We wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on some of our favorite moments from this year with all of you! Which one is your favorite? 10. Makom @ Home A 3rd grader in Makom @ Home who usually insists that she hates singing and turns her camera off during Tefilah (prayers), got very excited when we brought in some…
Makom Community News & Blog
Makom Community News & Blog
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Empathizing with Yocheved and Moshe
Makom @ Home kiddos have been writing their own commentary on the Exodus story as we read about how Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish people, originally the children of Yaakov AKA Yisrael) were enslaved in Mitzrayim (Egypt). In the early weeks of the story, one of our learners requested artsploration in addition to textsploration, so we introduced many of our texts…
Walking With God and Finding Sanctuary
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…
Communication for Success
Ever had a tough moment with a student and worried about whether or how to loop in their parents? But now think about all the fabulous moments you’ve had with students. Have you told parents about those moments either? In March, the Jewish Placemaking Accelerator participants took a hard look at parent communication – why it’s important, how to do…
Center City & South Philly’s Unit 3 Nitzanim Showcase
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…
Earth Week School’s Out Camp
Makom Community’s Spring Break Campers had an energetic, creative, and collaborative week at Spring Break Camp: “Earth Week”! Our week was full of nature-inspired crafts, scavenger hunts, and building, all with a Jewish twist. We started the week with things that grow, like flowers, trees and other plants. We broke the ice…
The Process of Creating Culture
What do we want people to associate with when they think of our schools? How do we want them to feel when they leave the building? In February, the Jewish Placemaking Accelerator participants took the starting steps toward wrangling with the current culture at their respective institutions and imagining and planning for what it could be. What five words describe…
Plagues vs. The Environment
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…
Uncovering Big Feelings in Megillat Esther & Yetziyat Mitzrayim
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…
Torah Service, Tallit Making, and Farewell!
The Torah service last week Thursday was a huge success! Yasher koach to all of our learners for reading from the Torah. And thank you parents for joining us! This was our second Torah service. Everyone was pretty relaxed and ready going into it, since this was our second time doing the complete Torah service with Torah reading this year….
The First Plague and God’s Power
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…
COVID Policy Update March 2022
Dear Makom Community Families, First of all, thank you so much for all the ways you have supported each other and all our kids through the pandemic. I am thrilled to share that our educators are 100% vaccinated and boosted, and our learners are 100% vaccinated since early January. In light of those incredible rates of vaccination, current COVID numbers,…
Jewish Placemaking in Every Class
Whether we like it or not, COVID has forced educators to think outside the traditional classroom to bring students together for community building and learning. And it’s been hard work! We opened our January Jewish Placemaking Accelerator Seminar by asking participants to brainstorm some of the challenges and opportunities presented by a variety of learning spaces: indoors, outdoors, shared, and…
South Philly’s Praiseworthy Photography Project
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….
Holy Listening and Loving
You may remember the whiteboard check-in that one of our kiddos invented a few weeks ago. It was not just a one-time thing! Other kids have brought it back and it’s now part of our regular pool of check-in options. Here is this week’s: I’m so glad we are building a community in Makom @ Home where we feel safe…
God Hears Bnei Yisrael’s Cries
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…
Along The Nile….
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…
What Is A Leader? President’s Day Camp
We had an energizing and imaginative day on Monday at President’s Day School’s Out Camp! Our focus was leadership and community care. Our creative crew of learners, new and familiar, had so much to say and think about as we learned, built, played, danced and rested together. We began by considering what a President should be like! Learners listed qualities…
Tallit Making and Trope Learning
It’s crafting time in BMitzvah! We are focused on designing and preparing for making our own tallitot in the coming weeks. Everyone has come up with their own really unique, true to themselves ideas for what kind of tallit they want- from size to colors to themes to images. It is a joy to watch their creativity at work, and…
One Crazy Time, In The Land of Egypt……
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…
Immersing In The Exodus Story
This week we continued our unit three learning exploring the Exodus story! All week I watched students absorb and embody this story through building, play, art, puppetry, dress-up, and more. It was such a joy to observe students immersing themselves in this essential story of the Jewish people, a story they know well already and are eager to expand upon….
How The Holiness Inside Ourselves Contribute To Our Communities ~ A Nitzanim Showcase
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…
The Importance of Trees and Learners Taking Charge
Makom @ Home celebrated Tu Bishvat, the birthday of the trees, with a text from the Talmud about Honi the Circlemaker. When Honi’s town had a big drought, he drew a circle and stood inside it, crying out to God that he would not leave until it rained. Spoiler: it rained! We started by sharing things we like that are…
Wrapping Up “Holy Me” and The Nitzanim Showcase!
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,…
Relationships and Praiseworthy Action
This week we reviewed our learning from unit two where we explored our inherent holiness. We revisited some of our favorite projects and conversations and continued work on some long-term projects including a community weaving, a lego wall, and personalized supports to live in the Pinat Shalom (peace corner.) Kiddos reiterated ways in which we can nurture other people. We…
Rosh Pinah Presentations!
Mazel tov (congratulations) to our whole class on their fantastic Rosh Pinah (capstone) project presentations last week! Not only am I extremely proud of how well they did, they are very proud of themselves! I am proud of myself for singing in front of people. Inside I was so nervous! I am proud of how well the coffin came out….
“I Feel God When I Wear A Tallit…”
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…
Remembering to Make Good Choices in the Pinat Shalom
This week we explored how tallitot, tzitzit, and other ritual objects empower us and act as a reminder to make good choices. Throughout the week we wrapped ourselves in tallitot, tied knots, and wove together ideas about connection. As we dove into the topic of making good choices, we looked to our own space and considered what supports we rely…
BMitzvah: How the Torah Does It
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…
Holy Makom @ Home!
Makom @ Home started off our new unit, Holy Me!, with a holiness scavenger hunt, finding objects in each of our homes that are holy to us. We found so many different colors of objects that we made a holiness rainbow! Our first text says that because God is holy, each of us is too. Knowing this, we thought about…