Behrman House: About Us: Open Lion Fall 2004: xxx xxx xxx

Squeaky Friends By Sherry Nutig
What can a mouse do to a class? 1. It can scare the teacher. 2. It can jump on students’ desks. 3. It can make students laugh. 4. It can motivate, motivate, motivate! After years of using other Hebrew language texts, we adopted Shalom Ivrit and brought a funny little rodent into our classrooms-Bar ha’achbar, Bar the mouse. Our fourth grade students fell in love with him. Hmm, I thought, why couldn’t I make this creature the students’ personal guide to the Hebrew language? What a great idea!

First there was one stuffed mouse. Every student wanted to hold it. Numbers 2 and 3 quickly followed. We now have a singing mouse (he dances too), a squeaky mouse, two talking ones, and a hand puppet. Real mice would be cute, but I don’t think our Executive Director would be amused!
Each mouse takes a turn leading lessons and participating in Shalom Ivrit activities. For example, we play “Ha’achbar omer…” ( “The mouse says…”), and the students complete the sentence in Hebrew. Or the mouse holds up flash cards with the Hebrew Word of the Day. And students take turns keeping a mouse at their desks as a motivator or as a reward.

	This small, lovable rodent has changed the way our students respond to Hebrew class. Thank you, Bar! Sherry Nutig is a fourth grade Hebrew teacher at Congregation Beth Shalom, Northbrook, IL where Judith Grossbard is Education Director.