One week after IJP’s Summer Camp began, the school's senior campers (aka KD/KG) were called to circle time and found their teacher holding what seemed to be a blanket, a small booklet, some tubes full of liquid, a credit card, a beach ball and a card with pictures on it.
With so many curious minds and confident voices in the room,
it only took a few seconds for students’ questions to start buzzing around the room.
“What is that? What is this? What does this do? ” some asked
as they reached for the objects on the tray.
“I’m going to use these items, and some pictures,
to tell you about an adventure I went on,” Morah Lindley said.
“Let’s start from the beginning.
I just visited a country called ‘Tunisia,’
does anyone in the class know where that is on the Earth?”
At this question, a few students stood up and started to
make their way to the wall in the room that holds the class map.
“Wait, friends!
I have something else we can use to find out where Tunisia is,” said Morah
as she passed around what looked like a beach ball, but was actually a globe.
“Is it bigger than Israel?” Liav asked as he searched the globe for the tiny country.
After a few minutes, and a little teamwork,
each member of the class could identify the country's location on the map.
“I found it!” Ziv called as he proudly pointed to Tunisia on the globe.
“I want to find it!” Ben said with excitement. I have found it once and I will find it again!”
As students passed around the globe-ball,
Morah shared more objects from her journey.
“Is this a credit card?” asked Liav as he picked up the MARTA Breeze Pass.
“That’s a passport!” Ami said, as he pointed to the small booklet.
When Morah showed the class a view from the airplane, Sam commented,
\“Woah, it looks like a blob of clouds.”
Before Morah could show any more pictures,
the class expressed that they were eager to know
just WHAT exactly was inside of those bottles!
Morah explained that inside of the bottles was oil made from
plants, like cactus, flowers, and dates.
The oils are fragranced, which means they smell,
and the oil is held in this little bottle because the smell is very strong --
a person doesn’t need a lot to smell good.
One by one, the students smell-tested each oil.
“I like the flower one,” said Gaia as she
gleefully rubbed a sample onto her arm to smell later on.
Next, Morah showed us another map. This map was an island that
no one in the circle had ever seen before.
“What do you see?” she asked.
After a few moments, Gaia said, “a Jewish star!” and pointed to the middle.
Excited, soon other voices exclaimed statements like, “I see it, I see it!” and “I wanna see!”
That’s right -- that Jewish star that Gaia pointed out marks a shul!
Morah Lindley shared that she visited and had photos to share.
This is where the blanket-looking thing, actually a Tunisian scarf, came into play.
Morah Lindley explained that she had to wear a head covering
and take off her shoes before entering this shul.
Friends in the class passed around the scarf and tried it on for fun.
When Morah shared pictures from inside of the shul, the class gasped with oohs and aahs.
“It’s blue!” someone said. “I see a Torah!” said someone else.
“I see Hebrew letters!” declared Riva as she focused her eyes on the picture.
After the class viewed all the pictures and touched all of the artifacts,
the conversation shifted from Tunisia to places that friends in the class have visited.
Friends in the class had been to places like... New York, California,
Israel, Tennessee, France, Florida, Kansas City, and more.
"Kitah Hay, do you want travel to more places?" Morah asked in closing.
"YES!!" the class replied in unison.
From this circle time discussion, we learned that the world
is a big place and it's fun to talk about the many different places we have been!
It is even more fun to go to new places, meet new people, and see new things.
The campers in KG/KH sure have the curiosity and bravery makes for life-long world travelers.
To continue this conversation with your students, we ask parents...
How many places have you been and where are they on the map?
Have you visited any Jewish heritage sites? Which ones?
Is there a trip that you took that taught you an important lesson?
No comments:
Post a Comment