Parshat Vayishlach - Names

The theme for this week was names. It turns out that this was also the best idea I could come up with for this parsha seven years ago.

I had the opportunity to try out the topic with some Bar Mitzvah aged kids and adults at the beginning of the week. We read and discussed the 6 verses of Jacob's encounter with the man/angel and his name change from Jacob to Israel. We focused on the Biblical question מה שמך? which is a pretty good topic for pre-Bar Mitzvah kids since they need to think about what name will be used when they are called up to the Torah and they generally like talking about their name, nicknames, parents' names, etc.

With the little kids, the conversation was much shorter though they also liked to share about the meanings of their names. But, as usual, they were pretty anxious to just get to the project!

This is one of those generic "pinterest projects" that are really good for any time. I had done a similar project at home with my own kids last year so I knew that it would probably work. The fancy name for the technique is "tape resistant art."

Of course, doing a project with four kids is not the same as doing it with 25 kids. So, I tried to come as prepared as possible (I pre-taped all of their names, used sponges instead of brushes so I didn't have to deal with water, etc). Of course, I also had an example for them to follow. With my first group, I decided to use the project as an opportunity to talk about "warm" and "cool" colors. I made the students choose which set of colors they would use (thinking that this was a brilliant way on my part to limit the amount of paint distributed and also ensure that the bulletin board display would look really cool).

Well, my vision and the reality didn't exactly line up (which seems to be the case in most of my life...) There are many factors to balance when planning and executing the lesson: their experience, my experience, their final product, the combined final product, learning techniques vs. experimenting creatively, etc etc. Some lessons will favor some factors more than others...

I can't show too many photos here because most of the photos I have are with kids faces holding up their name signs (its great to help me finally learn all of their names! How do teachers ever learn so many names!!!!) But, here are some of the final results:

In my next group, I gave up on the warm and cool colors idea and allowed them to use whatever colors they wanted which made for much more colorful results.

Ok, now I need to think about Joseph's multi-colored coat....

SHABBAT SHALOM!