Kavana+Cooperative+(Seattle,+WA)


 * For our most recent update to the LHIP Wiki, please see https://legacyheritageinnovationproject.wikispaces.com/The+Kavana+Cooperative+-+Seattle%2C+WA.

__Kavana Cooperative__****, Seattle, WA (Nondenominational, 120 household units)** This small “start up” community is developing an approach to equip families with the resources, knowledge and inspiration to celebrate Shabbat and Jewish holidays in their homes and with the community. Each month, participants will engage in a pair of family programs around a specific holiday; in one, they will learn to prepare for the upcoming holiday, and in the other, they will actually experience celebrating the holiday (or Shabbat) in a family and/or communal setting. The goal is for the families to become self-sufficient in their Jewish practice, empowered to become their children’s primary Jewish educators and models and, out of this experience, create and deepen an intentional Jewish religious community.
 * “Prep and Practice”**

Handout- "Prep and Practice"

Contact Info
E-mail Address: kavanaseattle@gmail.com Mail Address: PO Box 19666, Seattle, WA 98109 Executive Director, Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum, kavanarabbi@gmail.com Lay Leaders: Scott Porad, scott@porad.com, Ingrid Elliott, elliottshapiro@mac.com Lead Educator: Maxine Alloway, maxsacks@gmail.com Director of Operations: Ilana Mantell, kavana.ilana@gmail.com

** Vision: **
==== Kavana’s family education programming engages children and parents in dialogue with Jewish tradition to help families forge identity and generate personally meaningful Jewish life. **Mission** **Statement:** Kavana’s family education program implements its vision in the following ways: ====


 * It addresses the whole family with programs designed for children and parents to learn both together and separately.
 * It creates desire to participate in Jewish life through experiential, hands-on, and inquiry-based learning.
 * It cultivates self-sufficiency by teaching the rituals and skills for lifelong, personally relevant Jewish living.
 * It provides an opportunity for families to explore Jewish values together.
 * It helps individuals see themselves as part of a larger community by linking learning to social action and the wonder of the natural world.

By pursuing these goals together we foster a close-knit community.

__ //Prep & Practice 2008-2009// __

 * Professional Leader: ** Maxine Alloway
 * Lay leader: ** Sarina Natkin
 * Description: ** Prep-n-Practice is an approximately once month program, taking place on Sunday mornings, focused helping families prepare to practice Jewish holidays together. It engages whole families in activities, including listening to stories, cooking, building, and arts and crafts programs. After an introduction and whole group teaching about the holiday, family units travel to different stations to complete activities. Prep-n-Practice concludes with a whole group activity to build community and reinforce the main ideas of the holiday being addressed.

> and Yom Kippur
 * Dates: **
 * * Sept 21 -- Rosh Hashanah
 * Oct 19 -- Sukkot and Simchat Torah
 * Nov 16 -- Shabbat
 * Dec 14 -- Hannukah || * Feb 8 -- Tu B'Shevat
 * Mar 1 -- Purim
 * Mar 29 -- Pesach
 * Apr 26 -- Yom Ha'atzmaut
 * May 17 -- Shavout ||
 * Target **** audience: ** Families with children ages 2-11 years


 * Prep and Practice 2008-09 Summary Grid**
 * **Holiday** || ** Date ** || ** Take home message ** || ** Station 1 ** || ** Station 2 ** || ** Station 3 ** || ** Special Activity ** ||
 * Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur || Sept 21 || Prayer and shofar blowing can have personal relevance for you and your children || Game: Shofar Red Light-Green Light || Story Reading || Making Prayer Page || Communal Shofar Blowing ||
 * Sukkot and Simchat Torah || Oct 19 || Joy and beauty are part of the meaning of Sukkot and Simchat Torah. (Teach concepts of //simcha// and //hidur mitzvah//.) || Building project: Ark for Kavana's Torah || Decorating for Sukkot - Paper Cuts || Singing and Dancing || Communal Dancing for Simchat Torah ||
 * Shabbat || Nov 16 || Shabbat is about weekly rituals, and we can adopt, adapt and/or create our own rituals. || Decorating the ark (Torah metaphors: water, light) || Story Reading || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Making placements || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Brainstorming: how we do (or want to) observe Shabbat in our family ||
 * Chanukah || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dec 14 ||  || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Making mezuzot (to hang in Kavana's new space) || Oil lamps || Drama - Human Menorah || <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Chanukah songs ||


 * __Program Details:__**

October 19, 2008 - Sukkot and Simchat Torah Program Outline

Nov 16, 2008 - Shabbat Program Outline

Dec 14, 2008 - Chanukah Program Outline


 * Co-op Coordination: Volunteer Responsibilities Grid**

__ //Family Shabbat 2008-2009// __

 * Professional Leader: ** Darci Lewis, with Shannon Cruzen and Sarah Adams
 * Lay leader: ** Ingrid Elliot
 * Description: ** Family Shabbat is a monthly Saturday morning program, geared towards young children and their parents. It includes an interactive, abbreviated Shabbat morning service, led by Rabbi Rachel Nussbaum. The curriculum is focused on Jewish values, and this year’s theme is //Kehilat Kavana//, building an intentional community. Time is built in for families to be together and for children and parents to learn separately.


 * Dates: **
 * * Nov 1
 * Dec 13
 * Jan 10
 * Feb 7 || * Mar 14
 * Apr 4
 * May 9 ||
 * Target audience: ** Families with children 0-8


 * __Program Details:__**


 * November 1, 2008 - Theme: //Mishpacha// (Family Identity)**


 * December 13, 2008 - Theme: //Mitzvah// (Responsibility)**


 * Co-op Coordination: Volunteer Responsibilities Grid**


 * Prep and Practice 2007-08 Summary Grid**
 * **Holiday** || ** Date ** || ** Take home message ** || ** Station 1 ** || ** Station 2 ** || ** Station 3 ** || ** Special Activity ** ||
 * High Holidays || Sept 9 || N/A || Building sukkah || Making challah || Art project/Target game || Torah roll ||
 * Shabbat || Oct 28 || When you do something restful on Shabbat, you are doing something Jewish || Drawing restful pictures || Making candles || Tag with special rules || Storytelling ||
 * Chanukah || Dec 2 || Chanukah reminds us to be a light to others || Mitzvah Menorahs || Build a menorah || Drama || Singing ||
 * Tu B’Shevat || Jan 27 || Tu B'Shevat reminds us to appreciate the world and to take care of it. || Recycling Paper || Storytime || Appreciating fruit (and learning some Hebrew) || Tu B’Shevat seder ||
 * Purim || March 16 || Purim reminds us that it's okay to be silly sometimes! || Megillah reading (storytime) || Drama (being silly) || Making graggers || Megillah excerpt reading ||
 * Pesach || April 6 || Pesach reminds us about all the freedoms we have in the world || Matzah making || Pillow making || Haggadah making || Seder ||
 * Shavout || May 18 || Shavuot reminds us that we are never done learning and learning is important! || Drama || Storytime || Hebrew mastermind || Torah exploration ||

Key Learnings
Click for summary of key learnings

High Holiday Plus Sukkot and Simchat Torah Prep and Practice
Date: Sunday, September 9, 2007 Location: [|Montlake Community Center], [|Seattle, WA] Attendance: approx 125 participants (about 35 families) Click for Program Details

Shabbat Prep and Practice
Date: Sunday, October 28, 2007 Location: [|Montlake Community Center], [|Seattle, WA] Attendance: approx 60 participants (about 17 families) Click for Program Details

Hannukah Prep and Practice
Date: Sunday, December 2, 2007 Location: [|Montlake Community Center], [|Seattle, WA] Attendance: approx 100 participants (about 30 families) Click for Program Details

Tu B'Shevat Prep and Practice
Date: Sunday, January 27, 2008 Location: [|Montlake Community Center], [|Seattle, WA] The take-home message of this event was that “Tu B'Shevat reminds us to appreciate the world and to take care of it.” Activities stations at this event included a paper recycling activity (taking old paper, blending it into pulp, and spreading this on screens to make new paper), story time with a book about saving the planet, and a game around fruit (including a discussion about appreciating what we eat and content around the Hebrew names for fruits). The event concluded with a whole-group Tu B’Shevat Seder, with brachot for various fruits and four cups of grape juice corresponding to the seasons.

Purim Prep and Practice
Date: Sunday, March 16, 2008 Location: [|Montlake Community Center], [|Seattle, WA] Our theme for this event was that “Purim reminds us that it's okay to be silly sometimes!” Activities stations included a drama game around the theme of silliness, a telling of the story of Megillat Esther, and making gragers (large plexiglass boxes filled with metal trinkets). At the conclusion of the event, the kids ate hamentaschen and heard a sneak preview of the megillah – a chapter in Hebrew which allowed them to put their new gragers into action whenever the name Haman was read.

**Passover Prep and Practice**
Date: Sunday, April 6, 2008 Location: [|Montlake Community Center], [|Seattle, WA] This event focused on the message that “Pesach reminds us about all the freedoms we have in the world.” At the three activities stations, families made matzah (combining flour and water, poking holes, and baking while the stopwatch was running!), decorated seder pillows (depicting slavery on one side and freedom on the other), and assembled and illustrated haggadot. Our practice seder at the end of the program allowed us to teach some seder songs and liturgical highlights, and several participating families reported that they held a seder in their home for the first time this year using the materials from our Passover Prep event.

**Shavuot Prep and Practice**
Date: Sunday, May 18, 2008 Location: [|Montlake Community Center], [|Seattle, WA] Our Shavuot take-home message was: “Shavuot reminds us that we are never done learning and learning is important!,” and the activities stations centered on various modes of Jewish learning. At one station, a game based on the board game of Mastermind enabled kids to use logic to solve a puzzle and assemble a phrase from Torah (“eretz zavat chalav u’dvash”); at a second, a story modeled learning through collective narrative; and at the third, improve drama games utilizing pairs demonstrated the importance of a chevruta in Jewish learning. The event concluded with a close look at Kavana’s own Torah, and the opportunity for both adults and children to ask questions about the Torah itself and about revelation.