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[phillyganz]

I teach a large hebrew school class (14) of 12-13 year old boys who go to public school and don't know much about being Jewish. Some of these boys have just started hebrew school this year and others have been coming for a few yrs. They only come to learn to read Hebrew for their Bar Mitzvahs and then drop out. Many of the boys are not happy to be in school on a Sunday morning. They are very difficult to teach. Does anyone have any ideas about how to teach 7th grade boys the Aleph Beis in a fun yet mature way? Any other suggestions for topics to teach that will instill a love and pride about being Jewish?

[amirellituv]

Hi
I also teach Sunday classes but I have a class of 3 Bat Mitzva girls. I don't actually teach Hebrew reading as such, I think it's quite difficult to teach such a large class reading, it really needs to be done individually.
Just a few ideas of what my husband and I have done on Sundays that got the kids attention:
My husband used to play football and cricket with the boys (not much in the way of learning but more about making a connection)
For teaching kashrut, the kids learnt the basics then we split into two teams and had a 'supermarket sweep', where they had to only buy things on the list that were kosher
My husband took a group of boys to see a sofer, when they learnt about tefillin
We got Lubavitch to come in a do the matza bakery before pesach
Hope these ideas help a bit!