7C+Lisa

Before examining the text of 'T'filat HaDerekh', I would elicit from my students their travel experiences and the challenges that they may have encountered from the moment they left home until the moment they returned. I would also share one or two of my own, including something as simple as heavy traffic in the morning on the way to work. I might have the children categorize the trials and tribulations using a SmartBoard graphic organizer such as a Venn Diagram. I would save the work and have the children play a computer game in which new worlds with new challenges are explored. (I have students who are very familiar with Atlantis Quest and World of Warcraft.) At a subsequent session, I would draw on the students' experiences with the computer games and have them record these as well. At this time, I would have them compare the two lists and rank them in order of danger and/or fear. I might now have the children write a prayer on their own in which they would ask for safe passage. With younger children, I might let them do an art project either at this step or later on in which they write their prayer and then decorate it. I would introduce 'T'filat HaDerekh' to the children, having them compare the list of dangers with their original lists and then comparing the texts, seeing if there is something they think was omitted in one of the versions. If the children wrote their own and decorated it, I would want them to have the text of the other one on the reverse so they feel all bases are covered! Later on, I may teach 'Birkat HaGomel' as well.