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:

1. From Laurie Bellet:

Here at Oakland Hebrew Day School we make our own water color paints from old dried out markers. Every teacher sends their dried up markers to me in the art studio. The children use needle nose pliers to open the markers and remove the wick. They put the wicks into Rubbermaid containers; I add some rubbing alcohol to brighten the colors and prevent mold. Then…we use the empty marker casing to make a mezzuzah. The children wrap the marker tube to a craft stick with masking tape. Then they paint or decoupage it to make a mezzuzah.

We also use glass from shattered automobile windshields to make fantastic mosaics. Paint a piece of mat board (discarded from a framing store) with a bright design or collage colorful papers onto the mat board. Apply tacky glue to a small part of the art piece and place the glass onto the glue (which dries clear).

2. From Dale Cooperman

I tend to advocate for “doing art” with young children, not arts and crafts. Here’s what we are actually in the midst of right now. This ongoing project incorporates several concepts, including the recycle, reuse, reduce, math, science and art – and uses only components that are either recycled or recyclable.

One of our youth groups has begun a social action project and has placed recycling bins in all of our preschool classrooms, so we are having ongoing discussions about recycling and its importance.

The actual project began with what children “know” about art. We moved from Matisse-like sketches and the understanding of some kinds of art being 2 dimensional.
We’ve introduced “sculpture” as being 3 dimensional. And so, with styrofoam and other components brought from their home recycling bins, we are in the midst of creating what are turning out to be fabulously and brightly colored sculptures that will hang in our hallways.

3. From Carol Starin

Timing is everything. Just yesterday I read about JTA’s Eco Jews: Trends and Traditions in Jewish Environmentalism, a special section at JTA.org. Go to the website and read all the wonderful ideas. I was particularly interest in the story about about “Sustainable Dave.”

Dave Chameides, an environmental educator, said:

I realized that the only way to really evaluate my waste footprint was to stop. Stop throwing things “away” and start looking at what I was actually leaving behind. I figured recycling, while better than trashing something, still uses resources, energy and creates waste, so I decided to stop recycling as well. Essentially I took a pledge to keep all of my trash and recycling for one solid year and see what happened. And that’s just what I did.

What would it look like if an entire class kept all its trash & recycling for a school year? What lessons could you teach?

4. From Marian Gorman:

Recycle your questions. Honor your teachers by listening to their answers. Make a bulletin board, featuring those answers, and ask your teachers and your students and your parents to continue to contribute. Who knows where it will lead? This week, I asked my teachers, “Do you have any good recycling ideas?” Other good questions are:
What happened in your class today that made you grin? What’s something that you used once or twice and meant to use again, but didn’t?

5. From Linda Kirsch:

We have places recycling bins located in several places in our school hallways. One of the parent of our alternative family school Bayit To Bayit has connected with Second Harvest. Her family collects all of our recyclables and the money they collect is donated to Second Harvest which in turn, helps them stock their shelves and feed the hungry in our county.

Our teachers do art projects using old magazines and newspapers. Recently for a special Shabbat morning experience, the students studied the Shema and V’ahavta and then, using old magazines and newspapers, designed a page showing what the prayer means to them. They presented their art to the adults of our Torah Study group.

In the past, we might have purchased special art paper when we did painting projects. Now, we re-use old flyers and assorted printer paper and newspaper for those projects.

6. From Adrian Durlester

Recycling comes naturally to Jews. Consider that we’ve been recycling the same basic core text (Torah) for at least a few thousand years. True, we’ve done a little marginal note scribbling, amplification, enhancing, etc. over the years, yet, when it gets right down to it, we just keep recycling the same text over and over each year. Unlike the storied piece of cloth that keeps getting made into smaller and smaller objects, recycling the Torah doesn’t seem to shrink it at all-if anything, it grows each time it is turned anew. How is this amazing feat possible? Each of us may have our own answer. Whatever that answer is, find ways to apply it in your work, your classroom, your school. Consider this-there are many teachers, both novice and veteran, who shudder at the thought of re-using a lesson, lesson plan, project, etc. again. No class is ever the same as the one before is their creed. Make it new, fresh, and let it challenge you as a teacher. There are as many, both novice and veteran, who will reuse lessons and lesson plans over and over-recycling them, in effect. If it works, use it again, is their creed. For them, the challenge as a teacher is to reuse the materials without their coming off stale. Still others strike a healthy balance, recycling lessons, lesson plans, and projects in alternate years or other cycles that work best in their setting. The Rambam would be proud of them for their ability to find that middle ground. Their challenge is finding that balance.

As you think of ways to recycle, reuse and renew, consider how intrinsic the very concept is to Judaism with our annual cycle of Torah reading. When the task seems too difficult, remember how you last found a way to read/hear/understand the words of Torah yet again. When the task seems too easy, remember how you last found yourself at a loss to find a new or different understanding of the words of Torah as they cycled around again. When the task seems just right…don’t worry, something will come along to create a challenge. Now, when your challenges begin recycling, you have truly earned the title of sage.

Judy Kaskel will be greatly missed. Her memory will always be a blessing.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord’s doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. (Psalm 118:2-23)

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.

“Do you have a project for_______?”
The simple answer to this question is “Yes, I do.” No matter how the questioner fills in the blank space, I do have a project that fits the bill. Actually, when I have difficulty coming up with something easily, I realize that I wrote a book and, happily, the activities in The Reluctant Artist are adaptable to many content areas. It is rare, though, that I give a straightforward answer to the “project” question. Generally I respond, frustratingly enough, with a different question: “What is it you want to teach?” The art experience, the “project,” is the learning activity to reinforce the ‘big idea’ of the lesson. A teacher must always identify what learning a student should ideally take away from the classroom before determining the activity or project(s) that will meaningfully accomplish the task. This summer, at CAJE 33 in Vermont, I will be giving a session that will give you enough tools to never have to ask the “project” question again!

“How do you get your ideas?”
When I first began generating ideas for learning activities, I was studying every general education teaching guide I could find. If the subject was phonics, I substituted Hebrew. I discovered that Social Studies activities translated well to Judaic Studies and Literature to Tanakh. I did the same with classroom decorating resources. Now, it seems that I get ideas everywhere I go. I look around at daily life and consider how to create it Jewishly. I listen to what my students are discussing. I look at what they wear; how they adorn their backpacks and show interest in their recreational pursuits. If I want my students to love what they learn, I have to learn what they love!

“Where do you shop?”
For my big art supply orders, I look first to Nasco (www.eNasco.com). I place a large order with which to begin the year and plan to stock up again in January. I am always seeking new surfaces for my students to use as an ‘alternative canvas,’ something other than paper on which to paint, write or decorate. I find the best selection for this type of product at Oriental Trading Company. I buy silk fabric products and fabric paints and dyes from Dharma Trading Company (www.DharmaTrading.com). For specific, Jewishly themed stencils and wood shapes, I look towards www.tjssc.com. One of my favorite shopping spots is a local warehouse type store called Smart and Final. This is where I buy paper plates for paint palettes, French fry holders to hold 3-D student work ‘in progress,’ small cups for glue, ketchup squeeze bottles to dispense paints and any other products that strike me as being convenient for art or classroom functioning. Conveniently, I can now look to Torah Aura for Crayola supplies and Judaic foam shapes. I have a handout available, detailing each vendor I use frequently. I always enjoy directing shoppers to their desired products and I am very quick to answer reader requests for resources.

“How do you balance process and product?”
The process/product equation is a delicate one. I believe that a product, without substantial learning content is just a ‘thing,’ and is easily forgettable. Likewise, an activity process that results only in a messy, confused outcome is quickly discarded. Generally, my students do not engage in art experiences that have only one correct finishing point. I offer materials, suggestions, alternatives and opportunities. At the conclusion of an art activity, especially one that is purely process driven, my students each write an “artist statement.” These statements encapsulate how a student approached the activity; the statements explain how and why choices were made; they describe significant learning the student experienced and demonstrated in the activity. My youngest students either write their own statements, confident that spelling is not my area of concern or, they dictate their statements.

“Does your administration support the arts?”
Absolutely! When I began my current position, my Director was very clear that he wanted to see the art curriculum grow and flourish. I am given a good deal of freedom in developing my program at Oakland Hebrew Day School. I maintain the confidence of my administrators by carefully researching established wisdom in arts education. When I introduce a new program component, I begin with a small sampling of students and am scrupulous about quality control. I document student efforts with photos, artist statements and update my Director with written reports of my attempts, rationale and results, whether successful or not.

Do you have questions. Send them in! You can email tapbb@torahaura.com or leave your questions in the comments section below.

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.

But, for middle schoolers, whose sincere attention can be difficult to capture, utilizing collaborative art as the means to enduring learning can be an unforgettable adventure. I first began doing this, several years ago, when a school director asked me to teach about rescuers and resistance, the theme of that year’s community Yom HaShoah commemoration. I gave the students the theme, some general historical information, and many resource books, articles and pictures. They quickly decided to research one individual or organization each and represent their area of study, visually, on a large cloth banner. I was amazed by how thoroughly each student learned their own subject and how actively they taught one another and shared the process as the work progressed.

In our studio at Oakland Hebrew Day School, it has become tradition that my middle school art elective class will undertake a Shoah-based art installation each year. The piece always debuts at the community commemoration and then occupies permanent space at school. Two years ago, our Director of Judaic Studies, asked the students to create a piece that would demand that each viewer identify personally with individuals affected by the Shoah. The outcome was a magnificent, student created sculpture, that reflects viewers who study photographs wrapped around a large sculpted head. My student artists used their lunch periods to ensure that they placed photographs of family members near one another and that the experience of each Shoah victim was memorialized and shared. Even the mirrors that flank the piece were imbued with symbolism, a timeline of a shattered era progressing to a time of wholeness. Significant art learning is made concrete in the form of an artist’s statement. With collaborative work, I meet with the group and we verbally process the experience, together, before documenting it.

Last year, my students determined the theme and engineered the project entirely themselves, using me as a supportive facilitator. What follows is their artists’ statement that accompanies their mural. As you read this and enjoy a photograph of the work, consider how your students can also truly learn about an aspect of the Shoah through art:

Bearing Witness Over Time

The Responsibility of “Bearing Witness.”
We recognize that we are a unique generation. We are the last generation to have the opportunity to learn about the Shoah directly from individuals who experienced it. For some of us, this knowledge has come from our grandparents, aunts and uncles. Others of us have gained insight from speakers who have visited us at Oakland Hebrew Day School. We feel it is our responsibility now, and in the future, to “bear witness” for those who can no longer do so for themselves.

Bearing witness involves more than recounting details and facts. To truly “bear witness,” involves making an experience visible, tangible and emotionally compelling.

The Responsibility of the Artist
As artists we bear a different burden than a typical historian. When we work, we bring our creativity and emotional being to the endeavor. We bring human perspectives to the raw facts. Through our art, we each reveal an individual perspective and focus while, at the same time, allowing onlookers to layer our work with their viewpoints.

Art carries perpetual value. Years from now, spectators will be able to interpret the emotional content of our work as well as the factual data of the history it represents. We have used enduring symbols that have universal meaning. To understand our work does not require lengthy study. It does, however, implore you to return to it, to view its many aspects, to focus on its different regions, to re-examine the potential of what we have expressed and shared.

As 7th and 8th graders, we will soon be moving on from Oakland Hebrew Day School. Yet, we will leave this impact on the students, teachers and visitors who witness our work in future years.

The Art Problem
We were given the task of creating art-work that described the Shoah through the vision of a witness, as if, however tangentially, we too are survivors. Early on we recognized that bearing witness requires our eyes, our mouths, our hands, souls and hearts, language we invoke daily when we pray the v’ahavtah. The scope of this realization carried great significance for us, causing each of us to connect, personally and profoundly, with the task.

The Process
Our research took us through historical accounts and photographs, art of post-Shoah American artists, and the art created in the Theresienstadt Ghetto.

Printmaking was selected as the medium we would all use because it demands bold symbolism and a lot of physical interaction with the materials and the creation itself. Some of us traced our own hands into the work, imprinting our own selves even further into the subject. We were surprised to see, at the end, that we had each included eyes in our work.

After our preliminary sketches were completed, we drew our images onto printing linoleum and carved the designs. We printed with black and metallic inks and had a wide color selection of papers. We each completed an “edition” of 6 prints. We were responsible for personally selecting the print to be incorporated into the final piece. These final choices were made on the basis of ink quality, and contrast with the background paper.

The Outcome
For most of this project, we each worked as individual artists and it was unclear how our pieces would weave together for a communal outcome. As a group, we determined that black would give the greatest drama to our background. The prints were then mounted against a background of World War 2 photos. Just as the photos create a background for our prints, the war was the background for the Shoah. Done in black and white, the events in the photos have an almost blurred, fading effect. This represents how memories fade after a prolonged time period. In contrast, consider the bold colors of our work, demonstrating that witness accounts of the Shoah must always stand forth.

As your eyes travel over the landscape of this piece, please take in the clock-works that mark the passage of time. Do take your time as you absorb the gaze of the eyes in each print. Look carefully at the position of each hand. Is that hand shielding, pushing back, or declaring? Reflect upon how the elements of fear and entrapment have been expressed in a variety of ways. We each offer you our concept of sadness, terror and the integrity of the individual through unimaginable, horrific circumstances. We invite you to add your perspective and power to the experience.

April 16, 2007
Oakland Hebrew Day School

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:

First lets start not by going beyond Seder plates, but by making really beautiful (and really usable!) Seder plates. I have ways to make lovely Seder plates, there are 2 different processes described in The Reluctant Artist. To facilitate turning a plain glass plate into an object of Pesach kedushah, I recommend using the Seder symbol stickers from www.tjssc.com (formerly Benny’s).

Place the stickers on a doily that fits the bottom of the plate. Lightly coat the bottom of the plate with Mod Podge and lay the stickered doily, upside down, on the bottom side of the plate. When the Mod Podge dries clear, the symbols show through the glass. The remainder of the bottom of the plate should be covered with pieces of tissue paper, adhered with Mod Podge. An overall coat of Mod Podge, smoothed around the edges and the bottom surface, finishes the plate. When the Mod Podge dries, I recommend having students sponge a coat of metallic silver or gold paint to cover any empty spots and further harden the under surface.

Going beyond the Seder plate means that you can also go beyond the Seder itself for ideas. Some teachers have told me that their younger students are still processing the Purim characters when Pesach learning comes around and, these teachers considered, introducing the Pesach characters would be confusing. I disagree. Young children have a fine hold of what is called “pre-symbolism” in their art. That is to say that a drawn flower one day, is a sun the next and a dog the next. Children engaged in fantasy play are able to play several characters at one given time! Young boys, enthralled with the villain and hero scenarios of Purim are thrilled to continue the drama with new players (Oriental Trading Company sells blank tunics and headwear for easy costuming). Little girls, swept up in the crowns and jewels of Queen Esther’s palace wardrobe are eager to take on their new roles swaddling a doll in a basket (purchase foam doll shapes to wrap from www.makingfriends.com, use a box and raffia to create a basket and set it on a painted river) or dancing with a timbrel. (You can get blank tambourines — ready for decorating — here.)

If you are teaching in a community where your students are likely to observe Pesach dietary laws, consider decorating plain potholders (www.handsonfun.com) or dishtowels with symbolism and vocabulary. Using Crayola fabric markers makes this a simple, beautiful classroom activity. Advise parents to iron the fabric or toss it in a hot dryer to render the color permanent for laundering. A sturdy Chinet paper plate, cut in half, decorated and combined with a quill becomes a chametz sweeper and, if you teach young children, they will lose no time in sweeping your classroom.

Older students respond well to studying the theme of reclining which leads directly to the hardships of slavery. Using imagery from the Haggadah, or individual creativity, students can decorate pillow covers to used, not only on the Seder nights but as a decorative reminder year round. I generally purchase the silk pillow covers from www.DharmaTrading.com. I prefer to purchase the ones labeled “closed” because they are pre-sewn with a zipper. After sketching a design on construction paper, the student artist places it into the pillow cover and traces it with the Crayola Fabric Markers (these markers layer over one another for an even wide color palette) onto the silk. If you have more experience with silk painting, you can purchase paints and dyes from Dharma Trading as well. Since it is zippered, this pillow cover can also serve as a terrific matzah bag.

All areas of curriculum can be translated onto a placemat. The order of the Seder, plagues, the theme of 4’s can be simply and beautifully drawn on a piece of construction paper. Once laminated, that ordinary placemat becomes learning for years to come. Although widely used, markers render an image flat and result in dried lines and white spaces. Crayons abound in colors and offer students a medium with which they can play with texture in their drawings. My students prefer to use Crayola Construction Paper Crayons because they provide true color on any color paper and they are much cleaner than oil pastels. If you prefer a more elegant look, you can buy plain, scallop edged placemats (to use instead of construction paper) from a restaurant supply store or www.foodservicedirect.com. Blank canvas placemats are available from www.handsonfun.com and are receptive to the Caryola Fabric Markers.

Would you like your students to write their own Haggadot? Steer clear of photocopying from any template and empower your students to illustrate or author their own. You can purchase blank books of any size from www.BareBooks.com. Some students like making graphic books; others write poetry; others might prefer to collage. In any given classroom the students can create a variety of Haggadot with unique elegance. If you would like to introduce illuminated Haggadot, you can offer students metallic paints and tiny brushes with which to light up the most important elements of their texts.

Whatever you teach, and however you create, be sure to take photos. I would love to see them!Joel GrishaverJoel GrishaverJoel GrishaverJoel GrishaverJoel GrishaverJoel GrishaverJoel GrishaverJoel GrishaverJoel Grishaver

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.

My stools are painted with ordinary acrylic paint and coated with Mod Podge. I added the biographical details with black Sharpie marker. The paint has not dulled over time and I am able to sponge them clean.

This same effect and the resulting benefits can be yours, even if you cannot put paint on your chairs. For seats that you cannot paint directly, you can decorate ordinary pieces of construction paper and adhere them to the seats with clear contact paper. It is critical that your designs or pictures be clear and that your penmanship be even and easy to read.

Although I am working with backless stools, you are more likely to be working with chairs. The back of a chair can be decorated on both sides. If painting the wood or metal is not an option, consider using a bag that slips over the back. You can purchase blank, canvas bags from Oriental Trading Company, Lakeshore Learning Stores or DharmaTrading.com. You can, if you like, cut off the handles. However, if you keep the handles intact, the bags can be stored on clothes hangers when not in use. You do not need elaborate supplies, just acrylic paint. (Tempera paint would work but is not washable.) Crayola fabric markers also will work for both your design and written information.

What if you are unable to paint anything recognizable? Do not worry. You can use photographs or pictures cut from magazines or books. Tacky Glue will stick these to fabric well. Given how entertaining this activity is, I imagine you would find it a simple task to encourage a parent, who needs volunteer hours, to accomplish this for you.

Do not put a lot of information on the chair, only a few key points. This technique is potentially effective with Hebrew vocabulary, identifying key elements in parshiyot, biographies, Israeli geography and tefilla. It is designed to foster interest and pique curiosity, not to be a complete learning tool. You will be amazed by student engagement when you, in the course of a frontal lesson, ask which student is sitting on, or leaning back against, (fill in the blank).

The next time you walk into your classroom, view it through a totally new lens. Seriously consider the untapped potential of those ordinary, uninviting chairs.

With a bit of inspiration, good information and bright colors, your students will soon be learning ‘by the seat of their pants’ as well!

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.

At school, my students have the time and space to mix plaster and mold individual masks. This technique is not practical for a weekend experience so, I purchased 5 inch, designer mask forms from Nasco which retail for a reasonable $15.15 for a dozen, miniature, full face, blank, masks. This mask (which I consider to be an alternative, blank, canvas) takes a variety of art media well, so I knew it would be a wonderful activity for artists of all ages and abilities. Nevertheless, I was unprepared for the first triumph of the conference weekend, to be completed by a woman who, after precisely decorating two masks, glued them to a box (emptied of paints), she had wrapped in fabric. She added a variety of embellishments from my selection and left the room with a new centerpiece for her Purim table!

The most surprising mask outcome had no relationship whatsoever with Purim. A middle school boy, as part of Camp Limmud, was in the Art Studio to illustrate mitzvot the group had been studying. This young man had undertaken ‘visiting the sick.’ Using the mask to represent a hospital patient, he applied soft tones of acrylic paints to create a sickly pallor, drew details with Sharpie pens and added his crowning touch…tiny bits of green, self stick foam dots to represent some kind of dreadful pox. It was stunning and brilliant.

The graggers we used came from Benny’s Educational Materials which cost slightly over one dollar apiece. Not only were these popular amongst the children, who used them to make puppets, to show off newly mixed paint colors, to cover with collaged treasures and to demonstrate favorite drawing skills, but they were also popular among the grandparents who designed personalized graggers as souvenir gifts to take home to their grandchildren!

Regardless of the season, I always make certain to have plenty of large, hemmed, silk squares with which to paint or dye challah covers. Before too long, the studio was draped in splendid silk paintings. The true surprise, though, came from a participant who, as she held her finished product for all to see, declared that hers was to be an “Esther scarf.” She explained that, during the Megillah reading, she intended to wave her new masterpiece, high in the air, whenever Esther’s name was read! Why have I never thought of that?

There is a definite security in knowing that you have a project that will result in a successful student product but, in carrying out standard, class wide projects, you might be cheating your pupils, and yourself, out of the learning excitement that is generated when each student devises a unique creation from an array of supplies.

Purim is coming! Gather yourself a collection of sequins and foam shapes, fabrics and paints, masks and other decorate-able surfaces and let your students design the learning. Consider yourself to be the host of a sumptuous banquet of art extravagance and learning. Interview your student artists or encourage them to write artist statements and share the unique student successes for your entire community to enjoy!

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.

Our bookshelf, turned dollhouse, became a Jewish doll-home, not by virtue of the candlesticks, but as a result of the collaboration of many students, of every age, who invested their hearts in the effort. Creating this doll-home fostered a culture of discussion, of consideration, of compromise and of respect.

Children’s play generates learning that no worksheet can match. Roofing the house led to lessons on what the Torah teaches about safety (constructing a parapet around your roof), stuffing tiny sofa cushions involved thought of ways we offer comfort. The addition of a bathroom on the top floor was a reminder of our daily blessings. One afternoon, a 2nd grader painted a parking lot on the bottom floor and, before I knew it, we had a blue space with an innovated wheelchair icon, along with lessons about what the Torah means by the words ‘stumbling block.’

Perhaps the sweetest lesson of our Jewish doll-home is the one that speaks to the future. I was a privileged eavesdropper on a conversation, between a 4th grader and some younger students, who questioned the type of paint they should be using on the “bedroom” walls. The 4th grade ‘teacher’ explained patiently that permanent paint was not needed. “You see,” she said. “When we are older, like in middle school, younger kids will want to design this house their own way. They will see what we have done, and they will add to it and decorate over it.” I do not think that Honi himself could have taught a better lesson while planting his carob tree.

Our art studio has many toys. We have tent blocks for Avraham, Sarah and their visitors. Children manipulate the Sarah and Avraham block figures, conducting numerous conversations with their angelic visitors, practicing their Hebrew vocabulary and reenacting their parshiyot learning. The Beit haMikdash blocks are favorites. Sometimes they team up with the Sarah and Avraham blocks. The blocks are never reconstructed according to the boxed instructions. Our blocks are arranged, as needed, to complement the day’s storyline. What sacred task might be engaging our wooden Kohanim figures? My older students clamor to tell me, showing me their innovation, grabbing the classroom Chumash to validate their scenario.

With Purim on the horizon, my puppets will come out. Soon, student hands will wear Queen Esther, King Ahasueros, Haman and Mordecai, with voices reenacting the Megillah. This kind of puppet play will precede and invigorate students’ own Purim puppet creations, masks to be created to explore the emotions in the Megillah and paintings of Shushan with their collaborating artist statements.

I would like to invite you to begin your Spring, holiday, teaching with play. Build, act and imagine your way through the learning. Allow students to lead you to the hands-on experiences that will solidify and imprint the important lessons. I challenge you to set aside your anticipated class sets of crafts. Endow your students with the responsibility, and the honor, of guiding you to the art adventures through which each individual child will blossom in their knowledge!

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.).

Every school director/principal I have ever met has a strict rule about report card writing. Parents are never to first learn anything negative, about their child, in the report card. This means that, when a child has a classroom problem, the teacher must either work to remedy the situation or telephone the parents. The telephone route has always been loathsome to me, because telephoning a parent, to report student misbehavior, opens a teacher to a parent’s reactive criticism. Knowing that report cards are looming, causes me to examine a student challenge closely, and act to change the dynamic or, at least, to find a positive glimmer to report on. It is worth teacher energy, to move beyond the catch phrase, ‘when positively focused…’ and actually find something, anything that ‘positively focuses’ that student. At the other end of the student spectrum is the ‘delight to teach.’ A teacher in a synagogue school can go through an entire year without ever actually speaking to a parent about a child’s virtues. A quality assessment demands that a teacher explore, specifically, why a certain child is a ‘positive addition to any classroom.’

When I taught in a once weekly, evening teen program, I could expect, in October, to receive an e-mail reminding all faculty members that, if we did not know every student by name, we should make certain to do so, very soon. It seemed to me, as I looked into that abyss of adolescent faces each Wednesday night, that those teenage students looked astoundingly alike. To not let on that I had yet to learn student names, I would ask another student (likely one whose name I did know) to take attendance, so I could start class. The good news was that my attendance was always filed. The bad news was that this was yet another reason I failed to learn which name attached to which face. In order to avoid the comment, ‘……is an avid listener and an astute observer…’ I really did have to learn the names of my students.

When writing evaluations, a teacher has the opportunity to reflect on the bigger questions, notable in the course of the classroom experience. Although it might feel satisfying to report that a class is on chapter 32, in the history of the Jews, from Abram to the present, it is far more rewarding, to document how an individual student can relate an historical event to a present situation; how a student can problem-solve, Jewishly; how a student connects, as a unique individual, to the greater Jewish community.

Supplemental school directors and teachers lament the lack of interest they perceive in the parents of their students. The phenomenon of the ‘Drive-thru Parent’ is the subject of endless conversations. Yet, how could we possibly consider that not issuing report cards would, in any way, heighten parent support of our programs. Well written assessments validate, for parents, the significance of our programs. “Look,” we can attest. “This is why you are investing in your child’s Jewish life.” Without a periodic, written account, the synagogue teacher risks being seen, as a quality, Jewish, child-care provider. Written accountability adds to the professionalism of the supplemental teacher.

Most importantly, I believe, is that assessment writing causes, or should cause, a teacher to reflect on his/her performance and potential for growth. Somewhere, a long time ago, I read the obvious, “The only thing you can change about your class is yourself.” Writing the report card narrative provides a teacher with an observation point in the cycle of the year. What is going well? How can I take it to the next level of significance? Where am I feeling dissatisfied? Is there a way to alleviate my frustration and offer my students a more compelling experience?

Pick any one of the above. I believe that your report cards (progress notes, assessments, evaluations…) are, most assuredly, worth your time and energy, if you take the initiative, and the outlook, to make it so.

I almost forgot – December was the birth month of important artists of Jewish heritage. Helen Frankenthaler, Ad Reinhardt and Raphael Soyer were all born in December.

Our January artists are – Jack Levine, Alfred Stieglitz and Barnett Newman.

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.

Traditionally, in pre-Shoah Eastern Europe, fabric from the clothing that swaddled an infant at his brit-milah, was made into a wimple: a Torah binder. The wimple next wrapped the Torah at the child’s consecration and at his Bar Mitzvah, and was included in the fabric to make the wedding chuppah. Almost extinguished during the Shoah, the tradition of the wimple has been revived in contemporary Jewish culture. Now, we make wimples for both boys and girls. Sometimes the wimple is still made from the swaddling cloth. More commonly now, the baby is swaddled in the wimple itself.

My favorite way to make a community wimple is to begin with a long (66” – 72”) piece of silk, or polyester blend, a foot or so, wide. I usually find a shape that pleases me (recently a Magen David or a dove) and stencil it repeatedly onto the fabric so that there will be enough spaces for each child to paint one area. Before giving the wimple to the children, I outline each stenciled area with a fairly thick line of acrylic, fabric paint. Each student can select an area to paint. I give them fabric dye (Dyna-Flow by Jacquard), which they apply with brushes or droppers. I ensure the look of the wimple by offering a carefully selected palette of colors that blend well together (warm: reds, yellows and oranges; or cool: blues, purples and greens). Despite the ‘resist’ outlines, the dye is likely to escape its boundaries and using colors in the same families prevents a muddy look.

Alternatively, children can use Crayola fabric markers (currently on sale if you click and order now). If you want them to bleed, for a dyed look, you can brush over them with a broad wash of water. Either way, save a large swatch of your fabric for you, and the students, to practice on. You can get textured effects by sprinkling ice cream salt on the wet color. (For an example of a finished wimple, scroll to the bottom.)

If you prefer not to use silk, take a look back a few weeks at my column that described the ‘bikkur cholim’ quilt. You can use the same technique, giving each student a fabric square and Crayola fabric markers, and iron them onto a lighter piece of fabric for the wimple base. Remember to always be certain to cap these markers securely for a long marker life.

As you progress through your Circle of Jewish Life curriculum, students can create beautiful siddur covers for consecration, a yad, onto which you can tie a fringe, for Torah reading (check out the materials offered by Dreidelmaker), squares to put together to make a chuppah for school events and a yahrzeit candle cup to remember loved ones who have died.

As always, if you need more ideas, let me know! Also, share your own ideas by commenting below.

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.

Now, I am not at all suggesting that students should be left to do whatever they please without accountability. No, what I am recommending is, that a teacher carefully consider what elements are important for students to know, what materials they could find inspiring and how the teacher can evaluate what a student has actually learned.

Around Hanukkah, when students come to our school art studio, they find their typical supplies (paints, crayons, assorted papers) as well as Hanukkah self-stick foam shapes, a variety of colorful foils, old greeting cards, holiday themed wood shapes and festive ribbons and yarns. It is up to each student to utilize the materials in a personally meaningful way. It is up to me to link their effort or product to the understanding I want them to demonstrate.

Sometimes a student will make it easy for me. One day last week, a fourth grader was working on a paper-cut design. When finally finished, this youngster, who used to be a frustrated perfectionist, showed me her outcome – a menorah with 3 candles on one side and 4 on the other. Rather than being distressed over her error, she eagerly explained to me that one side of the menorah was for Hanukkah, the other side represented a 7 branched menorah. There was no doubt in my mind about her knowledge! Likewise, a kindergartener had completed a collage of a hanukkiyah. This hanukkiyah featured an overabundance of candles. How easy it would have been for me to correct, or should I say “squelch” this child’s learning opportunity. Yet, this child, too, made assessment a joyous task. She brought me her art and told me, straightforwardly, that her hanukkiyah had 4 too many candles, but that it was just fine! Her statement demonstrated her learning and I could only agree, commenting, “We can all enjoy extra light!”

I must caution that, despite how simple it may sound, teaching in this fashion does not entail less teacher effort. In fact, it requires more. Instead of taking an hour or so to cut shapes or prepare stencils, teaching “in the moment” demands more background study and requires a teacher to take time to truly consider children’s work. It requires that a teacher ‘check-in’ with every student as they work, to make connections between the activity and the expected learning outcomes. It requires that each student write, dictate, or tape record an ‘artist statement’ to document the artist’s motivation, inspiration or retrospective.

Hanukkah came upon us so quickly this school year. I know that, for some teachers, the holiday crept up without enough time for elaborate planning. When this happens, you can be sure that other holidays will follow suit. As you continue through this school year, rather than spending too much time on tedious material preparation for a class set of projects, think carefully of the learning you hope to stimulate. Determine what special art materials you can add to your standard stock to bring that education from dream to reality. Endow students with the responsibility to create their own outcome for understanding. Honor independent efforts by sitting for a few minutes with every student, listening to what each hopes to demonstrate through art or craft. You can type up the artist statements to display or to send home. Indulge yourself in this kind of authentic, valuable teaching experience. You are too talented an educator to spend your energy cutting out 30 identical dreidels, or anything, shapes!