37 results for tag: Children K-8

Earth Etude for Elul 12- Growing Teshuva

by Maxine Lyons I am often looking for ways to connect to teshuvah even during the leisurely days of summer. Teshuvah for me is turning to those thoughts and actions that help me to become my better self, following those practices that nourish my growth to know peace - shalom - and to reach greater wholeness - sh'lemut. As I pursue personal growth, I resonate to the Hebrew word, hitpatchut, growth through an openness and receptivity to change.This summer I have focused on ways to practice with greater compassion in how I spend my time and focus my energy as I take on these goals.   Flowers in full bloom remind me of the beautyand ...

Earth Etude for Elul 10- Topsy Turvy Bus

by Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein   The world seems a little topsy turvy these days. A plane missing. 223 girls kidnapped in Nigeria. 3 teen agers kidnapped and murdered in Israel. A plane shot out of the sky. Israel in Gaza. Rockets in Israel. Too many children killed in the streets of Chicago. Too many deaths. When does it stop?   In the Fox River Valley, Illinois, after a punishing winter of epic proportions, it is nice to be outside. Six congregations, part of the nascent Prairie Jewish Coalition, sponsored the Topsy Turvy bus.   What is a topsy turvy bus? It is a school bus, bright yellow, with half of another school ...

Earth Etude for Elul 9 – A Cry in the Night: My Decision not to Consume Dairy

by Diana G.   A memory: Our newborn is up again. I turn to the clock. It’s 4:25 am. Less than three hours since she last awoke. My husband and I are exhausted, and we lie quietly for a few moments, willing our daughter back to sleep. But her cries are persistent. Who knows if she’s hungry, cold, or simply distressed and looking for comfort?   Regardless, we’ve reached our “give-her-a-moment” limit; there’s only so long one can ignore an infant baby’s cries. My husband grabs for his glasses, makes his way to the nursery, and returns with our loosely swaddled howling bundle. He lays her beside me and her whimpers ...

Outdoor High Holiday Services with Ma’yan Tikvah

    Outdoor High Holiday Services with Ma’yan Tikvah – A Wellspring of Hope   Rosh HaShanah Day 1, Thursday, September 25, 9:30 AM, Cedar Hill Camp 265 Beaver Street, Waltham, (accessible by MBTA bus) Click here to carpool to this service.   Rosh HaShanah Potluck Dinner and Shmita Seder, Thursday, September 25, 6:30 PM, Location TBD, in Wayland   Rosh HaShanah Day 2, Friday, September 26, 10 AM, Greenways Conservation Area, 60 Green Way, Wayland   Kol Nidre Service, Friday, October 3, 6:45 PM, Church of the Holy Spirit, 169 Rice Road, Wayland Click here to carpool to this service.   Yom ...

Get Your Hands Dirty at the Nevatim-Sprouts Conference!

Nature-Based Workshops for Educators in Jewish Preschools, Day Schools and Synagogues Reisterstown, MD – May 5, 2014 -- Pearlstone Center is holding its 4th annual Nevatim-Sprouts Conference, Sunday, July 13th through Wednesday July 16th. This professional development conference brings together early childhood, day school, and religious school educators from around the country for training in Jewish garden and environmental education. Participants learn the basics of educational garden design, share lesson plans and Jewish, environmental curricula, tour the state’s premier outdoor classrooms, harvest and prepare farm to table ...

Honoring the Vera Lieber Memorial Garden

My local Orthodox Jewish day school, the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy, has been on a green roll. It’s especially inspiring because it doesn’t seem like just one person has been pushing it. It’s more like a group of people slowly came to the same conclusion, that there should be more environmental awareness, and they have all be acting on their own to bring green consciousness to the school and the students. For all of these actions, the school was recognized this year with a Bethesda Magazine Green Award. It’s the kind of thing that makes you proud. I especially wanted to share about a recent event ...

Learning to Plant

On Sunday, I planted my first garden. We planted it in a little corner of our back yard, where we hope the sun will be strong enough and the fence will keep out the deer. It's a garden built on hope. I’m not a gardener. When I was a kid, my mother (a teacher) would keep plants on her windowsill all year long, and when they were wilting would give them to a co-worker to nurse them back to health over the summer. She would say things like “I don’t have a green thumb,” and my experience showed the same – whenever I tried to take care of a plant it died. (My mother outgrew this perspective; when she retired ...

A Great Children’s Activity for Tu b’Shevat

Although Tu b’Shevat is already over for 2013, here is a great activity we thought up on the farm that you can use for 2014! This activity is adapted from The Lookstein Center’s “Tu B’Shvat Seder for Young Children.” Make a birthday cake for trees! The activity involves making a large batch of air-dry salt clay in several different colors: brown, green, red, etc. On a very large surface, make a tree shape out of the brown dough. Then, each participant can come and help to make the leaves and fruits to add to the tree, to show how it grows in spring. When the tree is done “growing,” you can add ...

Pearlstone Center: Connecting Judaism and Agriculture

On November 11th, 2012 Pearlstone was blessed with the opportunity to host a group of 3rd-6th grade religious school students from Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, MD. Our experienced and engaging staff led a program including education on sustainable farming techniques as well as a deeper understanding of Jewish spirituality and how it connects with the environment. Temple Beth Ami's Sharon Tash, Informal/Family Educator, was so pleased with our program that she took the time to write us these kind words, "I want to thank you again for the wonderful and engaging program that you brought to our students yesterday. We were extremely impressed with the ...

Seeds Of Peace: Botanical Gardens To Connect Jews And Arabs

Seeds Of Peace: Botanical Gardens To Connect Jews And Arabs By Hanna Szekeres The Botanical Gardens in Jerusalem, Israel is a 30-acre oasis where you can see, smell and even taste over 10,000 species of flowers from around the world. But the educational department of the gardens also focuses on another type of seed: “the seeds of peace.” Five years ago the department started a project called “Coexistence” that brings together nine- to 11-year-olds from the city’s Jewish and Muslim schools and teaches them about the production of spices, olive oil and herbal remedies in the gardens. The project consists ...

There’s Light.

We love this time of year. The opportunity to share special moments with family, lighting candles, eating latkes, and sharing special community celebrations. As we come together to celebrate happy moments, Chanukah is a great time to share Torah learning and to remember to be mindful of our energy actions. Chanukah reminds us that even when things may seem dark, there's light. To share the light this year, Canfei Nesharim's website features the following resources: • The Miracle of the Vessels, a Torah teaching to learn with your family and community, with source sheet and discussion questions. &b...

All we need is love

The kids are here. 183 screaming, excited and overly energetic 2nd-8th graders, and they are ready to change the world. Rather, we want them to be ready, but, is it reasonable for adults to expect these campers to make significant social change from our camp bubble in upstate New York? Is it fair of us to ask them to attempt this mission that my generation and the generations before have failed at? I am not sure, but I do know that we can and must expect a higher level of compassion and caring this summer. Yesterday, while staking the pepper plants growing in our garden, I for the first time, started to understand Rav Soloveitchik’s ...

The world is sprouting at Camp Sprout Lake

It has been three days of hard work, blisters, and buckets of sweat, but it is almost time to sprout, literally. Next week, the campers of Young Judea Sprout Lake in upstate New York will arrive. For this eight-week summer, I have one goal in mind, to make clear the intimate connection our tradition has with the earth. As staff has slowly trickled in from across Israel, Canada and the United States, I am impressed by the continual excitement when they meet “the Garden Guy”. The desire to dig, plant and labor is ever present. I believe this spirit is driven by the idea of A.D. Gordon, a leader of labor Zionism, who coined the ...

If a tree could grow in Brooklyn

Monday, May 9, 2011 If a tree can grow in Brooklyn If a tree could grow in Brooklyn, certainly a garden could grow in a New York school yard.Returning to the kindergarden, the Green Bubbie was thrilled to see the progress of the seeds she had planted with the children. They were eager and curious how a garden could grow in their playground. We built a "raised bed" a 3x3 foot wooden ' box' used lanscape fabric on the bottom and filled it with gardening soil. We planted the peas and zuchinni which we had grown from seeds and some additional lettuce and flower seedings. The children loved learning how ...

Announcing the Winners!

Thanks to the more than 11,000 people who voted for the winners of the Environment Art Contest, sponsored by BabagaNewz.com and Jewcology.com. Check out the finalists at http://babaganewz.com/envirocontest. And the winners are... For BEST PRINT ENTRY (with 4,345 votes): Adi Gloger Myrtle Beach, SC 6th grade Chabad Academy For BEST MULTIMEDIA ENTRY (with 664 votes): Allison Schachtel Essex Fells, NJ 4th grade Congregation Agudath Israel Religious School All finalists will receive a water-powered alarm clock. Grand-prize winners Adi and Allison will receive, in addition, a backpack with a solar ...

Help us choose a winner!

Announcing the finalists in the Environment Art Contest sponsored by BabagaNewz and Jewcology! BabagaNewz.com teamed up with Jewcology.com to spread the word about Jewish environmentalism. We asked students in grades 3-8 to create print or multimedia artwork based on a relevant Jewish text about preserving the environment. See the finalists in each category--print and multimedia--at http://babaganewz.com/envirocontest. Vote for your favorite in each category by May 23, 2011 and help us determine the grand-prize winners. Finalists will each receive a water-powered alarm clock. Two grand prize winners, chosen by community voting from ...

Environment Art Contest

BabagaNewz.com is teaming up with Jewcology.com to spread the word about Jewish environmentalism. Teach your students what Judaism has to say about preserving our environment using the lesson plan provided, then have students create artwork—print or multimedia—based on a relevant Jewish text of their choice. (See www.babaganewz.com/envirocontest for a list of appropriate Jewish texts.) Your students could: · See their artwork featured on BabagaNewz.com · Receive a water-powered alarm clock if they’re one of ten finalists · Receive a solar backpack if they’re ...