Balloons of Emotions - Karmiel-Majd el-Krum Interfaith Encounter on 9th March 2008:

On Sunday, March 9th 2008, the 6th grade students of Kalanit School in Karmiel hosted their peers from A-Salaam School for a joint experiential activity around the theme of "Emotions", following the general events and the war in the south.

This activity was in the happy spirit of the month of Adar that started on that day, as it says: "When Adar enters – happiness is growing".

First we met in the classrooms. The children were happy to meet again their friends from last year. They set in circles and heard explanations about the course of the day.

Then we started with "Balloons of Emotions" – a personal page that we created based on the Hosen program, to identify the students' mood and emotions.

To our joy, all students – from both schools – marked the first balloons and explained that the chose them because they were happy to be part of this activity. The conversation took place in both languages (Hebrew and Arabic). The students of Kalanit were especially happy as they could practice their Arabic.

The events of the day were not brought up, although in the morning the students shared their educators in their feelings following the massacre in the Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

After joint breakfast in the classroom and joint activities during the break, we turned to the activity of "Mood Balloon". This is creative work around balloons: the kids chose the color of their balloon and designed it according to their feelings. We made chains of emotions' balloons to decorate the class for Purim – a mixed chain for each class.

After the creativity activity the boys' soccer teams from both schools competed. The game took place in a respecting and respected way. The girls from both schools cheered the game. The referee was the teacher Nader Taha from A-Salaam School.

When the game ended with the victory of the Kalanit team, the girls took the field for a dodge ball game. In this game the referee was the teacher Ayelet Yihya from Kalanit School and the girls from A-Salaam won.

To end the day we took a joint excursion to the nearby Galilee Park. The guiding was given, in both languages, by the geography teachers Amir Lazar and Nader Taha. We viewed our joint Galilee and learned about the scenery formations. We used this excursion as a summary for the joint Geography theme of the Galilee.

During the excursion children from both schools were walking hugged together.

The encounter ended with social games organized by the children and we fare welled with lots of satisfaction and wish for further encounters.

Reported by: Osnat Freiberg-Boacio
Group's Coordinators: Najeeba Sirhan & osnat Aram-Daphna

(* We deeply thank the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds for their kind support to the work of this group this year)
 

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