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!