Comments on: WTF Wednesdays: I Need YOUR Help!

By: lbn

lbn — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:16:27 +0000

rachel – i like this theme as well, and it allows for my favorite program ever – purim in july! is there some sort of name, or innovative way of grouping them all together? and swag? hit me back with your thoughts!

By: Rachel

Rachel — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:18:54 +0000

One of my favorite themes for camp is Jewish Holidays. If you make the first week’s theme “Shabbat”, you can set the standard for what you want the rest of the summer’s Friday afternoons look like. You can have a week on the high holy days, a week on Israel (yom ha’atzmaut), a week on chanukah, purim, passover, etc. You can tie in lots of other themes, like environmentalism for Tu B’shvat (or this year’s Birkat Hachamah). Arts and crafts can tie into the theme as well, and then the kids can go home with holiday decorations and possibly ritual objects that they’ve made.

By: Robin

Robin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:50:48 +0000

So something with the intertwining of what makes us Jews (I just can’t stop picturing the braided challah or the havdallah candles)…because if it is anything like the camp at the J here, there are all different types of kids coming to the camp (not necessarily all Jewish, or from different movements of Judaism). I wish I could think of a witty way of saying it (believe me my braid is working on it) and the swag…the Jews do love swag.

By: lbn

lbn — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:31:34 +0000

ellie – love it! camp is nine weeks but who knows, maybe some days took longer than others. i love having rabbis in the family

By: EBS

EBS — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 21:08:24 +0000

how about the seven days of creation and with every day the kids can add a bead to their necklace spelling out breshit (in hebrew?) or creation. this way you can do lots of different types of activities from the natural world to asking kids what they think and create! this clearly works if camp is seven weeks long.

By: lbn

lbn — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:28:29 +0000

you have until next WTF wednesday!! you’ll think of something

By: Robin

Robin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:24:59 +0000

This is killing me that I did not come up with one immediately…but believe me, I am thinking real hard and will win this prize just cause I mean I really love camp and you are pretty fab and living the dream.

By: lbn

lbn — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:59:21 +0000

oh my god did you do holocaust programming at camp? i totally remember one evening program being told that we only had an hour to escape our german captors and running through the dark, possibly tripping by the pool and mostly sliding down one very steep fire trail. SCARRED FOR LIFE! i love camp

By: Georgia

Georgia — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 06:46:30 +0000

On my way to updating my blog roll, but in the mean time:
1. love the new layout. looks great!
2. Regarding the theme: I’ve been reading a lot about WWII, and watching documentaries and such, but I think what’s missing from the Holocaust documentaries are before and after examples. Like, yeah they show these starving people, but it’s hard to relate because you have no idea what they were like before. I wish there were more comparisons, because I think it would make it easier for us to identify with the victims, and see that it wasn’t some crazy thing that could only happen in the past. Maus (the graphic novel) did a great job doing that, but before that I had a hard time identifying with the Holocaust. Okay so maybe the kids could “become” these people, and write and illustrate what it was like for them in the beginning? It’s probably a bit too heavy, and I’m a fatalist and also a bit tipsy, to be honest, but I don’t think my hebrew school or any of my Jewish upbringing did a very good job at helping me to identify with Holocaust victims, so I guess I’m just venting? I don’t know. Why am I getting so heavy on your comments section? Email me. Your job sounds amazing.
3. I’m hungry.