Dabo Kolo

We used these final weekday sessions before the Sigd Festival to prepare a Beta Yisrael treat - Dabo Kolo. This is basically small pieces of sweet, oily dough, fried over a high heat until each side is lightly browned. Since we only had half an hour to make it each day, I prepared the dough ahead of time; this allowed the students more time to roll, cut and shape the dough into pieces ready to be fried. It occured to me after Tuesday's class, that with the high content of oil in the dough, this was, coincidentally, a perfect treat for Hanuka if you tire of latkes (is that even possible?!).

First, take a piece of the dough and roll it into a golf ball sized ball.

I had to get more detailed in my directions, as there was a question as to the size of a golf ball!

Then came the major part of the operation - rolling the ball into a cigar-shape, 1/2" thick. Here's where different rolling techniques came into play.

Once the dough was rolled to the desired thickness, it was time to use scissors (carefully washed beforehand!) to snip off 1/2" sized pieces.

You could cut all the pieces, then press your thumb in the center of each piece to flatten it slightly...

...or you could use the "cut and press" technique.

And finally, into the frying pan they go, giving off a sweet aroma that wafted through the second floor hall of the school building, attracting quite a few inquisitive JQuest'ers!

 At the start of our weekday sessions, we played Hangman with the other 5th and 6th graders, focusing on Jewish holidays and ritual objects. On Tuesday, the students "breezed" through the first 3 words they had to guess (hanukiya, Tu Bishvat, and seder plate), until Erin, our Shira teacher, had them guess "lulav." That stumped them until it was just about time to return to our classrooms. On Wednesday, I kept everyone on their toes and guessing with "Purim" and "haggadah."

We almost had Haman completely hung before they guessed "Purim."

We finished off the game with "Haggadah," which a lot of students thought was "hafsaka" (recess).

 During our weekly Hebrew Through Movement session, I reviewed vocabulary from previous holidays, and then began to introduce Hanuka vocabulary. Now that most of the students recognize the foundational vocabulary words (everyday nouns, verbs and prepositions), I thought it might make it more interesting to introduce a few more interesting verbs into the mix, to allow me to vary my commands more. A few weeks ago, I introduced the verb "l'galgel" (to roll), having the students roll Shabbat candles and candlesticks on the tables and floor. Now, it's not just objects I'm having the students roll....

Seth, l'galgel al ha'reetzpa. (Seth, roll on the floor.)

Of course, we don't always have to have "moving" commands - Leo, la'amod al yad ha'shoolchan. (Leo, stand next to the table.)

Then, I introduced our first Hanuka nouns - ner shel Hanuka (Hanuka candle) and Hanukiya (Hanuka menorah). I also took the opportunity to begin teaching the ordinal numbers, in this case relating to the Hanuka candles. Teaching the students that we put the Hanuka candles in the Hanukiya each night from left to right, and we then light them from right to left (lighting the most recent candle first), we learned how to say first (reeshon), second (shaynee), third (sh'leeshee) and fourth (r'vee'ee), as I had different groups and individuals come up to the table and put in the candles, then "light" (l'hadleek) them. After "lighting" them, I had the entire class chant the first blessing over the candles (Barooch ata Adonai, Eloheynu melech ha'olam, asher keed'shanoo b'meetzvotav, v'tzeevanoo l'hadleek ner shel Hanuka - Blessed are You Adonai our God, Ruler of the universe, who has sanctified us with His commandments and has commanded us to light the Hanuka candle.) 

As we do every other week, we finished the day with "Music with Maya," who began to teach the students the Hanuka light blessings (a nice reinforcement for our Hebrew Through Movement session).