The enthusiasm for Ivrit (Hebrew) learning over this past week has been so high that we decided to keep our Shulchanot Avodah (learning centers) available through Friday. Our students could not get enough of letter identifying, vocabulary learning, trope singing, and text translation. It helped to have a little extra motivation in the form of a Bingo board. Every time a kiddo completed a task at a Shulchan Avodah, we marked off a spot on their board. When they got five marks in a row, they earned something extra from our snack bin. Here are some stories of the hard work and learning your brilliant kiddos put in for the sake of a spoonful of marshmallow fluff.
At one Shulchan Avodah this week, our Boker (pre-K—1) students practiced identifying and singing along with the 2 trope we’ve been learning during Tefilah (prayer, music, and movement). The text of one of the prayers we do comes from the Torah, where trope symbols tell us what notes to sing. Our learners listened repeatedly to a recording of the prayer. Then they made hand motions for etnachta and sof pasuk (the most important trope symbols) every time they heard the corresponding notes. Two weeks ago, these trope and their names were entirely unfamiliar to most of our Boker students. Now, though, every one of them knows how to sing an etnachta and a sof pasuk.
Our Erev (2—5) students had an even bigger trope challenge in order to complete squares on their bingo board. They used an app on our iPad called Pocket Torah to practice not just the 2 trope we’re focusing on in Tefilah, but as many families of trope as possible. There are 12 different trope families on the app, each one containing between 4 and 8 combinations of trope within the family. Some of our students sat and practiced with this app tirelessly until they could sing all 12 trope families! That’s some really impressive work and dedication! We’re looking forward to carrying all these Ivrit skills with us into the new curriculum unit we begin next week.
