Shalom,
We have so many things to be grateful for this season-- hope that your Thanksgiving break vacation time was wonderful! We managed to finish the Mi Chamocha diorama that takes over 4 tables (!) just before we left for the holiday break. We will be doing some writing and putting dialogue to our large diorama - which is quite impressive, if I do say so myself-- but you have to see it to believe it!
The Omanut students want to make a little video to show along side our finished piece, and we will spend a bit of time to record them as the characters that they made from clay and other mediums to show during the video montage at the end of the year during our Omanut Art Show.
We have had peaceful Nechama Yoga with Miss Kendra, fun and energizing Music time with our new weekday song leader, Eric , and well as continuing to move and groove while learning Ivrit- Hebrew Through Movement!- with the awesome duo of Tammy and Yardena.
Looking forward to Hanukkah and Bring-a-Friend Day later this month...
Keep being creative! We sure will!
B'shalom,
Heather
One of the videos that we watched from BimBam.com served as a great inspiration:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKp6y2Lpgxg
*I've attempted to upload a large series of pictures for 2+ hours now, unfortunately my computer is not cooperating! Because I want you all to be as caught up as possible, i've decided to publish this now; I will add photos of the amazing Omanut students working hard from start to finish on our diorama as soon as I can access my pictures to do so!*
Monday, November 28, 2016
Monday, November 7, 2016
Exodus Multi-media Project
Shalom!
It was a beautiful day to start working on our project centering around Exodus yesterday! During our discussion we broke up into small groups and decided who would work on which part of our large- but small scale!- representation of our ancestors escaping from Egypt after the plagues to head to the promised land of Israel through the desert. "Mi Chamocha" is a very special part of our Tefillah time and we will be incorporating that part of Torah into our piece as well.
Everyone has been listening to each other and sharing ideas for the mixed media that we will be using and, if we are able, several students want to do a video for us to share- stop motion style! If any parents are adept at stop motion effects with lego, clay and lots of paint and paper, please let me know! We'd love for you to join us when our project is complete in a couple of weeks. 😀
We watched this video yesterday about Nachshon and this should give you a little peek into what we will be doing!
Thanks so much for your support and for raising such great kids who make my days at JQuest so awesome and fulfilling as an educator! I love being their teacher!
See you soon,
Heather
Saturday, November 5, 2016
Look what we did!
Shalom, everyone!
We did it-- we put together our "Shalom" outdoor art installment this week and it was very well-received by our whole Temple Isaiah community! (Even the Gan Ilan preschool kids were curious and now want to make an outdoor piece of art themselves, which I will be working on with them soon!) In case you are more curious about the exact artwork that we focused on emulating, here is a link to Mel Alexenberg's installment, featured on his website.
http://www.melalexenberg.com/artwork.php?id=1
Here are some pictures of the end result, be on the lookout for another pop up from Omanut soon!
We have been having fun music time with Revital- here is an example of Omanut in action!
Next in our Omanut studio, we will be bringing Exodus to life, as we enter the "Torah" portion of curriculum. We talked about many ways to showcase what we have been talking about and decided that a scene based on Mi Chamocha will be a large part of our next project.
Can't wait to start working on it, and since it is fairly large and detailed, we will be concentrating that for the next couple of weeks.
Be well! Until next time,
Heather
We did it-- we put together our "Shalom" outdoor art installment this week and it was very well-received by our whole Temple Isaiah community! (Even the Gan Ilan preschool kids were curious and now want to make an outdoor piece of art themselves, which I will be working on with them soon!) In case you are more curious about the exact artwork that we focused on emulating, here is a link to Mel Alexenberg's installment, featured on his website.
http://www.melalexenberg.com/artwork.php?id=1
Here are some pictures of the end result, be on the lookout for another pop up from Omanut soon!
We have been having fun music time with Revital- here is an example of Omanut in action!
Next in our Omanut studio, we will be bringing Exodus to life, as we enter the "Torah" portion of curriculum. We talked about many ways to showcase what we have been talking about and decided that a scene based on Mi Chamocha will be a large part of our next project.
Can't wait to start working on it, and since it is fairly large and detailed, we will be concentrating that for the next couple of weeks.
Be well! Until next time,
Heather
Sunday, October 30, 2016
A surprise art installation is coming!
Shalom!
We have had a fun week in Omanut- we put up our completed projects from the High Holy days around our classroom and on our bulletin board in the hallway and since the students were so excited about a project that we talked about earlier in the semester before my absence, I decided that it would be a great team building experience for all of us to start that project now and not worry about possible rainy or yucky weather- we were going to go for it and problem solve any issue as a group!
As you know, in Omanut we learn about male and female Jewish Artists, and I switch them out every week so there is an even representation. One recent artist was Mel Alexenberg and we examined some of his eclectic work. One project that appealed to us was his installment sending painted and decorated alefbet letters/ a Hebrew message into the desert sky via weather balloons filled with helium-- and we are going to surprise our Temple Isaiah community by making our own interpretation of that work come to life this week. Be on the lookout!
Here is a link to Mel Alexenberg's work. I will be emailing Mr. Alexenberg and sending him pictures of our project once it has happened this week; he lives in Israel and is still creating! The kids (and I!) would love to have him respond, so wish me luck!
http://www.melalexenberg.com
We had extra special Yoga with Miss Kendra on Tuesday and Wednesday this week which the students really responded positively to- it was a relaxing, centering and peaceful time. Hebrew Through Movement is special to see because of everything the kids know and do that they didn't think they did! The smiles of recognition are awesome, and it is so great to see them light up when Yardena or Tammy say "Yoffi!" (Hebrew for: "Good job! Great!")
Looking forward to a wonderful November in our Omanut studio!
Be well,
Heather
We have had a fun week in Omanut- we put up our completed projects from the High Holy days around our classroom and on our bulletin board in the hallway and since the students were so excited about a project that we talked about earlier in the semester before my absence, I decided that it would be a great team building experience for all of us to start that project now and not worry about possible rainy or yucky weather- we were going to go for it and problem solve any issue as a group!
As you know, in Omanut we learn about male and female Jewish Artists, and I switch them out every week so there is an even representation. One recent artist was Mel Alexenberg and we examined some of his eclectic work. One project that appealed to us was his installment sending painted and decorated alefbet letters/ a Hebrew message into the desert sky via weather balloons filled with helium-- and we are going to surprise our Temple Isaiah community by making our own interpretation of that work come to life this week. Be on the lookout!
Here is a link to Mel Alexenberg's work. I will be emailing Mr. Alexenberg and sending him pictures of our project once it has happened this week; he lives in Israel and is still creating! The kids (and I!) would love to have him respond, so wish me luck!
http://www.melalexenberg.com
We had extra special Yoga with Miss Kendra on Tuesday and Wednesday this week which the students really responded positively to- it was a relaxing, centering and peaceful time. Hebrew Through Movement is special to see because of everything the kids know and do that they didn't think they did! The smiles of recognition are awesome, and it is so great to see them light up when Yardena or Tammy say "Yoffi!" (Hebrew for: "Good job! Great!")
Looking forward to a wonderful November in our Omanut studio!
Be well,
Heather
Here are some pictures from this week's creative process:
Monday, October 24, 2016
Fall holidays in Omanut
Shalom!
I'm back in the classroom after having surgery in September and was so very happy to see everyone for class and Simchat Torah dancing and fun last night! My Omanut students are wonderful and had done a lot of inspiring and beautiful work from the lesson plans that I had sent in during my absence. Since yesterday was spent catching up and finishing any projects that may not have been complete, we did a lot of talking about what Simchat Torah is exactly and how my last lesson connects to the holiday itself.
The class created their own Torah pictures-- and in their abstract ways, I think it was extremely successful once we started talking about what they would add or write in Torah if given the chance; The art project consisted of a heart surrounded by Torah scrolls.We know that Simchat Torah concludes with the end of the Torah, right back to starting again once it is rolled back up. The conclusion of Torah is marked with the letter Lamed from the word Yisrael. It begins again with the letter Bet in Bereshit; Connected, the lamed and bet spell Lev. It is with your heart and passion that should be put into the Torah, so I thought that this was appropriate in illustrating how special Torah is, and give the kids a lasting impression of what Simchat Torah is. We will be attaching all the pieces that were done for this project on to our bulletin board, so everyone who visits our hallways will know about the love and creativity that are put into Torah.
Here are some examples of work:
We also watched a video about Simchat Torah from Bim Bam, formerly G-dcast.com-- feel free to watch it again with your child and have a conversation about what the night meant to them.
Thank you all for your good wishes and warm welcome back!
See you soon,
Heather
I'm back in the classroom after having surgery in September and was so very happy to see everyone for class and Simchat Torah dancing and fun last night! My Omanut students are wonderful and had done a lot of inspiring and beautiful work from the lesson plans that I had sent in during my absence. Since yesterday was spent catching up and finishing any projects that may not have been complete, we did a lot of talking about what Simchat Torah is exactly and how my last lesson connects to the holiday itself.
The class created their own Torah pictures-- and in their abstract ways, I think it was extremely successful once we started talking about what they would add or write in Torah if given the chance; The art project consisted of a heart surrounded by Torah scrolls.We know that Simchat Torah concludes with the end of the Torah, right back to starting again once it is rolled back up. The conclusion of Torah is marked with the letter Lamed from the word Yisrael. It begins again with the letter Bet in Bereshit; Connected, the lamed and bet spell Lev. It is with your heart and passion that should be put into the Torah, so I thought that this was appropriate in illustrating how special Torah is, and give the kids a lasting impression of what Simchat Torah is. We will be attaching all the pieces that were done for this project on to our bulletin board, so everyone who visits our hallways will know about the love and creativity that are put into Torah.
Here are some examples of work:
We also watched a video about Simchat Torah from Bim Bam, formerly G-dcast.com-- feel free to watch it again with your child and have a conversation about what the night meant to them.
Thank you all for your good wishes and warm welcome back!
See you soon,
Heather
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Welcome to Omanut 2016-2017!
Shalom!
We are off to a great start this year in Omanut and I am so excited to see all the old and new faces in class-- we started getting to know one another and sketching about the best parts of our summer before moving into what our favorite Jewish symbol was and what makes Jewish Art and Artists "Jewish"...? Is it a style? Can anyone Jewish be a Jewish artist? Does it have to look like a specific thing?
Along with talking about something that makes us unique as people and as Jews, there was a lot of laughing, smiling, "me too!" and building our community in class. Here are a few snapshots of our time together; we are going to have such a great year!!
We are off to a great start this year in Omanut and I am so excited to see all the old and new faces in class-- we started getting to know one another and sketching about the best parts of our summer before moving into what our favorite Jewish symbol was and what makes Jewish Art and Artists "Jewish"...? Is it a style? Can anyone Jewish be a Jewish artist? Does it have to look like a specific thing?
Along with talking about something that makes us unique as people and as Jews, there was a lot of laughing, smiling, "me too!" and building our community in class. Here are a few snapshots of our time together; we are going to have such a great year!!
Our Omanut "Communi-Tree", with guidelines for class.
Our first project is about envisioning the most beautiful part of our Sanctuary and using oil pastels and pencil to bring it to life!
Our first Jewish Artist of the Week: Sonia Gechtoff. We talked about her life and work, looked at some of her pieces online and critiqued what we saw.
Until next time, everywhere you look can be an insight to your creative spirit! You just have to be open to seeing it!
B'Shalom,
Heather
Saturday, September 10, 2016
It's a new school year for Omanut!
Hi Everyone!
Shalom and welcome....
I can't wait to see you all for class and tell you all about what we will be embarking on for Omanut this year! So many different, wonderful projects that will both enhance our classroom and Temple surroundings as well as your life. I'm looking forward to meeting each of my students & their families tomorrow and since I've always loved school, it brings me a lot of joy to see the excitement on new and old faces in the hallways of JQuest and Sanctuary. I hope you'll let me know what you think of the special welcome we have planned for all of you from the entire JQuest staff! :)
See you soon,
Heather
Shalom and welcome....
I can't wait to see you all for class and tell you all about what we will be embarking on for Omanut this year! So many different, wonderful projects that will both enhance our classroom and Temple surroundings as well as your life. I'm looking forward to meeting each of my students & their families tomorrow and since I've always loved school, it brings me a lot of joy to see the excitement on new and old faces in the hallways of JQuest and Sanctuary. I hope you'll let me know what you think of the special welcome we have planned for all of you from the entire JQuest staff! :)
See you soon,
Heather
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Seeing God in yourself and others
Shalom!
Hard to believe that the Spring semester is close to winding down for all of us at JQuest! Omanut has done a great project in conjunction with Teva and Bonim, all about how we see God in each other and in ourselves as part of our curriculum. It was a wonderful experience two years ago in Omanut, and I was eager to share that with our fellow students in Teva and Bonim. To begin, we all talked about what we had learned in Genesis earlier in the year-- how Jacob, after seeing his brother after being estranged for many years, finally sees him face to face and says, "I see God in you". It is beautiful to think all the different ways in which we see God in other people as well as in ourselves and it promoted a sense of community and connection between all the 3rd and 4th graders.
Students worked on building masks in Bonim, and ultimately painting a self-portrait in Teva and Omanut. All three classes began with multiple sketches to plan, getting constructive criticism from peers and getting more in depth with their feelings surrounding how they see God in themselves through a short explanation on paper that will coincide with their finished piece.
All in all, a fun time was had by all and we enjoyed working with each other!
We continue to sing and learn about different styles of Judaic music with Maya, and move our bodies while speaking Hebrew with Tammy and Yardena in Hebrew Through Movement.
The time spent before Spring break was utilized to finish up any projects that students may have missed or needed to catch up on and we are all looking forward to Omanut's Art Show in May!
Here are some pictures of us all in action... Enjoy!
B'Shalom,
Heather
Purim!
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