A Week of Fun and Games

During our past two weekday sessions, some of our Edot students took advantage of our annual "Bring-A-Friend Day" program to share JQuest with a Jewish or non-Jewish friend. This program is always associated with the Hanuka holiday, since it gives us a chance to "step out" of our normal curriculum for a day in order to plan fun Hanuka activities for the students and their friends. No prior knowledge of the holiday is necessary (though our Edot students did learn about the background and traditions associated with Hanuka over the past couple of weeks), in order to include all the friends in on the fun.

All three tracks (Edot, Shira and Y'tzira) participated in the first part of the session's activities. First, I read out loud a brief summary of the Hanuka story while all the children ate their snacks. Then it was time to divide up into four groups. Each group was assigned 1/4 of the Hanuka story summary I had just read, and was asked to perform it in a certain style. Each group found a private space in the classrooms or in the Beit Knesset to create and rehearse their skits, since the style in which they had to perform their skit had to remain a secret from the other groups, which were asked to guess the style when the skits were performed.
It was during this rehearsal period that friends and students had a chance to get to know each other.

 

Then, after 20 minutes of rehearsal time, it was time for all the groups to reassemble in the Beit Knesset for the skit presentations. The first group to perform was asked to perform its part of the story in the style of an American western movie; the second group in the style of Star Wars; third group in the style of a Harry Potter novel; and the last group, in the style of a Sesame Street episode.

Here's a video of the group presenting in the style of an American western:

 The audience had no trouble guessing the styles of each skit, and, even more importantly, a lot of fun was had both by performers and audience!

Each day, Rabbi Greninger joined us to welcome friends to JQuest.

 After all the skits had been performed, it was time for each track to return to its own classroom for more fun and games. Our Edot students were able to show their friends our Edot classroom and teach them how to play the dreydl game. Each student and friend received a dreydl to play with and a bag of Skittles candies to use for betting.

Some of the children had a chance to show off their dreydl spinning techniques, honed each year on Hanuka!

We ended each session up in the Sanctuary, where all the 3rd through 6th graders and their friends gathered for a special Hanuka candle lighting assembly. Rabbi Greninger introduced the friends who had never been in a synagogue before to the important elements in a synagogue, and asked them what they had learned during the session. Then she led us in saying the blessings over the Hanuka candles, and we finished off the session each day with Hanuka songs.

Lighting the 3rd candle on Tuesday:

Yesterday, our Edot students had a chance to share what they had learned during units of study we had just completed in our Edot and Holiday curricula during our Shekel Game. How can you not have fun while betting a certain number of sh'kaleem (Israeli currency) that your group can answer a review question correctly?!!

We also had a visit from our music director, Maya, each session yesterday. Now that we have completed our unit of study about the Beta Yisrael Jews of Ethiopia, we are beginning a new unit of study about the Jews of Babylonia/Iraq. To  help us get started, Maya taught us to sing two songs, the lyrics to both of which come from Psalm 137 - "Al Naharot Bavel" ("By the Rivers of Babylon"). In the Psalm, the Judeans forced into exile by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia mourn the loss of their homeland and wonder how they can find comfort in the new and strange land to which they have been brought. Here are a couple of videos taken as Maya taught us each song: