Hamantaschen and the Shekel Game

 A little over a week ago, Ben, our music director, taught us a Purim song called "Mee'she'neechnas Adar" (see 2/8 post), which lyrics are translated to mean "Whoever enters the month of Adar is filled with much happiness." Since we were just about to enter the month of Adar (today and tomorrow we celebrate "Rosh Chodesh" Adar), I decided to take the song literally and make sure that by the end of each day my students would be filled with "much happiness." We began each session upstairs in the Oneg Room with Karen, our cooking teacher. 

Three guesses what was on the menu for this month's cooking session, and the first two guesses don't count!

As usual, we began by watching Karen go through all the steps of  the cooking directions, so she could share the best and easiest ways to accomplish the project.

Then all the students divided up so there were no more than 4 to a table, and immediately began to work the dough that Karen had prepared at home. 

At first, I was somewhat concerned. All my students were focusing so carefully on what they were doing, I couldn't get any photos of them "filled with much happiness" as the song goes.

Not only were they not "looking like they were filled with happiness," but they didn't even utter a sound as they shaped the dough!

Thankfully, the smiles began to appear once they developed a "feel" for how to roll the dough and form the dough circles into triangular shapes after filling them with strawberry preserves!

Which doesn't mean that they didn't go right back into "really focused" mode - just that I now realized they were enjoying the activity so much that they could completely focus on it!

And all the focus was rewarded with some very professional looking hamantaschen ready to go into the oven!

Once we had all washed off the flour dust, pieces of dough and strawberry jam that had clung to us during the cooking activity, the sixth graders went to the Sanctuary for tefillah with Cantor Korn and the seventh graders, while I took the fifth graders downstairs to the Beit Knesset for tefillah with Ben (Rabbi Greninger is in Israel this week with a group of Moms!). 

Following our half hour tefillah, we all met upstairs for hafsaka (recess) where a lot of "happiness" could be detected coming out of the Gaga pit and all around it. Then it was time to go to our Edot classroom for even more fun!

At the end of each of our Edot units of study, it's time to play "Meeschak Ha'sh'kaleem." (The Shekel Game) Here I am introducing the six categories of review questions, covering our recently completed unit of study about the Iraqi/Babylonian Jewish edah, as well as what we learned during the same time period in our Hebrew Through Movement sessions, in Jewish History in general, the holidays we observed (Hanuka through Tu Bish'vat), in our tefillah sessions (blessings and prayers), as well as what we read in "The Storyteller's Beads" (which we completed a few weeks ago), and "A Shout in the Sunshine" (which we began reading a few weeks ago). And I also include review questions about important aspects of what we've studied in all the categories from the start of the school year.

Just as we started to play, Karen came in with the hamantaschen the students had made (it only takes 6-8 minutes to bake them, and another 10 minutes or so to cool them down enough to package them for the students to take home - though as you can see in this photo, I don't think many hamantaschen lasted long enough to share at home!). You may also notice bags of the "Menena" pastries that we gave out at our family Chamsa workshop this past Sunday. Those students who couldn't attend brought their gift packages of menena home after the weekday session was over. 

I tell each group which category their question will come from, then they tell me how much they want to bet (never more than half the amount of money they have on the table when I ask the question!). 

Once I ask the question, they have 30 seconds to share what they know with each other, and then have the reporter tell me the answer they all agreed upon. And I can't repeat the question, so they have to listen carefully the first time I ask it.

They also have to keep track of how much they are betting, mostly to give themselves an idea of where they stand in relation to the competing group. Should they risk betting more to stay ahead or catch up, or be on the safe side if they're not 100% sure of the answer?

Some very serious decisions have to be made ...

... and only then can the reporter tell me the answer the group has agreed upon.

The treasurer is about to tell his group members if they have enough money to bet as much as they want to!

And when the game was done after the most difficult questions were asked in the final "All-or-Nothing" round, the victors were congratulated (no prizes - just the glory of knowing that by putting their heads together, they recalled the most important information that I had shared with them about our Jewish world in our Edot classroom! As a matter of fact, there was only one question that wasn't answered correctly in this game - and it was a trick question! ("What is the only nation in the world today that is older than the Jewish nation?" - Correct answer is "No other nation in the world today is older than our Jewish nation!")

Remember that there's no school this coming Sunday, or the following Tuesday and Wednesday, in honor of President's holiday. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at our next session back to JQuest on Sunday, February 25th, at which time the entire school will be celebrating Purim at our annual LAFTY PURIM CARNIVAL!!!

BE FILLED WITH HAPPINESS THIS MONTH OF ADAR, AND COME TO THE CARNIVAL PREPARED TO BE "CRAZY HAPPY" AS THE RABBIS COMMANDED!