We have been having a lot of fun in Omanut getting to know one another, and the school year is off to a fabulous start! We established our classroom rules, have created pieces of art based on the work of several Israeli and Jewish artists and have talked about what various Jewish symbols mean in depth.
I found a great book, "50 Jewish Artists you should know", that I have shown to the Omanut classes and we have worked on a few different short projects in small groups as well as individually, based on some of the artists we talked about so far.
We also talked about what the year will look like in terms of projects and curriculum and decided that we want to put together several 'public art installations' as part of our end of the year Omanut Art Stroll, since I showed the students the following site that made them very excited about the possibilities of what we can do around our beautiful campus- feel free to check out some of the art on the site and see what conversations can be sparked with your child!
http://israelpublicart.com/public_art/
Our final one day project that many of the students took home was a personal Tashlich project-- a water color in which they painted whatever they wanted and once it was dry, they wrote a goal for the New Year; something they were sorry for, and something they were happy about/ wished for. My advice to them was to put the water color in a sink of water and see their regrets disappear, and those good wishes to float into the universe to God. I hope they were able to translate that to you, if you wondered what they were doing!
Hebrew Through Movement and Music with Joel continue to be positive additions to our class time, and I will post pictures of the class in action soon!
All the best to you and your loved ones for a sweet, healthy, happy New Year... It is my privilege to be a part of the lives of your talented children who inspire me all the time!
L' Shanah Tovah,
Heather
