Purim Carnival

Yesterday morning was a cold one! (My car thermometer read 36 degrees when I arrived at the Isaiah campus around 8 a.m.!) But it was sunny, and the workmen were already setting up the dunk tank and jump house on the lawn outside of the Sanctuary, and the Social Hall was filled with young people setting up the Carnival booths. This was to be my 17th  Purim Carnival at Isaiah, and it proved to be one of the very best!

We started the morning in our Edot classroom. Only 4 boys came to class, but together with my two wonderful Sunday TA's, Kyra and Ella, we were able to establish the proper mood - HAPPY AND CRAZY - for the day! We did so by playing a game called "In the Manner of the Word."

To prepare to play the game, the students contributed 8 complete sentences, each of which described a part of the Purim story. Then they each came up with several adverbs - the sillier the better!

Then it was time to play the game. A volunteer went out of the room, while another student watched the door to be sure the first volunteer couldn't see anything in the classroom. Then another volunteer chose one of the adverbs.  Once we allowed the first volunteer to re-enter the classroom, he was asked to choose a volunteer to come to our "staging area" who would act out (no words or any sounds allowed!) one of the sentences on the board "in the manner of the word" (the word being the adverb that was chosen for that round). Below is an example, showing David acting out "Esther won King Achashverosh's beauty contest STUPIDLY."

By the time we finished playing the game, we had added on some more silly adverbs to the list, and were most definitely in the mood for a WILD AND CRAZY Purim celebration. We joined the rest of the school and the parents up in the Sanctuary, where the day's events began with a Purimshpiel acted out by the teachers. Talk about CRAZY...!

Below, Narrator 2 (that's me!) is introducing King Achashvershmosh (Maimone, our Y'tzira teacher), describing his crazy behavior at his party at the start of the story:

We even included audience members to be contestants in King A's beauty contest!

And here's the winner of the beauty contest, Esther, sharing with King A. that she's a Jew, too!

And once the shpiel was over, we had two costume parades - one for the younger children ...

... and the other for our 3rd-6th graders.

Then it was time for the main event - the PURIM CARNIVAL.

Even before parents and children filed into the Social Hall, several teachers, clergy and staff had quietly left the Sanctuary to take their places at the ticket booths ... (recognize Queen Esther from the Purimshpiel? And who's that pineapple standing next to her? Could it be Daniella?!!!)

 Where a very, very long line of excited children and their parents were waiting for their turn to buy tickets to the Carnival ...

... and at the food booth, where you could buy a slice of pizza from Rabbi Shanks ...

... popcorn from a giraffe ...

... and hamantaschen from someone dressed up to look like Meghan!

You could even buy cotton candy (hopefully as much got on the cone as in our cotton candy maker's hair!).

In fact, the cotton candy line was never very short during the Carnival.

As soon as I entered the Social Hall, this huge sign caught my attention.

And within minutes, children had gathered on the floor space in front of the stage for a hoola hoop contest:

As I turned to explore other booths and games, I caught sight of the prize table - not a soul around it at the start of the Carnival ...

... but very soon to be overrun by children looking to exchange their prize tickets for as many prizes as possible!

Since I'm an English and Reading teacher by training, one of my first stops is always the Library booth, where I can check out our Library's latest acquisitions ...

... and carefully consider which book(s) I'd like to "adopt." By the way, if you didn't get a chance to adopt one or more books at the Carnival, just visit Melissa in the Library to do so. It's never too late!

There were so many game booths to choose from:

An "oldie but goodie" booth was the "Guess the Number Jar."

You could also play mini-golf ...

... which apparently even dragons like to play! (Don't worry - he's very friendly!)

You could try out your fishing skills ...

... or learn what the future holds for you from our resident fortune tellers (angels and humans are welcome!).

So many booths, so little juice left in my camera battery!  You could also visit the "Bowling," "Pin the Hamantaschen on Haman," "Horse Shoe Toss," "Tic-Tac-Toe," "Ring Toss," and "Tin Can Alley" booths.

Some of the above-named booths were outdoors, where people were gathered all over the lawn and cement patio outside of the Sanctuary and Social Hall.  There were children jumping happily in the Jump House:

And brave Ian, our Youth Director, was willing to brave the cold water and cold air to risk getting dunked in the Dunk Tank!

Getting some encouragement from a student ...

Yeah, that water is REALLY COLD! (Getting encouragement from Melissa, our first grade teacher.)

OK - much better. He's getting used to the water. Good thing, too. Our student is ready, ball in hand, to get Ian back in the water!

Back indoors, there was also a silent auction, where you could bid for prizes offered by our 7th graders. What a terrific way to help raise funds for the 7th grade and LAFTY events!

As I wandered in and out of the Social Hall, I caught sight (and snapped photos) of teachers I ran into:

Here's our "Supergirl" Omanut teacher, Heather.

And here's Tamar, our Bonim teacher, with her daughter.

Here's Melissa, our first grade teacher, again, schmoozing with Jerri, our Special Needs Director and Yardena, our Hebrew Through Movement specialist. In the background, you can see Gabby, our kindergarten teacher, wearing her cowboy hat.

Kyra is definitely enjoying the Carnival!

And Ben, our Music Director, is striking a very happy banana pose at his ticket selling station.

And our Education Director of Crayons (excuse me, of JQuest), Rabbi Greninger is in deep conversation (as she was all through the Carnival)! (Her excellent directing abilities extended to directing our teacher Purimshpiel!)

YASHER KO'ACH to Ian for organizing and supervising the Purim Carnival, and to all his helpers for helping make this Carnival so much fun (with lots of CRAZY thrown in!).  Purim begins this
coming Wednesday evening, with a reading from Megillat Ester (The Scroll of Esther).

CHAG PURIM SAME'ACH! HAPPY PURIM HOLIDAY!