Treasure Hunt Variations

Shabbat Shalom. To complete the description of the Treasure Hunt game, here are 2 variations.

This is a good Holiday activity that can be part of a class celebration.In advance of the actual celebration, give each student small (2″x1.5″) post-it notes and ask the students to draw symbols of the Holiday you’re celebrating (apple, lulav, menorah, dreidel, almond tree, etc) on the post-it notes. Collect the post-it notes, but don’t tell the students what you plan to do with them. Before your class celebration, stick the notes around the classroom, on wall displays and also on objects. All notes should be visible, so that students don’t have to move anything or climb on anything…visible, but not obvious, as this is a searching game. On “Go!” the students search and gather as many notes as they can find in a few minutes – set a timer. The student who gathers the most notes wins. The class can follow the game with a discussion of the meaning of the symbols on the notes.

This version of Treasure Hunt requires the students to tell where they find the treasures – in Hebrew. The goal is to give students a chance to practice Hebrew vocabulary including prepositions. Flashcards with Hebrew nouns that the students are studying are the treasures. There should be one flashcard for each student. Place the flash cards on the walls and on objects in the class. Each student finds a flashcard and tells where he/she found it. For example, a student finds the flashcard with the word “yeled” taped to the chalkboard. The student says, “Yeled al ha luach.” Another student finds a flashcard with the word “sefer” tacked next to an Israeli flag on the wall. The student says, “Sefer al yad ha degel.” This game works best when many of the objects in the classroom (luach, degel, kiseh, shulchan, chalon, etc) have been labeled since the first day of class.

You can probably suggest other types of classroom search games. Please share them in your comments.

More to come…Back-to-School preparations continued

• Author
• Recent Posts

Ronni Sims

Ronni has been a Jewish educator since Moses was in preschool (almost!). She has had the pleasure of teaching all age groups in a variety of formal and informal settings, as well as directing a Jewish Teacher Resource Center. While teaching in a Jewish Day School, Ronni coached an award-winning Odyssey of the Mind creative problem solving team.Ronni was an active participant in the former Conference on Alternatives in Jewish Education (CAJE), where she held leadership positions including Network Chair and Conference Co-Chair of CAJE 29 at Hofstra University. She currently teaches Hebrew at the Congregation Albert Religious School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Talmud teaches: “The Torah cannot be learned unless it is learned among friends.” Ronni views blogging on JCast as such a learning opportunity.

Latest posts by Ronni Sims (see all)

• Home From Camp & Back to School - August 6, 2014
• May Their Memory… - July 2, 2014
• Starting Over, Starting Up, Reviewing and Re-thinking….Again! - June 6, 2014