Birkat Chaverim
We made decorated pencils to break in the idea of going back to school. Decorating Pencils is a great multi-age craft for the beginning of the school year.We made these pencils with children ages 3 through 8. It was also popular with a 14 year old so I would say it would work across grade levels overall. It would make a great Bar/Bat Mitzvah craft, espe ...
Since it is Yom Yerushalayim, I thought I would take the opportunity to mention that we have Kotel bencher covers and matching digital cupcake wrappers available in the shop. Take a look and let us know what you think. Feel free to look at some of the other designs as well. Enjoy!
The Torah Stitch by Stitch project is not strictly a project geared towards children, however it is one that children can participate in, and would be an interesting project for a group as a bar/bat mitzvah project. Created by artist, Temma Gentles, it is intended for people who want to experience "the purpose, rigor, and spirit of producing the holy te ...
Remember the American Guild of Judaic Art’s Mentor Program I posted about a while back? Today we have a guest post from Flora Rosefsky, a mentor in the program. I've long admired Flora's work so I'm excited to have her perspective in the Mitzvot Unplugged series. Her work is fun and vibrant, as you can see from the works included in this post. Fl ...
In honor of Character Counts Week, here is a guest post by Laurie Rappeport about the Irena Sendler Project that both is an example of the piller of citizenship as well as an example of the type of project bnai mitzvah could do. In the Jewish World celebrating Bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs often involves encouraging a young person to accept a new res ...
Here are some resources for Zeved Habat/Simchat Bat welcoming a baby girl. This is by no means extensive so feel free to add ideas in comments. Thanks to my friend Rosemary Eshel who shared resources when I was looking for ideas of what to do for our daughter quite a while ago. In the end we did a siyum. We learned Makot and did a celebratory meal or ...
Character Counts Week begins October 20th. Building character is something we tend to agonize about in our family (are we modeling appropriate behaviours? do our kids understand our values and have they internalized them? are they being mentchen when we are not around? are they interacting with their friends in appropriate manners? are we putting them i ...
As part of Mitzvot Unplugged we'd like to welcome Anne Gordon to talk about girls and Talmud Torah or teaching Torah to girls. Said the veteran principal and trainer of teachers: "Kids don't want to learn." Said I to myself, "No, kids don't know that they want to learn." Tell Me Why Try walking down the block with a toddler. Even assuming the chi ...
We are happy to welcome artist Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik as part of the Mitzvot Unplugged Series. Isaac uses innovative materials in his paper-cuts (I encourage you to take a look at them.) He will be talking about the workshops (which he teaches to students young and old.) 1. How do you relay Jewish values in a creative way? Relaying ...
We are happy to have gerontologist, Rakel Berenbaum, as part of our Mitzvot Unplugged series, writing about a creative program which both teaches the value of Chesed and of valuing our elders. "It is very fulfilling to give. When you give, you get something too." Meira, Bat Mitzvah program participant Melabev Beit Shemesh has created two unique pr ...