Let Me Count the Ways: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

In honor and in memory of Judy Kaskel.

Last year, Carol Oseran Starin retired her column of collected Jewish teaching ideas, Let Me Count the Ways. This week, she asked if she could bring the column back for a special edition in honor of Judy Kaskel. Judy was a member of Carol’s “advisory committee” who helped make the column come to life, and she was an important part of Carol’s annual “Five Things Extravaganza” at the CAJE Conference.

by Carol Oseran Starin

Who could forget Judy? For those of you who participated in our last few CAJE Extravaganzas, Judy was our star. Her commitment to recycling and her sample projects, combined with her humor and charming approach pretty much tore the house down. Her commitment to CAJE was incredible.

Judy died two weeks ago. I’ll never forget her – she was such an inspiration to me – trudging around those vast university campuses, even when breathing was difficult for her. And, from the responses to our workshop, she was an inspiration to all of us. This special column is dedicated to her.

Judy always quoted Jeremiah 15:19 as the inspiration for her commitment to reuse and recycle:

If you produce something noble, out of something worthless,
You shall be MY spokesperson.

I invited some of our “Five Things Extravaganza” colleagues to submit ideas for ways we can follow Judy’s example and continue to be God’s spokespeople.

Here are their best ideas:

Questions and Answers About Jewish Art

by Laurie Bellet

I’ve been writing this column — ideas on art projects and how to integrate quality arts education into your curriculum — for a few years now. One thing about being a Jewish arts expert is that you get lots of questions from people. This is a column of questions and answers. The questions (five of them, in true Carol Starin style!) are those I am asked most frequently:

• “Do you have a project for _____?”
• “How do you get your ideas?”
• “Where do you shop?”
• “How do you balance process and product?”
• “Does your administration support the arts?”

So, without further ado, here are the answers to my most frequently asked questions.

Shoah Art Can Be a Transformative Experience

by Laurie Bellet

With the sound of typewriter keys in the background, a group of students clustered in front of an ‘in progress’ mural, trying to determine how they will find space for the 669 luggage tags they need to incorporate. Metaphors for the rescued children they represent, it is crucial to the integrity of the work, that each tag find a suitable ‘home.’ This is the current experience of my Shoah elective class. Basing their work on the DVD “The Power of Good,” the class artists are studying the efforts of Sir Nicky Winton who, as a 29 year-old British businessman, in 1939, engineered the successful rescue of 669 Czechoslovakian, Jewish children.

Every year, I facilitate a class of middle school students who use art as the vehicle through which they study the Holocaust. Using art in this manner is a powerful learning experience. When students are younger, I prefer to use stories with an art experience as the hands on component. After reading and discussing The Butterfly by Patricia Polacco, my elementary students create butterflies decorated to demonstrate story comprehension. My older elementary students struggle to recreate the visa symbol, written by rescuer Chiune Sugihara and chronicled in the book Passage to Freedom. Combining the two themes by placing the visa symbol on a butterfly is particularly striking. Other books that provide wonderful templates for elementary Shoah art include The Lily Cupboard, Flowers on the Wall and Best Friends. Children who are students of the Shoah from a young age, are able to handle more intense work, such as recreating the artwork made by the youngsters in Theresienstadt who studied with artist Friedl Dicker-Brandeis as described in the book Fireflies in the Night.

Pesah Art That Goes Beyond the Seder Plate

by Laurie Bellet

The other day, I gave a group of early childhood teachers a wonderful way to make charoset dishes for Pesach. It involves using clay flower pots. The artist turns the pot upside down and designs the surface with tiles. Since it is upside down, the lip of the rim catches any tiles that might slip. When dry, you place a plastic drinking cup as an insert to hold the charoset so the clay mosaic, itself, never will need washing. It’s a format I have used for years, in many age ranges, and it always results in a happy ending. Nevertheless, the charoset dish was not what I was really teaching. The true lesson came before…

My puppets, so recently the residents of Shushan, were transformed into the Israelites in Egypt. As difficult it was for them, the puppets had to move bricks, one by one, to another site in the classroom while another puppet demanded that they move more quickly so that the structure they were building would get finished. Sadly, the puppets had a problem; the bricks would not stay firmly atop one another. This is where the charoset came into play.

In the classroom, following the drama and every child having a desired role (Our bricks always get moved to many construction sites!), each child receives a “building” in the form of a clay flower pot and with the tiles, or other desired mosaic materials builds a unique charoset dish.

There are so many things students can make for Pesach that it is too easy to get caught up in making the things as the goals, without a solid learning foundation for support. I am frequently asked for ideas that go beyond a Seder plate. Here are some ideas:

Have Fun with Your Stools (or Chairs)

by Laurie Bellet

The 7th grade student, scanning a book, called out to her classmates, “Is anyone sitting on Frida?” Immediately a dozen pairs of eyes examined the classroom stools. “I am” came the reply. “What do you want to know?” The subject of interest was the painter Frida Kahlo and the student was studying how her life impacted her work.

However bizarre this exchange may sound, it is actually commonplace for my students. In our art studio, every stool is painted to show a representation of work by a master artist along with important biographical bullet points. Truly, my students, whether in 1st grade or 8th grade learn ‘by the seat of their pants!’ Even parents drop by to do this kind of “research!”

When I first decorated the stools, I did it because it would be attractive and novel. I never expected that my efforts would be rewarded so soundly by an increase in student awareness, knowledge, and curiosity. I cannot explain why these decorated stools have translated into intense student learning. In fact, I cannot even say that I ever really see the kids doing anything other than sitting on them! Yet, year after year, the interest remains high.

Musings on Purim Art

by Laurie Bellet

I write this as I am flying home from my holiday weekend, spent directing the Art Studio at the first annual Limmud conference in Los Angeles. Conference art experiences always put me in a reflective state, musing on the creative endeavors of the venture and the remarkable, unexpected ways children and adults use art materials.

When I used to plan my work, project by project, I would select the activities that I knew would assure a pleasing outcome. Participants created according to my plans, knowing the expected outcome from my sample and, they would generally be reasonably satisfied when finished. I could survey 25 or so completed art pieces and content myself with a competent job. But, there was no anticipatory curiosity, no ongoing dialog or challenge and certainly no concluding thrill of discovery.

Now, I conduct conference studios as I do my school art program. I stock my temporary, art studio, homes with art essentials like paints, a variety of “canvasses,” supplies for sculpting and materials for collage and always include some irresistible items of Judaic significance. Then, I wait for my attendant artists to create the magic energy that fuels the conference art experience. I apologize that I do not have photos of our LimmudLA Art Studio triumphs but, the studio was, happily, too busy for me to play photographer! I will try to transmit the joy with my words.

Given the proximity of Purim, I stocked the LimmudLA studio with, among many other things, masks and graggers. Through the years, my students have taught me that masks provide an amazing blank canvas on which to reveal emotions, relate stories, and give dimension to characters.

Jewish Dollhouses Bring Learning Alive

by Laurie Bellet

What makes a house a Jewish home?

This question is frequently posed to children in religious school settings. What follows, generally, is a list that includes stuff like Shabbat candlesticks, a hanukkiyah, a mezuzah, a Seder plate. Usually, the longer the list, the more satisfied are the students and teacher. Yet, I would argue that these implements, used in the course of Jewish living, do not constitute the essence of a Jewish home, any more than a Star of David constitutes Jewish art.

My intuition in this regard was bolstered last week while I watched my students play in our dollhouse. Yes, our art studio has a dollhouse! No small shelf item, our dollhouse is about 3½ feet tall and catches the eye of everyone who enters the room.

The dollhouse started life as a white bookshelf with a peaked pink roof that I picked up on sale at Target. Since then, the original bookshelf has undergone a remarkable transformation. After first re-roofing, various groups of children and individuals have undertaken to paint and wallpaper rooms, fashion furniture, and give birth to doll families. Two weeks ago, the “dinner table” was set with diminutive bowls of soup and Shabbat candlesticks. A doll family was placed around the table.

Report Cards, Shmeport Shmards?

by Laurie Bellet

It is that time of year when many thoughts, and sighs, turn towards report cards. We don’t always call them report cards anymore. We might call them ‘progress notes,’ ‘assessments,’ or ‘evaluations;’ or, we might call them, just plain ‘onerous.’ If I think back several years, I used to answer a lot of questions that referred to the format of the report card and, I dedicated a few columns to writing narratives that were engaging and comments that were meaningful. The questions I receive now, about report cards, are more fundamental. The major questions today seem to be, “Are report cards a reasonable undertaking?” “Do evaluations serve any purpose when teachers, in supplemental programs, only see their students once or twice weekly?” “Is the outcome worth the burden of work?”

After much thought, and another 150 report cards written, I believe that the answer to each of those questions is, “yes!” Here for you, are my top 5 reasons to prove my case regarding the value of report cards (progress notes, assessments, evaluations, etc.).

Jewish Art Enhances Lifecycle Curriculum

by Laurie Bellet

The other day, I uncovered our family baby carriage, polished the chrome, and folded the blankets neatly within. I am going to be a Bubbe! This baby will sleep in the same pram as did her Daddy. She will be wrapped in the same blankets, lovingly crafted by her Great-Grandmother. Honoring our past, brings us love in the present.

I was surrounded by precious memories when I received a copy of Torah Aura’s new lifecycle book The Circle of Jewish Life. I opened it directly to the part about baby naming, since that is where my family currently places itself on the circle. Yet, no matter what stage of life a family is at, this book brings into focus our history, our rituals and the connection we have, to one another, through our life cycle moments.

I am always pleased, and a little perplexed, when I receive requests for learning activities to compliment life cycle curricula. Pleased, because the content area is so very rich, perplexed, for the very same reason. There are, in fact, so many experiences we can offer our students, to honor each stage of the life of a Jewish family.

This year, our school community is fortunate to have many babies, newborn, or expected shortly. When their teacher is pregnant, students rush to me, eager to make a wimple.

Loving Imperfection

by Laurie Bellet

The other afternoon, during ‘open studio’ time, I overheard a delightful conversation between two first grade girls. It went something like this:

Child 1 – “My Mom drew me such a good castle. She didn’t think it was good but I think she is a great draw-er.”
Child 2 – “Why was your Mom drawing for you? Why didn’t you just draw it yourself?”
Child 1 – “I don’t draw very well. My Mom is much better at it.”
Child 2 – “Well, you’ll never get better if you don’t practice. Besides, you are a really good builder, and if you do the drawing yourself, the picture would truly be yours.”

Child 2 had articulated what many of us, as teachers or parents, forget. Children need to actually do their own art work, however flawed it might appear, in order to own and learn from the experience.

Nowadays, there are so many ways that students can turn out “perfect products.” We have die cut shapes that are holiday specific, lovely wood or fabric kits for ritual wares and even velvet or translucent coloring activities. A dedicated teacher could also spend hours cutting proper shapes or perfect Hebrew letters. There is definitely a place for these activities and a time that the product is what you are after. But, we cannot delude ourselves into thinking that prepackaged materials offer a comprehensive learning adventure.

When children are given freedom to innovate their own art or craft activities, the learning opportunities abound.