We are only a few days away from Yom Kippur (aka Yom Hakippurim aka Day of Atonement), arguably one of, if not THE holiest day of the year. The weeks and days leading up to it are a great time for introspection and reflection. Since last week, my students and I have been discussing the meaning behind Yom Kippur, and our actions over the past several months that we would like to change, and the ones we would like to continue. Children understand the differences between right and wrong at very young ages, so even the Littles were able to add to our conversation about sins and atonement. While my younger students will be making a poster illustrating the various actions they’d like to do more of, (i.e. sharing with siblings, listening to Ema and Aba), my two big boys are learning about various middot, or values/character traits, through a DIY scale activity you can easily make for your children/students.
To make your own Middot Scale, you’ll need:
- 2 disposable cups (I used foam)
- permanent markers
- pen or pencil (if you’re using plastic cups, you might need a hole punch instead)
- 2 pipe cleaners (you could also use yarn or twine)
- 1 sheet of construction paper
- tape
I also use file folder labels and craft sticks for the related activity.
Use the permanent markers to label one of the cups “Good Values” (מידות טובות – Middot Tovot), and write “Bad Values” (מידות רעות – Middot Ra’ot) on the other.
Use the pencil (or hole punch, if your cups are plastic) to punch two holes in the rim of each cup. One hole should be above the words, and the other should be on the opposite side. Loop a pipe cleaner through the holes to create a handle for each cup.
Tape the construction paper onto the hanger as shown in the main picture, and you can write Yom Kippur and any additional text on the front side. (Ours says “a day to seek forgiveness from Hashem.) Loop the two middot cups on either side of the hanger, and your scale is complete!
Tomorrow they’re going to decorate each of the middot cups with Hebrew and English middot stickers made using permanent markers and regular file folder labels.
We’re going to use our Middot Scale to learn about different values and characteristics, which I wrote on the labels and stuck onto craft sticks.
Some of our positive middot are love, patience, and gratitude, and some of our negative middot are greed, thoughtlessness, and baseless hatred. I also wrote a bunch of different sentences on other craft sticks, describing both positive and negative actions.
Over the next two days, we’re going to discuss and sort the various middot, so the boys can have a clear visual representation of what it means when we say that we want our positive actions and attributes to outweigh our negative ones. It’ll also help them to clearly understand that for every misdeed and sin that we commit, we have to work that much harder to get our levels of righteousness back up.
I’ll have more pictures of the activities for you in this Yom Shishi wrap up. So until then, shavua tov, tsom qal, and gmar chatimah tovah!
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