Seekers Updates 5/26: Torah Part 2

Kita Alef with Stephanie
What silly fun we had today! We started by saying Shalom Mashlomchem to everyone combined with some show and tell. Then we reviewed the "ah" vowels. We watched a video helping us remember the difference between Bet and Kaf, they sure do look similar. We reviewed our "eh" vowels and watched a video helping us tell the difference between Samech and Final Mem. We learned a brand new vowel "ee", and sang the aleph bet song- "ee" edition.
We had a Story Fairy where we learned about the importance of patience. We watched a sesame street video teaching us more about patience. And then learned about the upcoming holiday Shavuot, which celebrates the receiving of the Torah.The children of Israel sure did struggle with patience when they were waiting to receive that! We shared when we had trouble with patience and the favorite thing we learned.

 
Kita Bet with Batya
This week in Kita Bet, we learned about the upcoming Jewish holiday of Shavuot! On Shavuot we celebrate the receiving of the Torah at Har Sinai! We learned about the different ways we can celebrate Shavuot this year too.
"We can decorate our homes with flowers." -Hiram
Some people eat dairy delicacies because the Torah is sweet as honey!
At Kita Bet, we love to draw and color. Morah Batya challenged us to draw a Torah or a Har Sinai, and write about what Shavuot means to us! "Shavuot is a time to self reflect, learn and be merry."

Kita Gimmel with Yardena

This week we learned about Shavuot. Through a fun Kahoot game the students learned a lot of new facts about the holiday. We read together a small version of Megillat Ruth and discussed why we champion a non-Jewish woman who is a widow. We also played a 10 commandment memory game and discussed the difference between Mitzvot between human to God vs. human to human.

Kita Daled with Heather

This week we looked at the spiritual rather than the physical aspects of Torah. We began with a quick review of what we discussed last week: how many parshiot are in the Torah (54!), what we mark at Shavuot (first fruits, wheat harvest, end of counting the Omer, and reception of the Torah), and reminded ourselves of different Shavuot traditions (dairy foods, all night learning, and studying the book of Ruth). The students then discussed what "receiving" means to them, and many touched on the idea that to receive is to inherently be in relationship with something else.  To explore the idea of "receiving Torah," we plugged ourselves into our own mini Sinai, and students had the opportunity to actually study some of the verses from the book of Ruth, a scroll traditionally read on the second day of Shavuot. We discussed at length the verse 1:16, which reads: "Where you go I will follow, where you stay I will stay, your people will be my people." The students had such wise insights about grief, respect for Torah, and the impact of the choices that we make. I am always blown away by our learners but felt especially blessed today working with this group. I hope that the students walked away feeling that they are as much a part of the continued conversation of Torah as those who were at Sinai.

Kita Hey with Yonatan

Today we learned about the framework of Shavuot- from Pesach--liberation--to Shavuot--revelation. We asked, why are we celebrating it? What are we receiving that makes us a family or a Jewish people today? We learned about the story of Ruth and we shared in hevruta, or pairs, what is our Torah that we can teach others. We also reviewed the books of the Bible and how many Torah portions the Bible is divided into.