Four- and five-year-old at the Early Childhood Center at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue have been keeping a secret: they’re really the “Super Weavers, superheroes who weave fast.”

Teachers at the Early Childhood Center were introduced to textile crafts when they attended a workshop at Bard Graduate Center, and they shared this knowledge with students in 309 Leevloov class in October as part of our Reggio Emilia-inspired curriculum.
Students, drawing from the lemonade stand that they built in December 2018, then chose to expand their crafts into a study of socially conscious entrepreneurship.

Our students love to celebrate Shabbat every Friday — and they decided to use their weaving skills to make challah covers, which they would then sell to support the homeless guests at our on-site Next Step Men’s Shelter.

In order to better understand Jewish tradition, students wrote letters to parents and Rabbi Samantha Natov, who would later join them for weaving lessons. They also learned about businesses and expressed a desire to have their own company name and label.

The class voted on “Super Weavers,” which demonstrates their love of weaving and dramatic play activities featuring superheroes. After studying logos and how pictures and names come together to create identity, children worked to bring their brand to life.

The result was an overwhelming success. On Wednesday, April 10, the Super Weavers sold all of the some 50 challah covers and 60 challah rolls they’d made, raising $535.

And today, the Leevloov class took a field trip to Century 21, where they used the money they’d raised to buy undershirts for our homeless guests at the men’s shelter.