At Yeshivat He’Atid, students kicked off the school year by learning all about the upcoming chagim. To prepare the early childhood students for Yom Kippur, the classes discussed the qualities of being a good friend. The children organized different actions into categories of good choices and poor choices. Everyone agreed that saying “I’m sorry” when they have done something wrong is a good choice! They learned about the story of Yonah and connected his actions to what they learned about good and poor choice-making. As a fun extension activity, the children learned about patterns and used their new pattern-building knowledge to create beautiful friendship bracelets for their classmates! The older grades learned about Aseret Yemei Teshuva and the importance of judging others favorably, especially during a time when we want to be judged favorably ourselves.

What great lessons to get the students into the spirit of the chag!