Kindness to animals, Tza'ar Ba'alei Chayim is one of my favorite Jewish Values for kids because most kids love animals! We enjoyed learning about lady bugs and we put them in our garden so they could help us take care of our garden! The kids also took ladybugs home for their gardens.
They made a duck pond with fish and learned about our responsibility to help keep lakes and ponds clean.
They brought a favorite animal (stuffed) to share their Shabbat Party incorporating inviting guests for Shabbat.
We have had a great summer!

The third session of camp was so much fun. Our theme was Tekun olam, Repairing our world and Bal Tash Chit preserving and taking care of our world.
All of our art projects revolved around recycled materials.
The kids made friends out of toilet paper rolls and other recycled materials. Most cities have teacher recycling centers where they can buy everything from cardboard and yarn to fun foil papers. Check out where your local recycle center is if you have not already been to it. For you lucky people in the North East and close to Boston they have a fabulous place!
We have an organic garden where the kids planted a pumpkin patch, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, radishes and a variety of other vegies. The children love watering the plants and picking ripe vegetables. They then eat them for snack. Gardening is so fabulous for little kids as well as for our world!
Tikun Olam and Bal Tash Chit are fabulous themes for camp as well as school!

The theme for our second session of camp was Shalom Bayit, Peace in the home. We started with a pre-Father's Day Donuts for Dad before Shabbat Singing. Everyone loved it! We actually served donut holes because they are the right size for preschoolers.
Some of the art projects were a family mobile, it was a house with the kids actual address ( so they were learning their addresses) and then stick people for each of their family members and of course pets. This was a very cute project and the kids loved it!
When the children built their Village Shalom pictured above they talked about the importance of having peaceful homes and classrooms. They finger painted the grass and dirt and designed the houses with chalk, water colors, stickers and glue and foam shapes creating a village of shalom where they could pretend to go to each other's houses in their neighborhood. I am told by parents that the kids play for months with the projects they bring home from this classroom!