Monthly Archives: September 2022

Cooking is a creative outlet for children. Why? Because the kitchen is the hub of the household, nurturing takes place there, many of the best conversations happen there, and creativity abounds there. 

So writes Tina Wasserman, award-winning cooking instructor and best-selling author of Entrée to Judaism for Families.

We're sharing with you two free Rosh Hashanah recipes from Entrée to Judaism for Families that are both easy to prepare and delicious for the entire family to enjoy.

Quick Honey Cake

¾ cup warm coffee (or ¾ cup water with 1 teaspoon instant espresso)

¼ cup

Explore how to use How It's Made: Torah Scroll to complement High Holidays learning. 

There's a new crop of monster-ific new storybooks from Apples & Honey Press featuring kids and creatures learning to navigate family relationships.

 NEW!

How to Be a Mensch by A. Monster

It's a new school year, and a new season of staff development opportunities.

Consider the following:

• What changes do you want to bring to your setting?
• How will you know whether your staff has the skills to actually do things differently?
• How will you help them identify and develop the new skills they might need?

If we want to teach differently, we need to make sure we and our staff have a way to identify, articulate, and then develop the new skills that will help everyone grow professionally and become reflective practitioners.

Rubrics are one tool to help us do that. Rubrics can articulate the specific skills that help teachers excel in areas such as content knowledge, classroom management, inclusive focus, family communication, work with madrichim, community building, and collaboration with colleagues. A rubric not only sets out standards to assess progress, it also

Rosh Hashanah Interview

Educator Batsheva Frankel devotes an entire chapter of her essential Jewish Educator’s Companion to experiential education for formal educational settings. Here’s one idea for an experience, based on the idea that Rosh Hashanah is like a year-end review between an employee and the boss.  Have students prepare for their reviews, filling out a self-reflection form (create a template) about their strengths and weaknesses, areas in which they’d like to improve, and accomplishments from the past year.  Children can dress up nicely—to impress their employer—adding to the drama. They meet with one of the boss’s assistants (a great way to incorporate older students or teens) to review the form and together make a concrete plan of action for success in the coming year. Place

Think you know the stories of Abraham and Sarah and Eve and Moses?

The Bible only tells us part of their stories.

Imagine seeing the full picture. Maybe we’d discover that Adam and Eve were challenging the rules, growing up, or that Noah felt fearful and angry, desperate for any kind of hope. 

Or maybe we’d find out that Moses felt dread at being asked to lead the Israelites

Maybe these iconic figures of the Bible were people just like us, filled with fear and joy, jealousy and passion, mischief and love. 

Maybe It Happened this Way, by Rabbi Leah Berkowitz and Erica Wovsaniker, is a modern take on Bible stories, with relatable characters; not earnest and reverent, but not transgressive either.

It also helps students understand the difference between the biblical text and the Jewish concept of midrash - stories created to add new layers to our understanding of the Bible.

“With this book,

Looking for a new way to introduce Rosh Hashanah to young children? Two new stories add to our collection of storybooks that will get them smiling, laughing, and making connections to the holiday and their Jewish world.  

NEW!

Miriam and the Sasquatch

By Eric A. Kimmel
Illustrated by Tamara Anegon

Ages 4-7

Join Miriam as she seeks to solve her sasquatch dilemma, and in the process learns that our initial impressions of others may be a bit mistaken.

NEW!