metro
Teaching Teachers
Chanukah
In A Box
Everything you need to
celebrate the holiday,
no matter what your
child's age.
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Participants in the Early Childhood Education Conference included Amy Newman,
Jewish early childhood education associate at the Alliance for Jewish Education;
Jeff Lasday, director, Federation's Alliance for Jewish Education; and keynote
speaker Enrique Feldman, president of Fostering Arts-Mind Education.
O
nce upon a time, children were
viewed as mini-adults and
education as a means of filling
them with facts. Now educators real-
ize that children and their needs are far
more complex, especially in the forma-
tive preschool years. And so the theme
of this year's Early Childhood Education
Conference for Jewish preschool direc-
tors and staff was "Educating the Whole
Child: Mind, Body & Sour
The annual conference took place Nov.
8 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak
Park, with approximately 175 educators
attending.
The Early Childhood Education
Conference gives early childhood educa-
tors an opportunity to learn different
techniques for use in their classrooms
and exchange ideas with peers and
authorities. It also gives educators the
opportunity to complete five of the 12
professional development hours required
by the state to maintain their certifica-
tion.
This year's daylong conference fea-
tured keynote speaker Enrique Feldman,
president and director of the F.A.M.E.
(Fostering Arts-Mind Education)
Foundation and author of Living Like a
Child: Learn, Live and Teach Creatively.
Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, founder and
national director of Kids Kicking Cancer
in Detroit, also spoke.
This is the first year Congregation Beth
Shalom hosted the conference.
"We're so pleased to be able to host
such a diverse group of educators at
Beth Shalom — and the children in our
Gan Shalom preschool were thrilled to
be a part of it all by creating the cen-
terpieces for tables': said Lauren Blitz,
director of early childhood education at
Congregation Beth Shalom.
Charach Gallery Hosts
'Project Runway: Detroit'
The Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit's Janice Charach
Gallery will exhibit high couture by
local fashion designers, a runway show
with dresses created by a select group of
teen girls from Detroit and the suburbs,
and more than 400 bracelets decorated
by artists throughout the world when
it hosts "Project Runway: Detroit," from
Jan. 22–March 8.
The girls' designs will be presented by
professional models at a runway show
at the gallery on Sunday, Jan. 22, at 1:30
p.m.
Following the girls' creations, lead-
ing fashion designers will present new
gowns and outfits, many using upcycled
items, on the gallery runway. The after-
noon will feature an emcee and music
from Joe Cornell Entertainment.
The Janice Charach Gallery is open
from noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m.-5
p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays, and 10
a.m.-7 p.m. Thursdays. For informa-
tion, call the gallery at (248) 432-5448,
go to www.jccdet.org or visit the Janice
Charach Gallery on Facebook.
24
December 15 . 2011
Berman Center Presents
Joseph and the Dreamcoat
The Berman Center for the Performing
Arts will present Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for
a limited number of performances
throughout January.
Presented by Sky's the Limit
Productions, Joseph is a musical retelling
of the story of Joseph and his brothers.
Dates of the performances are 7 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 12; 8 p.m. Saturday,
Jan. 14; 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15; 7 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 19; 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan.
21; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22.
Tickets are $16 each, and group dis-
counts are available for organizations.
To purchase, call (248) 661-1900 or visit
arents who haven't observed
Jewish holidays before they
have children sometimes won-
der, "What's the right age to start cel-
ebrating with my little one?"
While it's never too late to start, if you
choose celebrations that are appropriate
for the age and attention span of your
child, you can build traditions that grow
over the years — and that add immea-
surably to the joy in your home.
Let's use Chanukah as an example.
Even babies are enraptured by the sight
of candles burning brightly. So lighting
a Chanukah menorah creates a sense of
wonder that is a delight to see.
By the time children are 2, they can
choose which candles to put into the
menorah so that their "job" is to design
the pattern and colors for that night's
candle-lighting.
Three-year-olds love to be in the
kitchen. To make cookie-baking super
simple, just buy ready-to-bake cookie
dough, slice the dough into rounds and
have your child decorate with blue and
silver sprinkles or colored sugar made
by stirring white sugar with a few drops
of food coloring.
By 4 or 5, you can add dreidel tour-
naments, Chanukah bingo games, and
more complicated baking (e.g., stained
glass cookies that you make by painting
the raw cookie dough with colored egg
www.theberman.org .
The Berman is located at 6600 W.
Maple Road in West Bloomfield.
Temple Beth El Plans
Adult Education Classes
Temple Beth El's adult education classes
begin Wednesday, Jan. 4, in Bloomfield
Township.
Lea Beurer will teach two Hebrew classes:
Advanced Hebrew, Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.;
and Conversational Hebrew, Wednesday
at 6 p.m. Cost is $50 for temple members
and $75 for non-members. Beurer will also
lead an ongoing study of the Torah text on
Wednesday mornings, beginning Jan. 4, at
9:30 a.m. No Hebrew reading is required.
The charge for this class is $35 for members
and $50 for non-members.
Rabbinic Associate Keren Alpert will
lead a monthly Lunar Learn on selected
Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the library and
a parallel brown bag lunch and learn on
selected Thursdays at noon in the Temple's
yolk mixtures).
Older kids can do almost everything
– light their own menorahs (with your
supervision, of course), make paper
chains to hang from doorways and put
together a Chanukah display that serves
as a centerpiece for your table.
The value of building holidays gradu-
ally like this is that the whole family
enjoys not only the eight-day celebra-
tion, but the anticipation of it. Everyone
gets comfortable with the blessings. The
kids will want to invite their friends
over to play dreidel — whether they're
Jewish or not. And they'll think of new
ways to decorate the house.
Jewish Holidays in a Box has pulled
these ideas and more together into
Chanukah kits designed to help busy
families have the most positive experi-
ences, with the least amount of stress.
Included are blessings, candle-lighting
tips, songs, games, dreidels, recipes and
decorating ideas, as well as three core
concepts that help you bring the holiday
to life for young children. There is also a
CD tutorial that makes it easy for people
of any background to learn the bless-
ings.
Learn more at www.facebook.
com/JewishHolidaysInABox or sub-
scribe to a free e-newsletter at www.
JewishHolidaysInABox.com .
Alpert Room. Sessions begin Jan. 11 and
12 with "Debts, Ownership and Deeds': an
examination of Jewish law and actual prac-
tices regarding loans, payments, salaries
and other business transactions. On Feb. 8
and 9, "The Stories of King Solomon" will
be scrutinized."Kabbalah Today" will be the
topic addressed March 14 and 15 as partici-
pants take a look at simplified versions of
the Zohar and other mystical texts and learn
what role kabbalistic thought plays in Jewish
practice. On April 18 and 19, the topic will
be "Those Who Fought Back',' the men and
women who resisted during the Holocaust.
The series will conclude on May 9 and 10
with "Standing Again At Sinai',' an examina-
tion of the Ten Commandments, their place
in American law and how they came to be
Judaism's "Top Ten:' There is no charge for
either the Wednesday evening or Thursday
noon sessions.
For information, or to register, call the
Temple Beth El Religious School office at
(248) 865-0612.