[HANASHIR:16489] RE: Early Childhood Developmentally Appropriate Practice

[Joel Shickman <mishpucha...>]

I love this response!  I have two young sons who LOVE the Dinosaur 
Shabbat song (they learned it at our JCC preschool) and I wouldn't dream 
of making them unlearn it, BUT . . .

There are more songs from our past than we will ever fully learn and 
there are so many great modern classics added constantly that no one 
could complain of a lack of repertoire.  The key is learning where our 
resources are.  This is a great forum for such resources as are numerous 
websites as well as conferences and hopefully, just about any Jew in 
your community can probably come up with a song that they remember and 
love that is new to us.

If you wanna stick with the Dinosaur song because it teaches with a 
smile and your tots learn about Shabbat and it fills you up with warm 
fuzzies to sing it, GREAT.  For me, I can't get Barney, Jurassic Park 
and other secular images out of my mind.  In shul, I'd rather keep the 
imagery to Jewish themes.

As for a Shabbat song with candles, wine & challah, I can't believe that 
no one has suggested Ellen & Peter Allard's 'We Sing Shabbat'.  I've 
taught two-year-olds to sing some of it in our service so I know it works!

Anyway, all of this was an excuse to respond to Rahel thusly:

Rahel, the only substitutions for a dinosaur that I can think of are 
these :-)

There's a carnivore knockin' at my door. . .   ( I dunno, too scary??)

There's a great big boar knockin' at my door. . .  (works great in 
print, but . . . )

b'shalom,
Joel Shickman



rahel wrote:

> At 02:28 PM 1/7/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> I'm just curious - does the objection to dinosaurs have anything to 
>> do with problems with evolution? I have a friend who is orthodox (and 
>> a scientist), who says he doesn't believe dinosaurs ever existed.
>
>
>
> Shalom - I have nothing personally against dinosaurs - nor have I too 
> many problems with using them in general to teach. I am mostly 
> disturbed because it seems that the general consensus (and I speak in 
> general terms here) seems to be to go along with mainstream SECULAR 
> teaching ideas, methods, and even context. I feel that each time I 
> respond to various discussions on this list, I am responding to the 
> same thing - there seems to be some kind of feeling of resistance to 
> using our very own and very rich well of Jewish (traditional) 
> resources that is so easily and readily available to us as (song) 
> leaders and as lay people. We have the Torah. What better source to 
> use when teaching? Why throw a dinosaur into the picture when we could 
> use anyone of the animals from Noah's ark - and thus even spur more 
> interest in the whole Torah portion and story about Noah and the ark? 
> Teachers could even start up some kind of discussion, or game, or 
> competition - whatever - to encourage the children themselves to 
> choose which animal would be the mascot teacher! Imagine the fun 
> everyone could have making up a game revolving around the Noah story 
> to choose the animal best suited for teaching other Torah/Jewish 
> concepts! My mind is already going wild just thinking up ideas.
>
> I don't see the point of using a dinosaur - or any other Barney-like, 
> or Disney-like figure when we've got a story like Noah so rich with 
> animals. I'm sure if you would dleve even deeper you would probably 
> find animals listed there that you'd never heard of. I know I did once 
> when, in my Bnei Mitzvah class, we randomly chose to look at the Book 
> of Mitzvot (the 613!) and fell upon the laws of Kashrut - where it was 
> listed every kind of bird we could or could not eat. We soon found 
> ourselves questioning the types of birds listed - many we had no idea 
> existed and even had to look them up elsewhere! Imagine choosing one 
> of those odd kinds of birds to teach the rest of the class.
>
> I simply feel very strongly that we, as songleaders, need to be more 
> committed to our Jewish roots and sources, rather than "sell out" by 
> using general mainstream material.
>
> Rahel
>
>>  
>> -Amy
>>
>>         ----- Original Message ----- 
>>         From: rahel <mailto:rahel (at) empire(dot)net> 
>>         To: hanashir (at) shamash(dot)org <mailto:hanashir (at) 
>> shamash(dot)org> 
>>         Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2004 2:24 AM 
>>         Subject: [HANASHIR:16430] RE: Early Childhood Developmentally
>>         Appropriate Practice
>>
>>         Shalom Everyone, 
>>         I've been following the Dinosaur/Tot Shabbat sting with
>>         minimal interest. I am of the camp that feels dinosaur's
>>         don't belong in Jewish education - simply because we have
>>         such rich resources - why follow the lead of the mainstream?
>>         We ought to be more creative with what we already have!
>>
>>         Anyway, that's not what I wanted to comment on. I wanted to
>>         add to this:
>>
>>         At 09:30 PM 1/6/2004 -0900, you wrote:
>>
>>>             ....children have much longer attention spans than we
>>>             think. The old "20 minutes at time is all they can focus
>>>             on" is out, which I think is what the 15 - 30 minute Tot
>>>             Shabbat is based on. I could certainly sustain a longer
>>>             service for the little ones, now that 
>>>             I've got a "real" service going, rather than a prettied
>>>             up story time (thanks to you all!). 
>>
>>         Children love to sing, dance, move, hear stories, play
>>         instruments.... Children are interested in anything for a
>>         long time if YOU are interested. I have the job of leading a
>>         45-minute long service class to ALL the kids (aged from
>>         kindergarten to 7th grade) in our synagogue on Sundays. This
>>         class happens after they have already attended one class for
>>         an hour on a sleepy Sunday morning. The kids are tired and
>>         hungry and certainly not interested in sitting for another
>>         hour praying. HOWEVER, this they do. For the most part we
>>         conduct the same service as they will attend with adults on a
>>         regular Shabbat weekend. We do this so that the kids who do
>>         not attend services on Shabbat will learn what they are
>>         missing! I do not do any special antics to rouse their
>>         interest. However, there is a lot of singing - simply because
>>         the service has a lot of singing. I play the guitar -
>>         although this year I have used it less because the kids know
>>         the songs fairly well already and I want them to sing more. I
>>         have students lead the service - Bnei Mitzvah students get a
>>         chance to practice. I also have volunteers (kids of all ages)
>>         read different passages. Sometimes I stop and ask them -
>>         "what the heck does this passage mean????". They love this
>>         because they get to tell me what it's all about. And they're
>>         really very smart. I also found out that they are really
>>         listening - better than me! - and really know what's going
>>         on. Even if the reading is very dry and boring. Lately we've
>>         had a group of kids doing a little dramatization of the
>>         weekly Parsha. They get organized that same day with my
>>         colleague. He gives them their parts and they simply read the
>>         text. Some of them get into it and have a great time. Others
>>         simply read their lines in monotone. But somehow it all seems
>>         to be having a great effect. This week one 2nd grader told me
>>         he came to Sunday school just to see what was going to happen
>>         to Joseph in Egypt!
>>
>>         I think the key to the success of running the same old
>>         "boring dry service" at Sunday school is three-fold:
>>
>>         1. I love the service. I love what I'm doing. I'm
>>         enthusiastic and animated and am having fun. I am setting the
>>         tone with my enthusiasm and love of what I am doing. So they
>>         love this dry boring service now too.
>>
>>         2. I'm pretty strict about giving the service its due
>>         respect. When kids are chatting, I simply ask them to
>>         separate and sit apart. I don't punish or scold - I simply
>>         call out the child's name and tell them where they need to
>>         sit. It's a matter of course and never interrupts the flow of
>>         the service. I also tell the kids that when the Ark is opened
>>         and we are praying it's a serious business and we need to
>>         conduct ourselves with respect. And they are fine with this.
>>         I'm serious and respectful of the Torah, or our prayers etc.
>>         and so are they. WOW - how serious they are about remembering
>>         loved ones who have died, and about sending healing to the
>>         ill. WOW!
>>
>>         3. KIDS are conducting the service. They are involved. They
>>         are leading. I'm simply listening. I have learned that kids
>>         listen better to each other. So I get out of their way as
>>         much as possible. I simply facilitate. They do the drama.
>>         They lead the prayers. They get very serious when their peers
>>         are the ones in control. And I LOVE it when they lead.
>>
>>         20-minutes for all of the above is way too short. 45-minutes
>>         is just right.
>>
>>         Rahel
>>