Jew-A-Palooza

Yesterday, during first session, all of our 5th and 6th graders in the three tracks got together to share with each other what they had been learning about over the course of the year (or at least during the last few weeks) in each track.

At the start of the session, the teachers divided their students into 3 groups; each group, composed of students from each of the 3 tracks, would be led by a T.A. to each of three stations during the course of the session. We dedicated 20 minutes to each station, with 5 minutes allowed for transition time from one station to the next.

The timing worked out perfectly! In the Edot station, students were introduced to arts & crafts projects relating to two of the edot (Jewish Diaspora communities) we studied about this year.

One of the projects related to the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe which we studied about at the start of the second semester. Paper cuts were a very popular folk art in Ashkenazi homes (and in North African homes as well), and many of them could be quite elaborate. This project focused on paper cuts they would make for the holiday of Shavuot or "Sh'vues," as it's called in Yiddish (the next major holiday coming up on our Jewish calendar, beginning the evening of May 30th this year).

Since we had only 20 minutes for each group to learn about the background of each of the art projects and then to make their own, we brainstormed a list of Jewish symbols, and the students could choose one or more of them for their paper cut, then glue the finished paper cut onto a piece of colored construction paper as a backing.

Menorahs and Stars of David proved to be very popular.

Here's a Shabbat candle on a candlestick

The second project which many students chose to make was a "Jeta de la Mezuzah" made and used by Moroccan Jews (our last unit of study in Edot). One of the more important ceremonial objects in the Jewish home in Morocco was this mezuzah cover. A woman would bring the cover to her new home when she married; therefore, her name was embroidered or painted on it. It would be decorated with God's name and usually with a floral or geometric design. It was usually made of velvet.

We made the "jeta's" out of felt, and, to save time, I had pre-cut the pieces so that the students could focus on decorating them with the four-letter name of God (yud-hey-vav-hey), and any other decoration they wished to make using fabric pens and/or scraps of felt material. Once they had finished decorating their jeta, the students glued the two pieces of felt together, leaving the top open in which a klaf can be inserted to make it a kosher mezuzah.

A klaf is a piece of parchment or paper with the "Sh'ma" and "V'Ahavta" prayers written on it, inserted into the mezuzah. I believe these can be purchased in our Isaiah gift shop, or in any Jewish gift store.

In line with our studies about the cultures of the Edot, I also included two batches of cookies in the Edot station - ririba dilkoko cookies from Morocco made with coconut, and commonly served on Shavuot, and poppy seed cookies, a favorite among Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe, and often served on Shabbat. Both proved to be very popular with the students. After the event was over, one of our teachers, Siena, tasted one of the Moroccan cookies, and told me it tasted exactly as she remembered the ones her mother in Israel used to make!

The second station in our Jew-A-Palooza event was in the Y'tzira classroom. There, each group was treated to 3 or 4 skits written and performed by Y'tzira students. Each skit shared the story of a Jewish hero they had studied about in Y'tzira over the past few weeks.

The subjects of the skits ranged from Sandy Koufax, the major league baseball player, to Oskar Schindler, who saved many Jews during the Holocaust from certain death by having them work in his factories.

The students all told me that they enjoyed the station, to which this photo taken by my T.A. Max apparently attests. Maimone, Y'tzira's teacher, will be putting some of these skits which he recorded on Y'tzira's blog, so stay tuned.

The third station was in the Shira classroom, where Erin, Shira's teacher, began by gathering everyone in front of her to share basic lyric-writing information.

Then the students could choose to go to one of 4 tables; each table gave them specific information about different parts of Israel (which Shira students are currently learning about). Using this information, and the information Erin shared with them about lyric-writing, they could write a song about Israel in "rap couplets" or ...

... in Haiku form. The completed songs were then brought to Erin, who used an app on her smartphone that created a melody for the lyrics. The final step of the station was for Erin to video-record the students performing their songs. These songs will appear on Shira's blog.

Amazingly, with so much going on, all the students had a chance to share with each other a taste of what they were learning in each track. We finished just in time for everyone to go up to the Sanctuary, where we joined the 3rd and 4th grade students for tefillah, and where our 5th and 6th graders were given the chance to share with the other classes what they learned during our Jew-A-Palooza event.

Remember that we do have week day session classes tomorrow and Wednesday, but no Sunday session, since it's Mother's Day. As Rabbi Greninger said during tefillah, "It's a very important "Jewish" holiday!!!"