Manna, Complaints in the Desert + Gearing up for Purim!

 

Jewish Studies

Andrew’s Monday/Wednesday Class

With Purim around the corner, we switched over from our in-depth look at Moses into the story of Purim! We watched a Lego-themed video of the Purim story to bring the ancient story into modern times. We moved into narratives from the main characters in the Purim story to read their own thoughts. Finally, the students took the narratives and turned it into group plays! Next week we will be making our own Purim art projects!

Lee’s Monday/Wednesday Class

We started class by reviewing the story we learned so far.  We also talked about the recurring presence of crazy dreams in our stories thus far, and what conclusions we might draw from that.  We then took a pause to talk about what we already know and want to know about both the Joseph story and Purim. Picking back up in our story, we read about Joseph being sold to Potiphar and then being accused by Potiphar’s wife, with the students acting out each scene as a tableau and considering how each character might be feeling and acting.  We continued making tableaus as a class through the part of the story where Joseph is in prison and hears about some more crazy dreams.

David’s Tuesday/Saturday Class

This week we made a preface to our unit on the exodus from Egypt. In order to better understand the biblical story we learned a bit about the ancient Egyptian empire, and among other things we also learned about their burial customs and the difference between the outlook of the next world [and life] of Judaism and the Egyptian empire. One of the students volunteered to be a mummy, which we decorated well, played games that showed us the randomness in life, and tried to understand how the concept of “the World to Come” helps the moral problem in the world of a “righteous who suffers.” The children also shared whether they believed in the World to Come, and what they would like it to be.

Lee & Marna’s Tuesday/Saturday Class

On Saturday we read the beginning of the Joseph story in which his brothers throw him in the pit, take his coat and dip it in animal blood to make it appear to their father that he had been killed. Students then designed a multicolored coat, in line with the one Jacob had gifted to Joseph, but with themes students identify throughout the story.

On Tuesday we started class with students sharing a time they were accidentally forgotten or forgot someone.  We then had a short discussion about the plans for the class going forward (with a short and engaged side-discussion when a question came up about the imbalance of male and female characters in our stories).  After that, we continued with our Joseph story by watching a video featuring a rap and continued on to Joseph in Egypt. We focused on Joseph being forgotten in prison by the Pharaoh’s butler whose dream he had interpreted.  Students were given a text with translation directly from the Torah, and a few volunteers acted as ‘translators’ with summaries of the text. As we learned of Pharaoh’s dreams, our translators helped us understand some of the more difficult language the original translation uses.

Richard’s Tuesday/Saturday Class

On Shabbat, we welcomed our new assistant teacher, Rose. We reviewed the story of Moses from his time in Egypt to when the Israelites split the Red Sea and walked to freedom. We also discussed why the Israelites complained even though they were getting what they wanted, freedom. We found times in our own lives when we too may complain. The students illustrated these moments sharing their illustrations with the class upon completion. After learning about the manna God sent from the sky to help feed the Israelites and respond to their complaints about hunger, we learned that God sent a double portion on Fridays so the people would not have to work to gather it on Shabbat. Students reflected on how this relates to the two challot we bless and eat on Shabbat. We carried this learning into designing challot covers, which are up on the class bulletin board for you to see. I would encourage everyone to take a peek at the beautiful work the class has done before they are brought home.

Tuesday, we began a new unit continuing the Moses story, The 10 Commandments. We started off the lesson by answering, ‘Are humans naturally bad or good?’ & ‘Do we need laws?’ The class seemed to agree that humans have the power to be either or both and that laws are needed. After finding out what we already knew of the story we read in pairs how Moses and the Israelites received the commandments and watched a video of what those 10 commandments are. The students in pairs categorized each commandment in one of two columns: laws that relate to human- human relationships or human-God relationships. The class really enjoyed doing this activity!

Hebrew through Movement

Monday/Wednesday

This week we continued learning about Purim and talking about the holiday costumes!
We practiced former vocabulary by playing with masks, crowns and gragers, and introduced new vocabulary:
Hamantasch – Ozen haman – אֹזֶן הָמָן
Mishloach manot – מִשְׁלוֹחַ מָנוֹת
to eat – le’echol – לֶאֱכֹל
Scroll – Megila – מְגִלָּה
to read – likro – לִקְרֹא

Next week we will talk more about the verbs ‘to read’ and ‘to eat’, and will introduce the verb ‘to wear’ when we will discuss the tradition of wearing costumes during Purim.

Tuesday/Saturday

This week we continued our Purim Unit. We read parts of the Purim story off of a hand crafted megillah /scroll, and followed the command, likroh b’megillah/ read the scroll. Every time we heard Haman’s name, students followed the command, l’harish b’rashan (make noise with a gragger). When we read the part of Mordechai refusing to bow down to Haman, a few students acted out the scene by “Haman” commanding “Mordechai l’hishtachavot /bow down and Mordechai replying “Lo!”

On Tuesday, we briefly discussed in English about the mitzvah of giving Mishloach Manot or Purim baskets to friends and family on Purim. The children practiced following the commands of placing cardboard pictures of different treats in Hebrew (oznei Haman / Hamantashen, tapuach / apple, shokolad / chocolate and bracha l’Purim (Purim greeting card) in mishloach manot and giving them to different classmates. We also took a quick poll in Hebrew to see the class’s favorite flavor of oznei haman (tut /strawberry, shokolad, mish-mish /apricot and pereg /poppy). Shokolad won! Interesting to note, the children were surprised by the fact that in Israel, these traditional Purim cookies are referred to as Haman’s ear and not his 3-cornered hat!

Announcements

1. Reminder, Mid-Year Check Ins Next Week

As a reminder, we are holding parent-teacher check-ins next week. Teachers will discuss what students have been learning, what they can look forward to, and their observations about how they are doing in class. If interested, please sign up for a 15-min time slot for an in-person meeting with your child’s Jewish studies teacher & Hebrew through Movement teacher. If you would like to schedule a meeting with Kate Friedman, our learning specialist, please email her at kfriedman@cbebk.org to set up a time.

JEWISH STUDIES:

Teacher: Richard Gomes
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Room: Aleph

Teacher: David Nusan
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Room: Bet

Teacher: Andrew Davidov
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Room: Bet

Teacher: Lee
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Room: Aleph

Teacher: Marna (Co-taught class. Lee present on Tuesday, Marna on Saturday)
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Room: Chet

HEBREW:

Monday/Wednesday Hebrew through Movement Teacher: Inbal Lubin
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Monday: Room Vav | Wednesday: Room Chet

Tuesday/Saturday Hebrew through Movement Teacher: Sharone David
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Room: Zayin