Summer Curriculum Week 3

Week 3: Bells and Jewish Pride

Desk bells were fun to play!

This week Rabbi B discussed all types of Bell instruments. He taught the kids all about them in the following ways:

A) Show and Share:

Rabbi B brought in Sleigh Bells, Hand Bells, Cowbells, Desk Bells, Chimes, a xylophone/glockenspiel  and glass cups. He showed how bells work when they are stuck and vibrated. The sticking creates a vibration in the bell and the bell gives out a tone or sound. The tone/sound depends on how thick or big the bell is. Thicker bells give off a lower tone and thinned bells give off a higher tone. Rabbi B demonstrated this with different sized keys on a xylophone.

The kids got to play a real xylophone 

Concert chimes make a beautiful sound

Rabbi B also taught the kids about the music scale and how it consists of seven tones or notes. These notes go from A to G and begin back from A. Whatever note you begin with will be what scale you are playing in. So, if you start with a C note, your scale will go C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

The Human Xylophone 

The Kids playing 'Hashem is Here' on the Desk Bells 

To demonstrate this, Rabbi B let the kids play on his C scale desk bells. He lined the kids up at each bell and then conducted each kid when to play their bell (this insistently was done by him bopping the player on the head with a foam noodle). When the player was bopped on the head they would ring their bell. Rabbi B made the kids into a living xylophone. It was really fun to see all the kids play songs like 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' and 'Hashem is Here' on the desk bells.

B) Experimentation:

The kids learned how the more air in the cup means 

the more sound vibration can travel which means

the higher the pitch will be. 

Rabbi B brought in glass cups. He filled each cup with a different amount of water and this caused the different cups to make a different sound or note. The more full the cup, the deeper the note because, as Rabbi B explained, the more water int he cup means the less the cup will vibrate and therefore the lower the tone.

C) Craft:

The Bells will tell people we are proud of who we are!

Each kid got to make their own Bell bracelet instrument. They took five bells each and sowed them with a string. Then their counsellor tied the string together to create a bracelet. With these bracelets, everyone clapped and danced to some songs, filling the room with beautiful bell sounds.

D) Mitzvah Mashal (Jewish Lesson):

Rabbi B with his Kohein Gadol puppet (with Bells)

Rabbi B taught the kids that there was a very special person who worked in the Beis Hamikdosh, Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, known as the Kohein Gadol. The Kohein Gadol's job was to serve Hashem. When he would serve, he would wear very special clothes, and one of those special clothes was a beautiful gown that had bells on the bottom. These bells would jingle when the Kohein Gadol walked and served, announcing to all around that he was doing his holy job.

The lesson for us is that we too, when we are doing a good thing like a Mitzvah, should make sure our voices are loud and clear and we are proud to be Jewish. Some examples the kids came up with were: when we say blessings over food, when we pray, answering "Amen" to a blessing we hear, blowing the shofar, etc. When we do Mitzvahs, we should not be embarrassed or shy that people will see or hear us, we should rather be proud and get peoples attention. This will inspire them to do a Mitzvah too.