PJ Library program professionals, Jewish educators, and other teachers and Jewish professionals can always use new ideas to extract and highlight the values in PJ Library books.
The webinars below provide guidance on using PJ Library books as an impetus for value-focused discussions, activities, and lessons.
Use the links here to skip down the page to a value-focused webinars of interest:
Caring for Animals
Nurturing Respect for All Kinds of Critters
Investigate the Jewish value of caring for animals (tzaar ba'alei hayim), as it pertains to the preschool/kindergarten aged crowd (children ages 3-5). This webinar examines ways to teach developmentally appropriate lessons in respecting and caring for animals. Discussion will also focus on possible program locations, program structure, and guest speakers that can add further meaning to the concept of caring for all God's creatures. We use the following books:
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Ometz Lev: Helping children cope with fear
Ideas for helping children deal with fear are explored using the books Noah's Bed by Lis and Jim Coplestone and The Sabbath Lion, a retelling of an Algerian Jewish folktale by Howard Schwartz and Barbara Rush.
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Cakes and Miracles on Purim
Consider using the Cakes and Miracles Purim family program to celebrate Purim and the gifts of differences. Jewish Special Education and Inclusion staff from Inclusion Innovations, Gateways, Whole Community Inclusion, MATAN, Macks Center for Jewish Education, and MetroWestABLE share appropriate Purim inclusion activities.
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Thanksgiving and Your Local Food Bank
PJ Library in New Haven, CT collaborated with the local Jewish Family Service and their local food bank to offer - Feeding the Hungry: Thanksgiving Family Program. Saskia Swenson-Moss (New Haven PJ Program Professional) and Vivian Newman (PJ Library Early Childhood Consultant and author) created a fabulous multi-layered program including a play, food collection and delivery, more than one art project, and more. Learn from the experts as they present ways of creating developmentally appropriate, multi-age program at a specific location that focuses on the value of Feeding the Hungry using the following book:
Bone Button Borscht by Aubrey Davis
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Snow in Jerusalem
Using the book Snow in Jerusalem the Jewish value of re'ut (friendship) and dibbuk chaverim (cleaving to friends) is explored and activities are suggested for an engaging family program:
Beginning and Ending Each Day with Thanks
This session offers support to help families create innovative and meaningful morning and bedtime rituals for the youngest members of the family. Learn how to discuss and explore the concepts of gratitude and thankfulness in ways which will resonate with children ages 0-3 and their families using the following books:
Programming for Older Children
Designed to support the 2012 Global Day of Jewish Learning, this webinar presents the book-based family programs that focus on the value of gratitude using the following books:
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Love Stories: Family Programming for Tu B'Av, Global Day, and days of Family Love
Vivian Newman, PJ Library's Early Childhood Consultant, presents various ways of using books such as Good Night, Laila Tov, The Schmutzy Family, The Shabbat Puppy, and Grandma Rose's Magic to design a family program focused on helping children expand their techniques for expressing love toward the important adults in their lives: Parents, grandparents, and grand"pals."
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Intergenerational Programming
Vivian Newman, PJ Library's Early Childhood Education Consultant, shares guidance, activity ideas and book suggestions for running successful intergenerational programs focused on building relationships between children and seniors. Suggested books:
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Noah's Swim-a-Thon
Explore the value of tzedakah with families of multi-aged children by holding a swim-a-thon. Whether you opt to hold your program in a camp setting or in a more traditional indoor environment, this webinar provides guidance on how to design meaningful, multi-age tzedakah programs which will complement the unique needs of your community and your chosen program setting using the following book:
Jumping Jenny on Super Sunday
This webinar focused on Tzedakah Family Programming and discusses the benefits and guidelines for integrating family programming into Super Sunday using the following book.
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Babies and Toddlers, ages 0-3
How do we create book based programs book based programs which will captivate the attention of infants and toddlers while simultaneously stimulating and educating the parents and older siblings who also attend each program? This session explores the challenges and rewards of working with our youngest children ages 0-3 using the following books:
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Pre-School and Kindergarten, ages 3-5
What specific Jewish values best fit the developmental needs and abilities of children ages 3-5? We explore techniques and strategies for bringing the Jewish values of Friendship (reut), welcoming guests (hachnassat orchim), and industriousness (malacha) to life using the following book:
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Early Elementary, ages 6-8
A special webinar with guest presenter, Diane Frankenstein, author of Reading Together: Everything You Need to Know to Raise a Child Who Loves to Read. Diane models how to engage children through conversation - looking at ideas such as attitude, perspective, appreciation, wisdom, and of course, the wonderful question: what makes this a "Jewish" story using the following the book: