully make good use of as they prepare for their ceremony.  Sixth graders and their parents had a chance to interview each other about becoming adults, and shared what they looked for in adults they respected the most and how being a teenager is different than being an adult.

Here are some of the highlights of the sessions:

Cantor Korn welcomed the fifth graders and their parents, and introduced the focus of the workshop

While Cantor Korn spoke to the parents in the Social Hall about choosing B'nei Mitzvah dates, Rabbi Miller led the students in "Torah Olympics" activities.

This was a fun way to review the personalities and stories they've studied in the Torah over the past few years. First, we reviewed the Book of Genesis. Abraham made a journey to Canaan, so the students, divided into 3 teams, had a race to see which team could run across the Oneg Room and return the fastest.  Ready, set....

....AND GO! These kids are fast!

Rebecca, Isaac's wife, gave the camels of Abraham's servant who had come to seek a wife for Isaac, quite a lot of water to drink. So we had a wheelbarrow race.

To review the Book of Exodus, we held a Trivia contest to see which group could come up with the most correct answers to questions relating to personalities and stories in the book

The answers flowed right out onto the paper without any hesitation!

After the Olympic Games were over, it was time for each student to receive their special gift.

Families became familiar with how to find specific verses as we held the world's shortest Torah scavenger hunt - asking them to find specific verses in the books.

As the fifth grade families moved into the Sanctuary for our school tefillah session, sixth grade parents came into the Social Hall to mix and mingle, as they learned a little bit more about each other's backgrounds and interests. The sixth graders themselves joined us for the tefillah session, and some of our own Edot students led us in Creative Tefillah. Yasher Koach to Grace, Peter, Kyle, Jake S., and Gabby!

When tefillah was over, the sixth graders joined their parents in the Social Hall.

Unfortunately, plans to use cell phones to answer questions and project the answers on the wall fell through, when the best minds in digital projection  (thank you to our parents for trying to work out the bug!) couldn't figure out what was wrong. Thankfully, lo-tech options were available!

Parents interviewed children, and vice versa.

Now, it's time to look forward to this coming Sunday's Sigd Festival. We'll be preparing a Beta Yisrael treat - Dabo Kolo - during our coming weekday sessions. Keep an eye out for my next post to see our Edot students "rolling in dough!"