New students and returning students are here, and we are so excited to welcome them in and get the year going! Next week, our kindergarten students will join us, too.
This year, we have a large enough enrollment in afterschool enrichment that we created two learning groups functioning in parallel. We have Boker for our Pre-K, K, and 1 students, and Erev for our students in 2nd through 5th grades. We have snacktime learning on different sides of our large classroom with our age groups. All our students are studying the same text together, in age appropriate ways. We are opening our year studying the experience of Matan Torah (receiving the Torah). Toward the beginning of November, that will culminate in a project where we create our own shared expectations for Makom Community for the year.
Following snacktime learning, we move to shulchanot avodah (learning centers), where all 8 of our weekly projects are in our large classroom. There are 4 smaller tables with activities geared toward our Boker group and larger tables with activities geared toward our Erev group. The beauty of that is that we saw some of our students choose any of the 8 projects on all the days they are here. Most often, our older students stay at the projects that we pitched older, and vice versa. But when a student is especially interested in a certain topic or modality of learning, they have the flexibility to sit at any table and work at any project. While this student-led learning is happening, our teachers circulate to provide support.
We are learning lots of new tefilot (prayers) together each afternoon. We have also added a brief mindfulness meditation to tefilah each day. Our new tefilot (prayers) are getting us thinking about when we are happy, what is wonderful in the world, how to be mindful, and how to gather as a community. There’s always so much to learn, and this helps our new and returning students share the experience of learning new tefilot together. I imagine you’ll be hearing these melodies on your way home and in the bathtub!
This week, in snacktime learning we studied Exodus 14:15-31, as Bnei Yisrael (the Israelites) were getting ready to cross the sea to freedom and the unknown. It lent itself phenomenally to processing the beginning of the school year. Your children had incredible, wise things to say about these questions—so feel free to ask them to share over dinner or while you’re out walking in the city in the days ahead:
- Do you think Bnei Yisrael felt ready when they left Egypt?
- Were you feeling ready for the school year to start?
- How were you feeling about the school year starting?
- How did your feelings about the school year change after the first few days of school?
- What can we at Makom Community do to help you have a great year?
- How do I react to something that scares me?
- How can I help other people in Makom Community when they are feeling scared?
Can’t wait to see what they have to teach us and each other next week!