V’ahavta Le’reacha Kamocha

Grade/Class: Nursery

Context: Students learn about the chagim during the year

Learning: For our Shavuot unit, one of the main emphasis the Nursery children in the South campus focused on was “V’ahavta Le’reacha Kamocha”.  We emphasized this concept by creating a class “Friendship Quilt”. This was done by working collaboratively on designing a quilt that was put together with unique squares from each child.  There was an array of materials available in the center of the table for the children to choose from. Each child got a square that they were going to decorate as they wanted. We then asked the children how they could be nice to their friends and wrote it on their square. They enthusiastically participated in this beautiful project which helped to convert the abstract concept of loving each other to a tangible product, their Friendship Quilt. The squares were then stitched together, and hung up in our hallway. This learning experience helped the children gain valuable skills such as fine motor skills as they squeezed the glue onto their square and as they picked up each piece to glue on. This also helped enhance their social/emotional skills as they had the opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers, learned the importance of teamwork, and of being kind and empathetic to others. Critical thinking skills were developed as well as they had to think of an on-topic response to “how can you be a good friend?” As they saw their creative project come together, they felt a great sense of pride and accomplishment.