As we deepen our understanding of praise in this unit, the Shorashim (1st-2nd grade) have come to know that trust is a foundational principle of giving and receiving praise. To explore this idea, we practiced trust with those in our own classroom through a blindfolded group exercise. Through this experience, we realized just how complex and fragile trust is, even…

How do we give kids a sense of ownership and meaning of the tefilot (prayers) we chant in Hebrew each day? To some kids, learning Hebrew at Makom is their first experience with the challenges of language learning and the practice of engaging in tefilot is one they have been introduced to for the first time in our program. Once…

A few weeks ago, the Garinim (preK and K kiddos) in Center City unpacked what tefilah (prayer) is for. Why do we do it? What kinds of conversations are we hoping to have through it? Here’s the list we came up with: Praise (wow!) Gratitude (thank you) Request (help, please!) Creating connection, conversation, and community The main tefilah that sets…

What an amazing way to jump back into Makom Community learning to start 2023! The Garinim (PreK and K learners) and Shorashim (1st and 2nd graders) in Center City spent two afternoons this week preparing for and performing in a talent show. We couldn’t be more proud of how it went! We prepared to showcase our talents. Kiddos spent the…

How might having a relationship with our ancestors helps us understand where we’ve come from to know where we’re going? This was the question that Makom Community explored for our first unit of the 22-23 school year. Our unit, Avot V’imahot (ancestors) gave us the opportunity to reflect on both ancestors and family that we know today, as well as…

What can we learn from the relationship between Moshe and God? This is the question that our Anafim (5th-7th grade) students have been mulling over since the beginning of the year. In the texts we have been discussing, Moshe asks God for Their help in leading the Jewish people. He also asks God to show him Their splendor, so that…

Welcome back to Jewish Enrichment! We’re so thrilled to be back learning and playing every afternoon with your wise and wonderful kiddos. These first two weeks of the year were chock full of ice breaker games, welcoming back old friends, forming new connections, and settling back into the routines of Jewish Enrichment. Here are some highlights from our youngest learners,…

Mah tovu ohalekha Ya’akov, mishk’notekha Yisrael!  How great are your tents, Yaakov, the places where you live, Yisrael! We began our year exploring what makes Makom Community a great place to be! During our first week of Jewish Enrichment, we welcomed over 80 students from Pre K through 7th grade to Makom Community in both our Center City and South…

Our learners have been busy exploring the story of Noach and playing with ideas of sanctuary, lawlessness, animal communication with God, and much more! Garinim (kindergarteners) wondered about the Noach story: Why does the text say that people are nothing but evil? I don’t think that’s the way people are now.  It’s really sad that Noach’s family is the only…

How might we connect the history of the Jewish People to who we are and hope to be within Jewish communities? Nitzanim (3rd – 5th grade) learners in both South Philly and Center City spent our third unit of this year working to answer this question. Through study of the Yetziyat Mitzrayim (Leaving Egypt) text and child-driven research, each learner…

SO. MANY. PLAGUES. This week, our learners explored more plagues: frogs (tzefarde’a), lice (kinim), wild beasts (arov), cattle disease (dever), boils (shechin), and fiery hail (barad).  The Garinim (kindergartners) unpacked plagues 2-7 as we moved towards the climax of the Yetziat Mitzrayim (leaving Egypt) story. We’ve particularly enjoyed making a hands-on physical portrayal of the cumulative effects of each plague…

IT’S PURIM – one of our (or at least Gaby’s) favorite times of the year at Makom Community!  The Garinim (kindergartners) spent the week leading up to our Purim spiel (play) and megillah reading celebration familiarizing ourselves with the story, making silly masks, illustrating the holidays four mitzvot (commandments), and generally having a giggly time.  We examined the whole story…

This week, learners delved into text and examined Pharaoh’s reaction to Moshe and Aharon’s request for Bnei Yisrael to retreat to the wilderness to worship God. We also considered Bnei Yisrael’s resentment towards Moshe and Aharon for their attempts to free them. Learners also explored the demonstration of God’s power as the first plague turns the Nile into blood, causing…

During our second unit, Holy Me, learners explored the light around us, and it can help us grow the light and holiness inside ourselves. We further investigated this concept with a photography project, learners were introduced to a disposable film camera and took portraits of subjects in our neighborhood they deemed praiseworthy. Many of the kiddos were unfamiliar with film….

We have had ENOUGH! Last week, we read the bit of our story where Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish people) can’t handle the burden of slavery any more and cry out to God all at once. God hears them and decides to finally help (Exodus 2:23-25). Garinim (kindergarteners) had some thoughts…… What are some different ways people ask for help? Asking…

This week, we continued the Exodus story and tried to empathize with our main characters, Moshe, Yocheved (Moshe’s birth mother), Miriam (Moshe’s biological sister), Batya (Pharaoh daughter and Moshe’s adoptive mother), and Pharaoh. Garinim (kindergartners) love this story. Everyday, when we pause the narrative, they shout and want to hear more! Here’s some of what we unpacked last week. There…

How did we become the Jewish people? This week, we started a new unit! We read Exodus 1 where we discovered how B’nei Yisrael (Hebrews) ended up in Mitzrayim (Egypt) in the first place! A short gist: A new Pharaoh rose to power that did not know about Yosef and made all of the Ivirm slaves. There were SO many…

Nitzanim worked so hard during our second unit to create an open gallery showcasing their exploration! Learners were particularly inspired by the text that says: Torah Temimah on Ecclesiastes 7:13  “When God created the first human, God took them and showed them all the trees of the Garden of Eden and said to them, ‘See my works, how beautiful and…

Can you believe we’re halfway through the school year? This week, students reviewed and wrapped up our second unit, Holy Me.  The Garinim (kindergartners) looked back at the highlights on our journey of exploring the holiness in ourselves and how it interacts with the holiness in the world around us. We played games to revisit this unit’s texts and stories,…

What are tzitzit (fringes)? Why does God think we need reminders about commandments? How can the clothes we wear help us connect to our own personal holiness? Do you tie any strings around your fingers to make sure you remember that big, important thing? Jewish tradition doesn’t have us tie strings on our fingers, but God does instruct Bnei Yisrael…

  Our learners have been hard at work finishing their Rosh Pinah projects. Today we did a run-through of their presentations for each other, giving feedback and sharing things we liked. Wow, it’s amazing how much you learned, and you sounded really confident talking about it. I really do feel proud of myself after saying all of that. What you…

Dear Makom Community Parents, Thank you for all you have done to keep our families and our educators safe through this surge. This has been a particularly challenging season. We are excited to see COVID numbers coming down in Philadelphia. Here is an update on our plan, more like what we had anticipated before Omicron. This will take effect on…

Why is the Shema an important part of Jewish tradition? How can we use tefilah (prayer) to connect to our holiness? This week, we reviewed the Shema, discussed why it is an important part of Jewish tradition, and reflected on the various holy objects and rituals in our lives.          Last week, the Garinim (kindergartners) approached this question…

How can we make sure everyone can be who they are at Makom? How can we act in a way that supports people being who they are? At Makom Community we value creating a space where we show love and feel loved. One way we do that is by creating a brit, a two–way promise, that outlines our expectations for how…

This week, learners reflected on our environment, continued our appreciation for trees, and brainstormed what it would look like if the world around us was nurtured and cared for. Following the celebration of Tu Bishvat (the Jewish new year of trees) last Monday, the Garinim (kindergarteners) delved into an exploration of people’s relationship with trees and other parts of creation….

Tu Bishvat higiya – the 15th of Shvat is coming Sunday night to Monday, January 16th-17th! It is time to celebrate the second of four Jewish New Year holidays, the birthday of the trees.  The Garinim (kindergartners) started off our week scavenger hunting around the classroom for Tu Bishvat facts. We read books about trees, created tree sculptures out of…

This week we studied Gan Eden, (the garden of Eden) and considered the Olam (world) as a creation. Kiddos discussed our roles as partners in creation and considered what it means to be part of an ecosystem. As we looked at the parallels between Gan Eden and our world. We explored what it means to nurture the light around us…

In order to keep all kiddos and staff safe, we held Jewish Enrichment outside at the Greenfield playground. At first, some kids were disappointed that we couldn’t be inside, which was totally understandable. But with a few layers and the excitement of the impending snow storm at the end of the week, kids were soon excited to sing Tefilah: prayer,…

For our first unit, “Love Your Neighbor,” Nitzanim (3rd, 4th and 5th graders) worked collaboratively for weeks to answer the question: “How might we practice loving our neighbors to cultivate a welcoming environment at Makom Community?”   Using the project based learning model, we started this process by brainstorming things that make us feel welcome like warm/bright colors, fun images and…

When have you received praise? What was that like? How is that experience connected to holiness? Our text last week came from a tefilah (prayer) that said, “You [God] are holy, your name is holy, and holy ones praise your name every day” (Siddur Ashkenaz, Amidah). Here’s how the Garinim (kindergartners) unpacked it. What’s it like to experience praise, either…

This week, our learners reflected on the ways our souls are absolute and part of people as a unique creation. We discussed what responsibilities come with being holy and having a soul, and empathized with the difficulties Moshe faced while communicating with Pharaoh and all of Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish people) while having a speech disability. In Garinim (kindergarteners) our…

What is holiness? Where can we notice it in the world around us? Last week the Garinim (kindergartners) jumped into an exploration of holiness with a walk to find things that made us say “wow,” a handful of activities and experiments with light, and an artistic analysis of music. Kiddos LOVED getting to play with light on Tuesday. We made…

Happy Chanukah! This week has been so joyous as we have gathered to light Chanukah candles as a community everyday. This week, each kevutzah reviewed the elements of the Chaunkah story and Chanukah traditions. The Garinim (kindergarten) started off last week with a brief overview of the Chanukah story, and then took a deep dive into the brachot (blessings) that…

It’s review week at Makom Community! We can hardly believe that we’re already a quarter of the way through our school year together.  The Garinim (kindergartners) spent last week revisiting the text from our first unit and brainstorming ideas for our classroom brit (two-way promise) from those texts. Here’s some of our ideas. From Leviticus 19:17-18, “You will not hate…

Everyone is doing an awesome job learning to read trope and using what they already know to practice chanting their aliyot. I am really looking forward to our Torah Service next week! Continuing our exploration of tefilah in Rosh Pinah, we followed a 4 minute guided meditation by Alison Laichter, an innovator and leader in the world of Jewish meditation….

This week, our learners dug deeper into different kinds of love. We started with this bit of text: “All love that depends on something, [when the] thing stops, [the] love stops; and [all love] that does not depend on anything, will never stop” (Pirkei Avot 5:16).  In Garinim (kindergarteners), kiddos answered a few questions: What are some people or things…

Building our environments to be safe spaces for the people who enter them is important! Our learners took a pasuk (sentence) from Torah about building fences around our roofs as a jumping off point for a discussion about how we keep our bodies physically safe (Deuteronomy 22:8) as well as a pasuk from Pirkei Avot that tells us that knowing…

“Shimon Hatzadik (the righteous) said, ‘The world depends on three things to stand: Torah, connecting with something bigger than ourselves, and acts of lovingkindness’” (Pirkei Avot 1:1-2). Our Learners spent a day unpacking each of these elements, how the world depends on them, and how we can do them. The Garinim (kindergartners) explored acts of lovingkindness with a favorite book…

Another magical week at Makom has come and gone. We settled into this week with a spirited interest in Hebrew reading and finished it with passionate conversations about our Gemilut Chasadim (acts of loving kindness) box.  Throughout the week we explored a text from Pirkei Avot 1:1-2.  “Moshe received the Torah at Har Sinai (Mount Sinai) and transmitted it to…

What might happen to both ourselves and our communities if we separate ourselves from them? This week, we explored text from Sanhedrin 37a:15  saying, “If a person makes many coins from one stamp, they are all exactly alike. But even though God created every person using the stamp of the first human, not a single one of them is exactly…