JCP Downtown: Jewish Community Project

November with the Nitzanim (2nd & 3rd Grade) Teachers Maayan and Naama

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During the month of November, we began to delve into the idea of “Shalom”, peace.  We discussed the different meanings of shalom such as hello, goodbye, inner peace, and outer peace.  We practiced ways in following these idea of Shalom by doing yoga and meditation, as well as talking about how we can keep peace between ourselves, our family, our friends, and even the whole world!

We first discussed a general overview of Shalom and it’s meanings.  Each child got a piece of paper that they had to color in.  Then we put all of the 10 pieces together to form the word Shalom.  We wanted to stress the idea that Shalom only comes from teamwork and we  all play an important part of creating peace in our environment. Then we went on to discuss the sub-category of “Rodef Shalom”, chasing peace.  The students had different ideas of how we can chase peace.  Some ideas were that we can break up fights, even if we are not involved, or by trying hard to work on ourselves and acting better, we will in turn create peace around us.

This past week we’ve started talking about “Shalom Bayit”, peace within the home.  We talked about how we should act at home, and how we can create a sense of peacefulness in our house.  Many students suggested that we start treating our siblings better and being more respectful to our parents.  In order to highlight this important idea, we made challah covers to explain that Shabbat is a time that is focused on peace: we spend time with our families, and there is a harmonious environment.

The Nitzanim have been working hard at understanding these difficult concepts. We have been having discussions, reading stories, and making projects in order to fully understand these ideas of Shalom.  We are excited to start out our new unit of “Ometz Lev”, being courageous, while integrating Channukah as well! We can’t wait for the Kesher Channukah party and we look forward to the next few weeks!