From the Desk of Mrs. Sagan
2nd Grade General Studies
Integrating our General and Judaic Studies for Purim!
In second grade, we have been engaged in a month-long integrated studies unit centered on the holiday of Purim. Morah Ronya Fajnland and I collaborated on a series of fun, hands-on activities designed to get our students excited about the holiday, while integrating both Judaic and General Studies concepts.
In Judaic Studies, students learned the events and characters in the Purim story. To do this, students used comprehensive study guides, as well as art-based projects such as masks and homemade groggers.
In general studies, we learned about adjectives, and connected this to a study of Purim story character traits. We learned that character traits are the words and ideas that help describe a person, including both outer traits such as brown hair or round face and inner traits such as brave or foolish. Using our working definition of traits, each student chose one of the characters of the Purim story. We discussed what traits each character exemplified, brainstormed ideas, and then made mobiles with traits of their chosen Purim character. Next, they made puppets that showed off their character and their traits. We loved seeing their creativity. Our students made puppets of Queen Esther in dresses of beautiful felt, King Ahashverosh in bold Kingly attire, and many Mordechai puppets sporting tzitzis!
After their puppet creations, students wrote short scenes using their puppets as a guide. This week, they proudly presented their scenes to their classmates and teachers in an exciting puppet show that integrated all that they learned this month!
