In what has become an annual event the entire 5^th grade class participated in a Shabbaton on January 25^th and 26^th.  Students came to school on Friday morning prepared to spend a spiritual, fun-filled Shabbaton with friends and faculty members from the school. 

The event began on Friday afternoon with groups of children preparing for Shabbat by drawing tablecloth covers, making paper flowers, centerpieces and wall posters.  Kabalat Shabbat began with everyone lighting candles and singing songs to welcome the Sabath.  Following a meaningful t’fillah, the children and adults sat down to a traditional Shabbat meal, sing songs and conversed over grape juice, chicken and kugel. 

 Children participated in discussions based on the weekly Torah portion, pre-adolescent concerns and played some good old-fashioned games like soccer, gaga and charades and of course the frog game.  Students slept in school under the guidance of faculty members and concluded the Shabbaton with Havadalah on Saturday night.

 The purpose of the Shabbaton is two-fold; one is to enable students to experience the full beauty and meaning of Shabbat and secondly to encourage bonding between members of the grade in preparation for longer overnight trips in succeeding years.

 The event is under the auspices of the Principal of Judaic Studies Dr. Amittai BenAmi and is funded through a generous grant from the Arlene and Loraine Topal Creative Arts Fund.

Fifth Grade Shabbaton

By Phoebe Rubinstein, 5B

Last Shabbat, the fifth grade attended the Shabbaton.

After School, we all went into the library.  Dr. Ben Ami took attendance and told us the rules.  He gave each of the boys a number and each of the girls a letter.  We had to count off every once in a while to make sure that we were all there. 

We left the library, and ate lunch.  After Birkat HaMazon most of us divided into teams for soccer and played for about half an hour. 

Next came Shabbat preparations. First there were some cartoon movies about Shabbat telling how work makes us stressed and how we lose ourselves and how important rest is, and another one explaining why we have two challot on the table because of the manna. After the videos, we made flower center pieces to put on the tables, others decorated table cloths and made colorful Shabbat posters.  Since it was almost time to light candles, we took seats in a semi – circle in front of the stage in the gym to hear a story from Dr. Ben Ami  after which we were called up to the stage two at a time.  We all lit our own Shabbat candles. 

After everyone had lit a candle, Dr. Ben Ami brought in a board and leaned it on a chair.  He explained to us that we were about to play a matching game about the holidays and the meaning of Shabbat, with the cards velcroed to the board.  Each class was a team, and in the end my team won, but both classes had a lot of fun. 

Next, Dr. Ben Ami split us into three teams.  Each team had the name of a color.  The teams each received a big envelope.  Inside the big envelopes were smaller envelopes.  Each smaller envelope had a name of a city in Israel on it.  Dr. Ben Ami explained that he would give us clues to which envelope to open. Inside each envelope there was a slip of paper.  Tasks that we had to perform were written on the papers. The first task was to make up a rap song about your team.  All the raps were really funny.  Another task we were given was to be able to say the Hebrew alphabet forwards and backwards.  My team had to forfeit, because we were taking too long. 

We took a break for dinner including Kiddush and singing. The food was OK.   All through dinner my friend and I begged to play more soccer.  Dr. Ben Ami said he would consider it. 

After dinner there were a few more discussions and games. Dr. Ben Ami announced that we had gone ten minutes over our bedtime.  He told us that he should send us straight to bed.  But he did not.  Instead, he let us have a twenty minute soccer game.  We were all very happy on our way to bed. We didn’t even mind that we had less time to talk because of the game. 

I fell asleep quickly and woke up early.  In the morning I talked a lot with my friends.  We decided to go downstairs.  When we got there, the boys were already playing a soccer game.  I quickly joined the team. After the game, we were all exhausted, and relieved to be eating breakfast.  We finished eating and had a Shabbat prayer service.  Then we split back into our three groups. 

First, Dr. Ben Ami taught my group how to play a fun frog game.  After 15 minutes my team went over to Ms. Perlman, and we learned a fun game played with cups.  Then we played charades and telephone with Ms. Levi.  There was a program about the Ten Commandments because that was in the Parashat Shavua. We ate a snack then played cat and mouse.  Not many of us had fun, so we split into three new groups for other activities. Afterwards we ate lunch. 

We played soccer, followed by Ga-Ga.  I won four of the nine games of Ga-Ga. 

Shabbat was soon ending . We had a Seudah Shlishit and Dr. Ben  Ami explained a little about Havdalah.  We felt sad because we knew the Shabbaton was almost over.  We made Havdalah as our parents arrived.  We packed and left. 

We had a lot of fun at the Shabbaton.

The Shabbaton is being funded through the Arlene Topal Creative Arts Foundation in memory of Loraine Topal.

 

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