Dear Families,

We can’t believe how swiftly the year flew by at Havurah. From the first day we met one another, an immediate connection was formed in our classroom. Together, we began discovering what being Jewish means to us.  Through blessings and snacks we got in touch with the earth (olam) and the land (aretz); through paints, crayons, and markers, we depicted the stories of the Jewish people; with our bodies we learned the shapes of the Aleph-Bet; and in song our voices we rang out with holiday melodies. Each week, we emphasized the values of community, compassion and cooperation.

Over the course of Havurah, we have had the pleasure of witnessing growth, discovery, questioning and creation.  Each class, we felt excited to greet each other with our Shalom song, as we knew joy and laughter were always in store. The children of Classroom Four continued to surprise and amaze us week after week, as they grew into true Havurah members, committed to caring for those around them. We felt privileged to be a part of a class in which we were not only teachers but also students, as everyone in our class shared their unique experiences and knowledge.  Together we both celebrated long standing Jewish traditions and built our traditions, all of which we used to celebrate and embrace our diverse backgrounds.  Sharing this wonderful year was a true blessing. Thank you.

-Ani and Brigitte

P.S. You can pick up a copy of your Havurah reflection book in the JCC office, there should be one waiting with Gabriella Kula, Havurah Director.

We would also like to share that we had an AMAZING response from our friends in Tanzania. They truly appreciated our letters, drawings and well wishes. 

If you would like more information on Sarah Child Care Center email Brigitte at brigittermoreno@gmail.com or visit them on Facebook here

Our Final Gathering!

On our final day at Havurah at the JCC, we had an amazing time as we came full circle with all of our themes, questions, and ideas we have explored throughout year!

As always, we began with our final welcome circle as we sang to one another to prepare for the day.

We moved to the table and said our blessings all together over grape juice and challah. As a special treat for our last day, we got to try an Israeli falafel-flavored snack called Bissili! It was definitely a hit. As we sat around the table together we had the chance to reflect on all of the many projects and stories we have discussed throughout the year. We had a mini movie screening and watched the short films about Creation, Purim, and Passover that we each took part in creating. We loved seeing ourselves on the screen and noticing all the ways we have improved even in the last few weeks.

After snack and movies, we went right into yoga with Victoria. We played games, had a yoga obsticle course, and of course said our shalOMMMM. We finished by drawing on our Aleph-Bet yoga sheets.

After yoga, we did a bit of reflection as we looked back at past pictures of ourselves from throughout the year and added our own captions to describe and recall what we were doing in the pictures. It was so fun to reminisce about all the good times we've had together!

We were also SO excited because our letters and drawings from our pen-pals in Tanzania just arrived in the mail. They even included photographs of their entire class and we had a marvelous time examining their artwork and feeling connected to another class of children across the globe!

We had our last Aleph-Bet block game as we reviewed the letters we already know and moved our bodies throughout the classroom.

Finally, we wanted each student to have something to take home to remember and cherish the relationships they built in our classroom. We each picked a name of one of our peer's out of a basket and then drew that person a beautiful and elaborate piece of art with their name colored brightly and vibrantly. For our final activity, we sat in a circle and each delivered our gift to our friend. It was a truly special moment!

We sang our final round of Shalom Chaverim and sent each other on our way!

We had such a marvelous year with everyone and hope to see all of your faces at the picnic as the school year draws to a close and we come together to celebrate all that we have learned and accomplished. At the picnic, we will have a gift for all of the families to remember and cherish the year we have had together.

Can't wait to see everyone for one last Hurrah!

Yadayim Raglayim!

As we near the end of Havurah we are taking time to revisit the journey we have taken this year. Today was a day of movement, play and also deep thinking!

We began by revisiting the question "What does it mean to me to be Jewish?"a question we asked when we first started our Havurah journey this year. We reviewed the list we generated--see blog post from Sunday, October 13, 2013:

“Celebrating different holidays.” – Rachel

“My mom, my dad and my magic blanket.” –Qunicy

“People talking together.”  -Simone

“Having friends and having the whole school come together and say Jewish things.”-Bryce

“Go to temple, sing songs and talk.” – Jesse

“Being with my family at my house and having Challah.” – Sarah

“Playing drums at Temple.” –Ethan

“Playing guitar at Temple.” – Nate

Today we added a few over our snack and blessing time in a group meeting, and will continue to think about it next week. Some new ideas were, Learning Hebrew and the Aleph-bet and Working with friends.

We then had a very energetic Yoga, where we focused on our Yadayim (Hands) and Raglayim (Feet). We began by exploring our hands and feet through art and coloring and continued with a fun yoga game where we cleaned up the common space with our feet!

We then returned to the classroom where we created a thank you note for the second graders who worked so hard with us over the last 3 weeks! We collaboratively wrote a thoughtful letter and then each added our own flare!

We finished off the day with some dramatic play, reviewing the stories we have learned this year, including the story of Passover and Purim. Enjoy the film clips below of the the play! We will be premiering all of the videos we have taken this year next week. Take some time to review the blog with your child and have them tell you the story of Havurah!

Classroom 4's rendition of Passover, including Baby Moses sailing down the nile!

A REMINDER THAT NEXT WEEK WILL BE THE LAST HAVURAH IN THE JCC. THE FOLLOWING WEEK WILL BE THE PICNIC! 

The story of Purim playtime! More videos to come later this week!

Just a Few More Weeks at Havurah

This week at Havurah we had a whole bunch of exciting activities to participate in! We began the day reconvening in our regular spot -- on the carpet welcoming each other in song. After blessings, juice, and challah we divided into mini-groups and had rotating activities.

Some of us reflected on what we learned and did over Passover break through blocks -- we built towers and seder tables galore. Others found their Aleph-Bet books and did a bit of recap on our letters and added a few new ones as well!

Finally, we got to participate in a fossil activity organized by Brigitte and some of her coworkers from Bankstreet College of Education. We had the chance to identify certain plant fossils as well as to cast our own plant fossils through impressions. We discussed that fossils preserve plants from thousands and thousands of years ago and provide evidence for how they have evolved over time. Although our Havurah group did not participate in the planting elective many of the older groups did and hopefully our group will be able to do so with the knowledge they already have, in future Havurah classes.

Next, our new friends in the 2nd grade class came in to share and work with us. First we discussed all the interesting things that occurred over Passover -- we sat in a huge circle and described all of our various ceremonies and seders. Next, we went back to the Passover mural we have been working on together and added our final layer -- PAINT! We painted the birth of Moses on the water, the plagues, and splitting sea, and the desert our people traveled through for forty years!

After parting ways with the 2nd graders, we went upstairs to have yoga on the roof! All of the students were attentive to Victoria's directions and movements as they stretched their bodies and found new shapes for themselves. When it started to rain, we went downstairs and finished up in the common area. Finally, Paul came in for an amazing sing along!


Can't wait for the next few weeks and the upcoming Picnic in the park with all of our Havurah families!

Happy Pesach!

It was so wonderful to see everyone at the Havurah Passover Celebration this past Saturday. A reminder that Havurah will not resume until Saturday, April 26. 

In the meantime, we hope you are enjoying this break with family and friends! Please also take some time to enjoy the images below, all paintings and interpretations of the story of Passover. All three of these paintings represent the story in a different way. If you feel so inclined, take some time to create a drawing or painting of what Passover means to you and how your family celebrates it. 

By Judith Joeseph, ketuba.wordpress.com

By Gwen Meharg "A Passover scene had been evolving in my spirit for over two years... Outside the night is cold and dark. Inside the embers warm the room. The colors from outside are pulled inside"

By Marc Chagall

Some questions to consider when looking at these images may be...

how are these images different or similar from each other? 

how do these images relate to the story of Passover?

how do the different colors and styles affect my interpretation of them?

which painting speaks to me the most? why? 

what are the different words you associate with each painting? how are they different?

Have a very happy Pesach and we are looking forward to seeing everyone Saturday, April 26!!

Shal-ooooooooooommmmmmmmmm

Although the skies were dark and gloomy, Havurah was filled with sunshine! Today we continued our partnership with the Havurah second graders as we also continued to learn about PESACH (Passover). 

Jen, Dustin, Ani and Brigitte began by reading THE MIRACLES OF PASSOVER by Josh Hanft, a beautifully illustrated children's book which tells the story of passover along with introducing the traditions of the SEDAR. 

After reading the story, second graders and pre-k* paired up to create an incredible collaborative mural. 

Classes working together to illustrate the story of Passover.

Blake and Charlie creating the beginning of the story, illustrating the Pharaoh's palace. 

Working to illustrate the Plagues. Yuck!

The pyramids of ancient Egypt, and bringing in what we know about deserts....the cactus of the desert!

 After this creative and exciting arts workshop, we headed over to meet Victoria, for our first YOGA session with her! 

Our pose of the day was חתול (KAHTOOL) or in English CAT Pose! We also became snakes and warriors and rode a magic Yoga elevator. It felt great to move our bodies and center ourselves after an exciting start with our new second grade friends. Victoria gave everyone take home sheets with poses, please feel free to color them in and practice at home!

Surfin' the USA in Warrior pose!

SSSSSS! We're Snakes

We ended our Yoga with some relaxation and a collective SHAL-OOOMMMMM! We are looking forward to seeing our bodies and practice grow over the next few weeks with Victoria. 

Finally we ended our busy day with Ty and the second graders in a beautiful sing-along. Be sure to join us next week, grown-ups and children, for our community Passover sing-along! Have a great week! 

*Please note that Ani and Brigitte's Pre-k class has since firmly established that some of us are in Kindergarden, not pre-k, so from here on out this class will be referred to as CLASSROOM 4*

 

Preparing with New Friends for Passover

This week at Havurah we had a very special change of weather! After our regular practices of singing Welcome and Snack with Blessings, we met a new group of friends! The 2nd Grade class who learns just across the hall from us at Havurah. We joined forces in Classroom 4 and made a humongous circle as we went around and introduced ourselves to each other. We said our name, shared individual art creations with one another, and talked about who we are through what we love to do.

After introductions, we began to speak about the Passover story and the upcoming Seder. The 2nd Graders took the lead as they shared with Pre-K what they could remember about the Passover story. We even passed around the Seder plate and discussed the significance of the various spots on the plate (shank bone, egg, parsley & salt water, charoset, maror...) and the symbolism and emotions that we attribute to these foods from the Passover story.  We will continue to review the story, songs, and significance of all the components of Passover next week.

Following our amazing collaboration we parted ways with the 2nd grade and had our first day of our new specialty--YOGA! We removed our shoes and met on the rug where we first asked one another WHAT IS YOGA? We discussed that yoga is an activity for our minds & bodies--it helps with concentration, balance, and can even help us find ways to calm our bodies down and relax.

We warmed up with some jumping jacks, and learned our first new pose: in hebrew, KELEV -- downward facing dog. After KELEV we learned four other poses to begin learning our yoga aleph-bet. We can now make Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and Daled with our bodies!!

We had a round of freeze dance yoga with our aleph-bet letters and then played an exciting yogi-game called Kelev, Kelev, where's your bone?! Finally, we had a cool down with a guided relaxing meditation.


And to top it all off, Paul came in and worked with us on singing the four questions which we have almost learned all the way through!

Can't wait for next week