Happy Hanukkah from the 6th and 7th grade class!
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we brought in the holiday of Hanukkah with festive singing with the Rabbi and Cantor, as well as with lighting the Hanukkah candles. We also participated in a school-wide project to create Hanukkah centerpieces. learning about the meaning of the letters on the Hanukkah dreidel, and decorating centerpieces with these letters.
We also continued our social justice B'nai Telem curriculum, further exploring our current unit: inclusion.
To begin, we discussed the framework that we're approaching each unit. For each unit, we start by exploring the topic itself, then exploring what the topic means to each of us, leading to exploring Judaism's perspective on the topic. Once we have an understanding of the unit, we then participate in a hands-on service project to physically do something to further this cause, and then reflect on the unit and the project as a whole.
Throughout this week's lesson, we discussed how this lesson fits in to the greater theme and framework of our class. Particularly, we moved into further discussing this topic of inclusion in Judaism. We studied a prayer called "Asher Yatzar", which discusses being thankful for bodies functioning the way they need in order for us to live. We discussed times that we might not have been able to function the way we may have hoped, such as when we break a bone, and talked about ways we may have adapted to not let this inhibit us. Though this prayer is typically said after using the restroom, we studied the meaning behind this prayer, understanding how it is applicable to our daily lives.
In future classes, this will lead into a greater conversation about the ways that Judaism allows for similar types of inclusion.
Finally, we divided the class in half as the 6th grades continued their Trope lessons with Cantor Ken, and the 7th graders discussed their own Hanukkah practices and played trivia about Hanukkah.
Wishing you a wonderful Hanukkah and holiday season, and looking forward to continuing the celebration as a class next week.
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