Sixth Graders' Visit to the Youth Lounge

This past Tuesday and Wednesday, our Edot, Shira and Y'tzira sixth graders were given the opportunity to visit Ian, our seventh grade coordinator, in the Youth Lounge in the Temple House Building. This visit took place each day during what would have ordinarily been our half hour tefillah session. The goal of this visit was to find out what seventh grade at JQuest is all about - what they'll be learning and what they'll be doing during the coming school year.

As soon as the sixth graders entered the Youth Lounge, they realized that seventh grade would not be anything like the JQuest classes they had attended before. One very important difference is that in seventh grade, they'll be given plenty of opportunities to get to know their fellow seventh graders in a fun and relaxing environment!

After playing for 10 minutes or so, Ian invited them all to sit on the sofas, and had them introduce themselves, the school they attended, and asked them to answer what he called, "His most important question - what is your favorite kind of potato?!" Once this was accomplished, he introduced a game called "Jackbox" which required that they use their smart phones to draw images and create titles for these images, all of which would show up on the Lounge's TV set. Those students who didn't have smart phones paired up with those who did (which was most of the students!). 

The instructions were easy and fun to follow - the goal was to see which student/team could amass the most points by choosing the correct titles for pictures they were each asked to draw on their phones. 

Once everyone understood what they were supposed to do, Ian explained that this game was based upon what they would be learning and doing in seventh grade.

There were seven different subjects covered in the game:

Here's the first image. Can you guess what the subject is?

Within half a minute after the image was shown, the above title choices chosen by the students surrounded the image. The actual title would be revealed a few seconds later - JUDAISM. This, Ian explained, would be part of their Comparative Religions unit of study at the start of the year.

Here's the next subject drawing and the students' suggested titles. The actual title was the Anachnu (the 7th grade youth group) LA Trip.

The third subject they'd be studying in 7th grade related to the flag of Israel drawn above. There is a unit of study about modern Israel.

The fourth subject will be nonprofits. Students will be learning about tz'daka, and the many ways we can help the needy in our world. 

The dollar bills above represent "donating money." Seventh graders will raise money to donate to several organizations which they will research extensively before choosing, based upon a theme they all decide upon.

A lot of learning will also take place outside of the classroom. Most of our sixth graders have been participating in the Simcha youth group for 5th and 6th graders. Now, they'll be graduating to the Anachnu youth group for 7th graders, and there will be fun youth group trips (the title of the above drawing) arranged!

And finally, there will be field trips, part of the tz'daka unit of study, where they will go in teams to participate in various community service projects around the Bay Area.

Just before the half hour was up, Ian did his very best to sum up what 7th grade would involve:

Our sixth graders will meet with Ian in the Youth Lounge one more time next week to begin forming a tight-knit community by playing team games requiring them to trust and depend upon each other.

During our Hebrew Through Movement session these past two weekday sessions, we continued to practice vocabulary relating to the upcoming holiday of Shavuot, as well as reviewing other vocabulary we've learned to date.

Billy, la'lechet le'at eem sal shel beekooreem al ha'rosh. L'hachzeek et ha'sal eem ha'yada'eem. (Billy, walk slowly with a basket of first fruits on the head. Hold the basket with the hands.)

Billy, la'lechet le'at eem sal shel beekooreem al ha'rosh. LO L'HACHZEEK et ha'sal eem ha'yada'eem! (Billy, walk slowly with a basket of first fruits on the head. DON'T HOLD the basket with the hands!)

Myles, la'lechet l'Phin eem booba shel chalootz yisra'elee al ha'rosh. (Myles, walk to Phin with an Israeli pioneer doll on the head.)

This coming Sunday's session will be our final Sunday session before our Spring Fling (last day of JQuest) on May 20th, which also happens to be the first day of Shavuot. We will have our usual weekday sessions this coming week, and the following week. I'm hoping as many of my students as possible can attend these final few sessions!