Tefilah isn’t just prayer, music, and movement, it is also a conversation! We started a new unit where we are unpacking the ways in which Tefilah can be a conversation, and what those conversations can look like. This week we are looking at the part of Amidah that talks about our avot v‘imahot, aka our forefathers and mothers. Let’s zoom in on Avraham! God is described as being…

What does it mean to have Torah on our bodies? How do we do that if Torah is words? “Uk’shartam l’ot al yadecha v’hayu letotafot bein einecha.  Tie it as a sign on your hand and as a reminder between your eyes”.  This week we are exploring a Jewish practice of physically embodying Torah, not just speaking it! We are learning how to put on tefillin to experience how Jews throughout time have fulfilled this mitzvah (translated as “commandment” but at Makom Community we typically talk about mitzvot as “opportunities for connection”).  Here is…

  “Saying words of Torah in my house makes my house more welcoming, more like a home.” – A wise fourth grader.  This week we continued exploring Shema, specifically the verse that says “speak [Torah] when you’re sitting in your house”.  We unpacked what it means to say words of Torah in our houses and what that does for ourselves and our communities.  Home is…  A place with people you love.  A place that you feel welcome.  Somewhere…

“Tell it to them, sing it to them, read it to them, have them hear the words of Torah, and then try to explain it, and talk about it, and see what they understand about it.” – A wise 4th grader.   We’re studying the Shema this unit. We’re working through the V’ahavta paragraph, and zooming into the line, “Teach [Torah] to your children and speak of…

This week we are talking about and looking at mezuzot (click here for more info about mezuzot).  What is on the inside? What is on the outside? We looked at a variety of mezuzah cases, and your kiddos had a lot to say about them! Check it out.  First we talked about mezuzot in general. What are they, and what do we notice about the piece inside?  It’s for the door.  It’s a mezuzah!  It…

What is a soul? What do we do with it? What makes us who we are?  We are looking at the part of V’havta that talks about loving God with all of our hearts, our souls, and our power, and we are unpacking what all of that really means. Check out what your soulful kiddos had to say!  What’s a soul?  I don’t…

What is love? Is it a choice, or something that just happens, or maybe a bit of both? What does it mean to do something with all of our hearts? This week, we are looking at the first line of V’havta, and we are unpacking what it means to be commanded to love. Take a look and see what your kiddos…

Why is it so hard to say “I’m sorry”? What makes a good apology? Should we apologize when we don’t mean it? This week the Erev kids (grades 3-5) took a look at the Jonah story and talked it out! In the story, God tells Jonah to warn the city of Ninveh that God is going to destroy them because they were wicked.  Jonah doesn’t want to, he runs away, things…

Tekiyaaaa! That’s the sound of a shofar, a special horn that we blow in the weeks leading up to and during the High Holidays. Like the Shema, a shofar asks us to wake up and pay attention.  We started off snacktime learning each day this week by blowing the shofar. Then we unpacked what the shofar is asking us to pay attention to:   Everything   Reading the torah   The rabbi  What about ourselves…

Hey you! Shema! Listen up! Did we get your attention? Good! This week we have been talking about listening: how we do it, why we do it, and the factors that make listening a challenge at times. We did all this exploring in the context of the first line of Shema, a central piece of Jewish prayer. Every year at…

What’s new at Makom Community?  We have doubled the size of our space, the number of bean bag chairs, and the glitter supply. The erev kiddos (grades 3-5) are enjoying their own space for snacktime learning and shulchanot avodah (project centers) up on the third floor. The boker kids (grades pre-K-2) are settling in downstairs. Towards the end of our…

Do you remember all of the amazing learning we did last year? What about all the brilliant, quotable ideas your kiddos shared? Check out this recap highlighting some of my favorite moments, and get stoked to start it all again in just over a week! Our first curriculum unit last year was about Bnei Yisrael’s (the Jewish people) experience receiving…

https://makomcommunity.org/fall2018 They’ll LOVE it.  New friends in different schools and grades.  Fresh challah every Friday!  Playful, joyful Jewish education.  A community of supportive parents for you.  Staff who loves your child and works with them individually.  Pickup from your child’s elementary school five days a week.  Camp days when school is closed for snow days, conferences, or professional development.  Family…

Local summer camps are going to wrap up well before school is back in session. We have FANTASTIC camp days planned for the third week in August. See below for all the specifics and SIGN UP TODAY! All camps are $70/day plus any additional field trip fees. Or sign up for a full week, $405 including all field trip costs. www.makomcommunity.org/camps Also, remember…

Summer is upon us! We have FANTASTIC camp days planned for two weeks in June. See below for all the specifics and SIGN UP TODAY! All camps are $70/day plus any additional field trip fees. Or sign up for a full week, $405 including all field trip costs. www.makomcommunity.org/camps Also, remember to sign up soon to make sure your kiddos get their…

What are the big takeaways we can glean from this whirlwind unit on gender in Torah? We went back and spent a day on each of three texts to parse out what gender models those stories present. I couldn’t choose just one day’s conversation to write a post about, so you’re stuck an extra-long record of your children’s insight and…

Does God have a gender? If so, what is it? This week we reexamined three familiar texts with an eye towards what God was doing, how we would describe God in those situations, and whether those actions and descriptions seem more masculine, more feminine, or both/neither. The texts we used for this process were from the leaving Egypt story—when God…

What are things you’ve been told you should or shouldn’t do because of your gender? This week at Makom Community we used the story of Leah and Rachel marrying Yaakov to help us unpack some gender role expectations, both in Torah text and in our own lives. During shulchanot avodah (learning centers), we looked at plot points from the story…

What are things you’ve been told you should or shouldn’t do because of your gender? This week at Makom Community we used the story of Leah and Rachel marrying Yaakov to help us unpack some gender role expectations, both in Torah text and in our own lives. During shulchanot avodah (learning centers), we looked at plot points from the story…

We came into this fourth unit with a whole slew of excellent questions that our inquisitive students have been wondering about all year. Here’s a sampling:   Who’s telling the story?  Who do they think is listening?  Where are the women in the stories?  Why don’t we hear what they say, think, and feel?  How do all of these fathers, brothers, and…

Yishar koach—well done, Erev friends! I’m so excited to get to tell you all about the excellent projects our 2nd through 5th graders created to help us review the Yosef story we’ve been learning for the past few months. They are an amazing, creative bunch! Here are the four different activities they came up with. Two students worked together to…

Would you give up your favorite spot on the couch for a guest? In our text this week, all of Yosef’s brothers return to Egypt to get more food, including the youngest and new favorite Binyamin. When Yosef sees them approaching, he tells his servant to invite them over for lunch. The servant gives the brothers water to wash their…

When famine hits the whole region of Canaan, Yaakov sends 10 of his sons down to Egypt where he’s heard there is food. Little do they realize that their long-lost brother Yosef oversees distributing rations. Yosef recognizes his brothers and starts playing tricks on them. He accuses them of being spies trying to see the land in its vulnerable state….

Makom Community Teachers 2018-2019 2 Part-Time Positions ~20 hours/week Beginning May 29, 2018 OR August 15, 2018 Note: One of these positions is short-term parental leave coverage through September 2018, and the other is a school year position through June 2019.   This may be the position for you, if you meet the requirements below and you… • Want to…

At Makom Community, we pride ourselves on the ways we all take care of each other. The brit (two-way promise) that we created at the beginning of the school year exemplifies how we are all dedicated to helping everyone in our community feel safe, loved, and able to learn and grow together. We focused in on a moment in our text this week to talk a little more…

What a hilarious snow day we had! By the time it was snowing enough to be fun to play outside, the visibility wasn’t great, and the falling snow was icy. So we had a short snow walk (not quite two blocks) to check out the weather, and hunkered down inside the rest of the day. One of the major highlights…

Happy Purim! This week we practiced our commentary skills on the Purim story. Your creative and inquisitive kiddos came up with SO MANY excellent questions and inventive answers (more than twice as many as written in this post)! We are so impressed and proud. Check out your kiddos’ brilliance (and their goofy faces enjoying our Purim celebrations) below.    …