Ha Motzi, Rosh Hodesh and Thanksgiving!

Hello All, 
I have a few slightly connected items for you this week. First, in class the students learned all about Rosh Chodesh, the Jewish celebration of the new month that comes with the new moon.
For those of you that might be new to the subject or need a refresher, here is nice link:  


My Jewish Learning : Rosh Choedesh

We also talked about how Jewish months are different from our "regular" months. I thought you might like this visual calendar that shows how they line up:  

Secondly, you may have noticed that your student came home with a placemat that looked something like this: 

(Don't Grace and Henry make great models?) 

We made these a couple of weeks ago as part of our discussion about food blessings. It took them a while to be laminated but now they are home to you just in time to add a little thankfulness to your Thanksgiving table. 

And, on a related note, 

I stumbled on a interesting and throught provoking Thanksgiving article about gratitude and parenting in Tablet Magazine You should consider book marking Tablet, I have it in my bookmarks. It has tons of great articles on contemporary Jewish culture and politics. 
The gratitude article can be found here and is worth reading:

How to Teach Your Kids to be Greatful by Marjorie Ingall 

I hope you all have a lovely Thanksgiving. There is no class this Sunday, I will see you back for a family program on 12/4. We have all sorts of fun Hanukkah things planned for you!


-Suzan

Shabbat Together!

I really enjoyed our Shabbat stations activity with all of you on Sunday. I had spent Sat. night in our youth lounge with our 9th graders and was a little tired but seeing all of you and the smell of fresh Challah woke me right up! 


I have a few links connected to Sunday's program to share with all of you along with some fun pictures.

First, for those of you who might want to check out a God Cast torah portion video at home the web site is:
http://www.g-dcast.com/ 
You might try watching one right before a family Shabbat dinner. You can continue the conversation about the portion over dinner.

Some of you asked where I got the dough for the Challah we made. I bought it in the freezer section in Safeway. It is white sandwich bread dough. You let it defrost overnight, then let it rise for a few hours, braid and bake it according to the package. Its not quite as good as homemade but still fills your home with that yummy bread smell and it is fun to braid.  
Here is what the package looks like:

For those of you want to take your Challah to the next level, here is a video about how to braid a beautiful 6 strand challah:

And, lastly, here is sweet list of easy, kid friendly ways to bring a little Shabbat into your home from a fellow blogger:
Kid Friendly Shabbat Ideas 

My favorites:
"When my kids were little, we had a special “shabbat box” of toys that were ONLY for shabbat. when the day got a bit long, especially in the summer, we would bring this out and it worked like a charm to keep them occupied for a couple of hours while the adults either chatted or, you know, NAPPED!!! We made sure to stock it with special “shabbat toys” that they then did not get during the week, like sparkle markers, stickers, shiny paper, one or two unique board games, their favorite TV character stuffed animals, etc. At the bottom of the box was a “treasure map” that they had to figure out to find a special shabbat snack we had hidden. Not shockingly, they always went for that first"
and
"I have a friend who only permits sugar cereal and other treats on Shabbat. I am continuing with a tradition from my childhood by declaring Shabbos a homework-free day!!!! I go off-grid. I do it for me AND for my kids. So that I can be fully present for and with them. Later bedtime on Shabbos."
(from Minnesota Mamaleh: 11 Kid Friendly Shabbat Ideas By 11 Fab Jewish Bloggers)


What are your favorite Shabbat traditions in your home? Feel free to share in a comment below. 

And now some fun photos from Sunday:

Sunday 11/20 is a Kids Only Day. We will all be back together again for a family day after Thanksgiving on 12/4 for Hannukah program!

Shalom,
Suzan

Sharing Shabbat

This week in class we started talking about Shabbat and how it is one life cycle event we are lucky enough to get to celebrate every week (as opposed to once a week or once a lifetime). We started talking about some of the symbols and rituals of Shabbat. We will continue to explore the traditions and themes of Shabbat this Sunday  (11/13/11) at our family program.

                       

I know that every family comes to the topic of Shabbat with a different set of experiences, practices and memories. Some of us may celebrate weekly Shabbat dinners in our home and incorporate Shabbat ritual and traditions into our routines on a regular basis. For others of us Shabbat may mean an occasional trip to temple for a Shabbat service or a "Got Shabbat" (if you haven't been to one of these wonderful, family oriented services at Temple Isaiah you should really try out a Got Shabbat ). For others of us Shabbat conjures up memories of childhood summer camp or families gatherings past. And for some of us it is still just a topic of books and Sunday School lessons, not something we have encountered first hand. Whatever the case may be, where ever you are in your knowledge and comfort level with Shabbat rituals and practices I always think that trying to add something new or different can be fun and a great way to bring oyur family together. We will be talking more about some of these ideas this Sunday. But I have included some great resources here to get you thinking.

Lets start with the basics. If you need to know the prayers for saying the Shabbat blessings in your home the URJ has a great page, complete with audio files so you can hear them:
URJ Shabbat Blessings
They also have other great Shabbat resources:
URJ Shabbat Resources


Check out Ritualwell's Shabbat page for some great articles with a more creative twist on Shabbat:
Ritualwell Shabbat Page
I particularly like this very short article that gets at the spirit of Shabbat:
Ten Commandments for Contemporary Shabbat

 If you are an interfaith family (or any family) you will LOVE this website:
http://www.interfaithfamily.com/
It has great resources on all the holidays and life cycle events and provides lots of basic knowledges on "doing Jewish". They have a great "pamphlet" on celebrating Shabbat that provides tons of great information inclduing the blessings and it is printer friendly:
Interfaith Family: Shabbat Made Easy

And lastly,

No you are not seeing double! Our class bear David has a twin brother, Eli. Eli LOVES Shabbat and he likes to travel. Each week he and his backpack of Shabbat goodies will be going home with a different family to celebrate Shabbat with your family. It is great opportunity to try out the Shabbat blessings if you don't usually do them or add some new excitement to your Shabbat routine. We will be starting with the K families and working our way up (some of you may have done this before in my class in Kindergarten and we will only repeat if we have time). I will have more details next week. If Eli comes home with you please complete a worksheet and return him the NEXT week (regardless of if it is a family week or not). If you'd like to pass just let me know.

I'm looking forward to seeing you all on Sunday 11/13 for a Family Day!

-Suzan

Food Blessings

Thanks spending another fun Sunday with us! I really enjoyed talking about food and food blessings with all of you. I thought I'd share a copy of the different food blessings we read in our family groups:

                                       

Jewish Blessings for Food and Drink

Bread

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha'olam hamotzi lehem min ha'aretz.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.

 

Wine & Grape Juice

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha'olam borei p'ri hagafen.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.

 

Fruit

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha'olam borei p'ri ha'eitz.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the tree.

Vegetables

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha'olam borei p'ri ha'adamah.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who creates the fruit of the ground.

 

Grains

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha'olam borei minei mezonot.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who creates varieties of nourishment.

 

Miscellaneous Food (meat, poultry, eggs, fish, dairy products, candy)

Barukh ata Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha'olam shehakol niyah bidvaro.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, at whose word all came to be.

Here is a lovely article that builds on the orange activity we did and talks about the deeper, modern meaning behind doing HaMotzi prayer before meals: 

HaMotzi: The Deeper Significance: My Jewish Learning

Some progressive Jews have taken the principals behind thoughtful eating several steps beyond just blessing our food and have been rethinking the whole idea behind kosher eating. If you are interested in eating organic, sustainability or locally you might want to check out this article about "Eco-kosher Jews" from the LA Times:

Eco-Kosher Jews: LA Times

And if all this talk of food is making you hungry, here is a fantastic Jewish family cook book. It has lots of wonderful, kid friendly Jewish recipes that are easy for kids to follow along with as well as photos and mini history lessons about some of recipes .

 

Chocolate Chip Challah Cook Book 

We looks forward to seeing all the kids this week for a Kids Only Day. We will spend the next two weeks looking and the concepts and meaning of Shabbat. We will see everyone back again for Family Day on Nov. 13th!

Shabbat Shalom!

-Suzan