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
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