On Tuesday, kiddos joined up for a delightful and energetic day of camp at both Center City and South Philly Locations. Kiddos in Center City started with some games, sang the “Moose Song,” and took advantage of the dry morning weather to gather leaves from Rittenhouse Square for a leaf rubbing activity. Kids then chose between a yarn craft and…
Makom Community News & Blog
Makom Community News & Blog
Filter by Category:
How Can We Keep Ourselves & Others Safe?
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…
Olam Haba: Creating The World We Want To See
What does it mean to create our collective future (olam habah)? This week when diving into good choices and personal responsibility we considered what it means to create our best future. We thought about what we want the future to look like, and how we could approach working toward that future. As we sat around the yard at Makom students…
Special School’s Out Camps for Perelman Jewish Day School Families!
We are excited to offer camp days that align with the PJDS calendar again this year. Join us for PJDS camp! Camp will run from 8:30am-4:00pm in South Philadelphia and include many opportunities for hands-on learning, making, and exploring! Click here to enroll in PJDS camp. We will have our snacks and lunch outdoors. Please send your child warm layers….
December’s Magical Book Week Schools Out Camp Details!
Enchantment Ahead with School’s Out Camp “Magical Book Week” this Winter Break… What’s more engaging than a good book? How about a whole week of Makom School’s Out Camp with dozens of activities, taking inspiration from our learners’ favorite books, authors, and series! We will offer a full week of camp December 27-31. In addition, we will be offering…
BMitzvah Update!
This was an exciting week- we finished reading all of Vayishlach, keep growing our Hebrew Word Wall, and have begun preparing for our Torah service on 11/18. Also, so many students have mastered the first tefilah they chose to work on this year! In the last section of Vayishlach, learners reflected on some important ideas and questions: Yaakov got the…
Al Shlosha Devarim & Fun With Murals!
“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…
Acting with Love Even When We Don’t Feel Love
In Makom @ Home, we are continuing to explore loving our neighbors. We also thought about who our neighbors are and who strangers are and how we show love to each of them. One text we read from Vayikra 19:17 says: “Don’t hate your sibling in your heart. Correct your family member, but don’t do something you’ll regret. Do not…
Gemilut Chasadim & Alef-Bet Explorations
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…
Community, Judgement, and Communication
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…
When Are We Truly Connected?
As we gathered outside for snack time learning this week, there was a sense of familiarity. The kiddos are getting comfortable with our routines and each other. This week students led each other through the expectations that we have collectively built. I asked: “during snack time learning, how many voices should we hear at a time?” The kiddos all held…
November 11th School’s Out Camp Details
On Thursday, November 11, when all schools are closed for Veterans Day, we will again have camp from 8:30am-4:00pm. We have a full day of teambuilding, crafting, reading, critical thinking, and lots of fun! We will think about people who have protected and helped their neighbors and communities at different points in history and the many ways that people do…
BMitzvah October Update!
We are two weeks into our first Rosh Pinah project about all things tefilah (prayer). After our exploration of tefillah gear, we have been learning about the various opinions about when communal prayer began, diving into ancient and rabbinic Jewish history. We talked about what Jewish communal worship looked like during the time of the Temples about the early…
Community and Holiness
Makom @ Home started off our Fall session exploring what community means and what is holiness. We read a text from Leviticus about Bnei Yisrael (the Jewish People) being a community and being holy because God is holy. We started off our questions thinking about who is part of the Bnei Yisrael community while they were wandering in the desert…
Is Two Truly Better Than One?
This week, we looked at the Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 text, “Two are better than one… for should they fall, one can raise the other; but oh no! for the one who is alone and falls with no companion to raise them!” Garinim started off our learning on Tuesday with a trust fall activity. Kiddos had the opportunity to fall with a…
Welcoming Warm and Fuzzy Feelings!
Another beautiful week at Makom has come and gone. As we worked through themes of companionship, helping, and the mitzvah (commandment) of the essential Jewish prayer, Shema. I observed so many moments of growth and learning this week. During snack time learning, we tested out our peace walk. Learners have been creating this resource to support problem-solving with agency when…
November 2nd School’s Out Camp Details
Just coming off of our first “School’s Out” camp day last Monday, October 11th, which was full of learning, creating, and lots of fun, we are already turning attention to our next camp days! On Tuesday, November 2, when district-run schools are closed for Election Day, we will again have camp from 8:30am-4:00pm. We are excited for another day of…
Indigenous People’s Day School’s Out Camp Recap
Monday was our first School’s Out Camp of the year! After some legos, coloring, and snack, we sang a camp song (Herman the Worm), and then settled in for some discussion on Indigenous People’s Day. We saw some music and dance from Lenape People, who are indigenous to what is now Philadelphia, and compared the way they learn about celebrate…
Design Thinking: Education from a Place of Empathy
We kicked off our first Jewish Placemaking Accelerator seminar exploring how to bring empathy into our classrooms and schools. In keeping with the Makom Community’s pedagogy, we ended up applying the principles of Design Thinking to our learning spaces, and we got there through Jewish text. What is Empathy? Participants started out with brief introductions and a small get-to-know-you prompt,…
Reflections On Back-To-School Night
Getting used to kids back in school and parents working from home or the office is a huge adjustment for all our families right now! Makom Community is so glad to be a part of the support system holding your family through this transition. This week, Center City and South Philly families met with Beverly, Amanda, and Leah to hear…
Upcoming PJDS Camp Days
Join us for PJDS Camp! Camp will run from 8:30am-4:00pm at our South Philadelphia location and include many opportunities for hands-on learning, making, and exploring! Click here to enroll. Friday, December 3rd: We will be learning about the Hebrew month of Tevet with winter walks and intuitive art projects. Wednesday December 8th: We will continue exploring Tevet with collaborative making…
If I Am Not For Myself, Then Who Is For Me?
This week, our learners looked at the Pirkei Avot 1:14 text: “Rabbi Hillel used to say, If I am not for myself, who is for me?” As well as the story from Shabbat 31a:6, “Another time a non-Jew came before Shammai and said, ‘I will convert if you can teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot.’…
If Not Now…When?
With fall in the air and the High Holidays behind us, we were excited to experience this joyful five-day week with students! We explored Jewish wisdom around boundary setting, independence, communication, and the importance of treating others with kindness. I was blown away by how much these kiddos already know about themselves and their needs. During shulchanot avodah students had…
We Are All Created Betzelem Elohim, In the Image Of God
This week we celebrated Simchat Torah, a Jewish holiday where we finish reading the Torah and go all the way back to the beginning! It’s a time where we can sing, dance, and laugh, as we celebrate the Torah and new beginnings! Many kiddos have expressed that it is their favorite Jewish holiday. This week, Garinim answered big questions like:…
Support and Connection
This week as we considered how loving our neighbors shapes our relationships with ourselves, each other, and our world. Student’s displayed true examples of introspection, collaboration, and chesed (kindness). We sat together in the yard taking in the crisp fall air as we discussed different support systems. Learners talked about bridges and other physical support systems. Olivia and I made…
The Whole Torah On One Foot
Our Makom @ Home learners have been working hard and playing hard all month long! We have set out on “Textsploration” expeditions journeying through all the Fall Jewish holidays and singing songs about them too, including this one by Billy Jonas. Our last text for Simchat Torah, the holiday where we finish reading the end of the torah and start over…
BMitzvah Update!
We are getting into the swing of things in BMitzvah class! During Sukkot, we were ate snack and had Tefillah in the sukkah, incorporating shaking the lulav and etrog into Tefillah. That was super fun! In text study each day, our learners are asking rich questions and creating their own commentary. Everyone decorated a binder…
Welcoming Sukkot in Our Sukkah!
Sukkot is here! Our sukkah is up! Makom Community is ready celebrate with our neighbors and strangers! Last week, we explored the commandment to love our neighbors and this week, we unpacked it’s equally important counterpart: to love the stranger and treat them as one of our own people (Leviticus 19:33-34). The Garinim pondered questions like: Who is a stranger?…
Neighbors and Strangers in the Sukkah
This week we gathered in celebration of Sukkot and discussed pieces of the Torah related to concepts of neighbors, strangers, and welcoming. Learners shared wisdom with one another as we dug into questions which helped us unpack the relationship between ourselves and the world around us. As we sat around tables underneath the sunshine inside the Sukkah, kiddos grappled with…
Monday, October 11th School’s Out Camp
We are super excited for our first “School’s Out” camp day of the new year! On Monday, October 11, when schools are closed for Indigenous People’s Day/Columbus Day, we will have camp from 8:30-4:00, filled with crafts, music, learning, movement games, outdoor time, and lots of fun. We will weave in activities in honor of Indigenous People’s Day, and also…