24 December 15 • 2011

metro

Once upon a time, children were viewed as mini-adults and education as a means of filling

them with facts. Now educators real-ize that children and their needs are far more complex, especially in the forma-tive preschool years. And so the theme of this year’s Early Childhood Education Conference for Jewish preschool direc-tors and staff was “Educating the Whole Child: Mind, Body & Soul.”

The annual conference took place Nov. 8 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park, with approximately 175 educators attending.

The Early Childhood Education Conference gives early childhood educa-tors an opportunity to learn different techniques for use in their classrooms and exchange ideas with peers and authorities. It also gives educators the opportunity to complete five of the 12

professional development hours required by the state to maintain their certifica-tion.

This year’s daylong conference fea-tured keynote speaker Enrique Feldman, president and director of the F.A.M.E. (Fostering Arts-Mind Education) Foundation and author of Living Like a Child: Learn, Live and Teach Creatively. Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg, founder and national director of Kids Kicking Cancer in Detroit, also spoke.

This is the first year Congregation Beth Shalom hosted the conference.

“We’re so pleased to be able to host such a diverse group of educators at Beth Shalom — and the children in our Gan Shalom preschool were thrilled to be a part of it all by creating the cen-terpieces for tables,” said Lauren Blitz, director of early childhood education at Congregation Beth Shalom. ■■

Participants in the Early Childhood Education Conference included Amy Newman,

Jewish early childhood education associate at the Alliance for Jewish Education;

Jeff Lasday, director, Federation’s Alliance for Jewish Education; and keynote

speaker Enrique Feldman, president of Fostering Arts-Mind Education.

Teaching Teachers

P arents who haven’t observed Jewish holidays before they have children sometimes won-

der, “What’s the right age to start cel-ebrating with my little one?”

While it’s never too late to start, if you choose celebrations that are appropriate for the age and attention span of your child, you can build traditions that grow over the years — and that add immea-surably to the joy in your home.

Let’s use Chanukah as an example. Even babies are enraptured by the sight of candles burning brightly. So lighting a Chanukah menorah creates a sense of wonder that is a delight to see.

By the time children are 2, they can choose which candles to put into the menorah so that their “job” is to design the pattern and colors for that night’s candle-lighting.

Three-year-olds love to be in the kitchen. To make cookie-baking super simple, just buy ready-to-bake cookie dough, slice the dough into rounds and have your child decorate with blue and silver sprinkles or colored sugar made by stirring white sugar with a few drops of food coloring.

By 4 or 5, you can add dreidel tour-naments, Chanukah bingo games, and more complicated baking (e.g., stained glass cookies that you make by painting the raw cookie dough with colored egg

yolk mixtures). Older kids can do almost everything

– light their own menorahs (with your supervision, of course), make paper chains to hang from doorways and put together a Chanukah display that serves as a centerpiece for your table.

The value of building holidays gradu-ally like this is that the whole family enjoys not only the eight-day celebra-tion, but the anticipation of it. Everyone gets comfortable with the blessings. The kids will want to invite their friends over to play dreidel — whether they’re Jewish or not. And they’ll think of new ways to decorate the house.

Jewish Holidays in a Box has pulled these ideas and more together into Chanukah kits designed to help busy families have the most positive experi-ences, with the least amount of stress. Included are blessings, candle-lighting tips, songs, games, dreidels, recipes and decorating ideas, as well as three core concepts that help you bring the holiday to life for young children. There is also a CD tutorial that makes it easy for people of any background to learn the bless-ings.

Learn more at www.facebook.com/JewishHolidaysInABox or sub-scribe to a free e-newsletter at www.JewishHolidaysInABox.com. ■■

Chanukah In A BoxEverything you need to celebrate the holiday, no matter what your child’s age.

Charach Gallery Hosts‘Project Runway: Detroit’The Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit’s Janice Charach Gallery will exhibit high couture by local fashion designers, a runway show with dresses created by a select group of teen girls from Detroit and the suburbs, and more than 400 bracelets decorated by artists throughout the world when it hosts “Project Runway: Detroit,” from Jan. 22–March 8.

The girls’ designs will be presented by professional models at a runway show at the gallery on Sunday, Jan. 22, at 1:30 p.m.

Following the girls’ creations, lead-ing fashion designers will present new gowns and outfits, many using upcycled items, on the gallery runway. The after-noon will feature an emcee and music from Joe Cornell Entertainment.

The Janice Charach Gallery is open from noon-4 p.m. Sundays, 10 a.m.-5

p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays, and 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Thursdays. For informa-tion, call the gallery at (248) 432-5448, go to www.jccdet.org or visit the Janice Charach Gallery on Facebook.

Berman Center PresentsJoseph and the DreamcoatThe Berman Center for the Performing Arts will present Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for a limited number of performances throughout January.

Presented by Sky’s the Limit Productions, Joseph is a musical retelling of the story of Joseph and his brothers.

Dates of the performances are 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12; 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 14; 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15; 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19; 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21; and 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 22.

Tickets are $16 each, and group dis-counts are available for organizations. To purchase, call (248) 661-1900 or visit

www.theberman.org.The Berman is located at 6600 W.

Maple Road in West Bloomfield.

Temple Beth El Plans Adult Education ClassesTemple Beth El’s adult education classes begin Wednesday, Jan. 4, in Bloomfield Township.

Lea Beurer will teach two Hebrew classes: Advanced Hebrew, Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.; and Conversational Hebrew, Wednesday at 6 p.m. Cost is $50 for temple members and $75 for non-members. Beurer will also lead an ongoing study of the Torah text on Wednesday mornings, beginning Jan. 4, at 9:30 a.m. No Hebrew reading is required. The charge for this class is $35 for members and $50 for non-members.

Rabbinic Associate Keren Alpert will lead a monthly Lunar Learn on selected Wednesdays at 7 p.m. in the library and a parallel brown bag lunch and learn on selected Thursdays at noon in the Temple’s

Alpert Room. Sessions begin Jan. 11 and 12 with “Debts, Ownership and Deeds,” an examination of Jewish law and actual prac-tices regarding loans, payments, salaries and other business transactions. On Feb. 8 and 9, “The Stories of King Solomon” will be scrutinized. ”Kabbalah Today” will be the topic addressed March 14 and 15 as partici-pants take a look at simplified versions of the Zohar and other mystical texts and learn what role kabbalistic thought plays in Jewish practice. On April 18 and 19, the topic will be “Those Who Fought Back,” the men and women who resisted during the Holocaust. The series will conclude on May 9 and 10 with “Standing Again At Sinai,” an examina-tion of the Ten Commandments, their place in American law and how they came to be Judaism’s “Top Ten.” There is no charge for either the Wednesday evening or Thursday noon sessions.

For information, or to register, call the Temple Beth El Religious School office at (248) 865-0612.