Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Notes for the Kotel
My family is going to Israel. R. is very excited. She has learned quite a bit about Israel, having been first in a Jewish preschool and now in a Jewish Day School, and is ready for the trip. One special thing R. has on her schedule in Israel is putting notes in the Kotel (Western/Wailing Wall) for her class. The notes are in a ziplock. She knows she has a very important job. Many of them have the word "private" written on the outside and R. made it very clear to my husband and I that we are not to read her friends' notes, that they are private prayers and requests to G-d.
Amy Ripps visits for Shabbat Circle
A week ago we had a really special visit from Amy Ripps, the Director of Education at Beth Meyer Synagogue. She was the visiting Jewish Educator during Shabbat Circle.
Amy, who is always a terrific story teller, told the tale of a bear who is hanging out in a building in Brooklyn, steeling the honey for Grandmother's Shabbat kugel as family members return from the store. The grandmother keeps repeating to the members of her family who come back from the store with no honey "But there are NO BEARS IN BROOKLYN." The children all joined in a chanted this chorus with Amy, giggling. Finally the Grandmother goes to the store herself. When she is harrassed by the bear she discovers that he is lost and invites him to Shabbat dinner. I love this story because it is a wonderful, funny way to teach that one should open their heart and their home to the person who has nowhere to go for Shabbat and Holidays.
In addition to Amy's story, many of the students read entries from their classroom journals to the group. Some of the entries were short, some of them were very long. What I always find amazing is how the students sit patiently and listen to their classmates, applauding at the end of each story. One little girl read a very long story about all sorts of weird things that kept showing up in her lunchbox. Sometimes it was gross. Sometimes it was silly, but she read the whole story and everyone listened attentively. She wasn't rushed or cut off, even when it was clear that we were going to run out of time, because allowing a little girl to read her entire story is very important.
This is another wonderful thing about being in a small school with an engaged population of parents. We ran out of time. Parents arrived and stood around the classroom, but nobody took their child. There was no carpool line that needed to be managed. Everyone waited patiently and listened to the end of Shabbat Circle. Even the tween older sister who had run in to get her brother, whose Mother was waiting in a running car in the parking lot understood that the right thing to do was just to wait, enjoy listening to the kids read their journal entries, to Amy telling her story, and to sing L'cha Dodi together to welcome the upcoming Sabbath.
Amy, who is always a terrific story teller, told the tale of a bear who is hanging out in a building in Brooklyn, steeling the honey for Grandmother's Shabbat kugel as family members return from the store. The grandmother keeps repeating to the members of her family who come back from the store with no honey "But there are NO BEARS IN BROOKLYN." The children all joined in a chanted this chorus with Amy, giggling. Finally the Grandmother goes to the store herself. When she is harrassed by the bear she discovers that he is lost and invites him to Shabbat dinner. I love this story because it is a wonderful, funny way to teach that one should open their heart and their home to the person who has nowhere to go for Shabbat and Holidays.
In addition to Amy's story, many of the students read entries from their classroom journals to the group. Some of the entries were short, some of them were very long. What I always find amazing is how the students sit patiently and listen to their classmates, applauding at the end of each story. One little girl read a very long story about all sorts of weird things that kept showing up in her lunchbox. Sometimes it was gross. Sometimes it was silly, but she read the whole story and everyone listened attentively. She wasn't rushed or cut off, even when it was clear that we were going to run out of time, because allowing a little girl to read her entire story is very important.
This is another wonderful thing about being in a small school with an engaged population of parents. We ran out of time. Parents arrived and stood around the classroom, but nobody took their child. There was no carpool line that needed to be managed. Everyone waited patiently and listened to the end of Shabbat Circle. Even the tween older sister who had run in to get her brother, whose Mother was waiting in a running car in the parking lot understood that the right thing to do was just to wait, enjoy listening to the kids read their journal entries, to Amy telling her story, and to sing L'cha Dodi together to welcome the upcoming Sabbath.
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