Rosh Chodesh is never forgotten in the Sixth-Grade Girls classroom. Last year, Morah Leah Shoshan started a class-created bulletin board rotation for every Rosh Chodesh because of the class’s artistic abilities. There is much potential and opportunity for each student to display their talent and creativity with a meaningful purpose.
Every month, a different group of students is chosen to decorate the class bulletin board for that Hebrew month. Using colored paper, materials, and creative ideas, the girls must come up with a design that has some meaning or connection to the Hebrew month. The girls research about the month by asking Morah Shoshan and other teachers or using previous knowledge of what they know to illustrate the main points or important events of the month. Sometimes, the girls will even put on the board a birthday chart with the day of all the month’s Hebrew birthdays.
Generally, it takes a week and a half to finish decorating the board because of all the precise details and thought that goes into the creation. Every detail contributes to the beauty of the month’s artistic depictions. The group is given some class time to start and then complete the rest of the board on their own time. Each month the girls make original and creative creations.
For example, the Cheshvan bulletin board was decorated with a picture of Kever Rochel, raindrops with each girl’s name, and a line saying “Mama Rochel cry for us again”. For Kislev, the girls made a giant paper donut with Macabee and Yivanim (greeks) figures inside. With the design of a big bite out of the donut, the girls wrote: “Taking a bite into the past” as the line for the month.
This special class-created project adds significant meaning to the Hebrew month for everyone. “It brightens up our classroom,” Morah Shoshan states, “and it’s unique to that month, it helps us remember [for example] oh Sh’vat, -- it’s Tu B’Shvat.” From the student’s perspective, the girls have fun decorating a classroom bulletin board. “It’s fun to decorate and make something that will be up in the classroom,” says sixth-grader Layla Moskowitz.
The whole class benefits from the girls’ creativity with a meaningful and aesthetically pleasing dis- play of the Chodesh (Hebrew month). The girls who contribute feel proud of their work throughout the month. They enjoy the process of decorating the bulletin board and working together. Of course, throughout the month, the girls enjoy their masterpiece that is displayed for everyone to see. Look out for this month’s Mishloach Manos Adar bulletin board that will be created by Bracha Abaev, Elana Bay- bachaev, Ilana Ifraimov, Layla Moskowitz, and Elisheva Tsits.