Monsey Cheder First Grand Brochos Bee
After four months of collecting “Know Your Brochos!” cards, the boys in Cheder Chabad of Monsey participated in a Grand Brochos Bee.
It all started with rebbis in Cheder distributing the Brochos Cards to the boys for saying brochos or bentching properly, or for learning, davening nicely and general good behavior.
Throughout the 16 weeks there were many quizzes and PowerPoints that helped the children stay focused on learning the brochos. The program gave the children the opportunity to learn brochos, prepare for the quizzes and the final Brochos Bee in a most exciting way.
The boys would trade these cards with each other and they would always be looking at them. This motivated the children to study the correct brochos reshonos and achronos along with the halachos on the backs of the cards. Instead of the conventional method of having children study for a Brochos Bee with a booklet, the boys had visual aids, enabling them to study while having fun!
This was a windfall for the rebbis in Cheder. They were teaching hilchos brochos while at the same time having a powerful incentive for children!
There were 56 boys who joined the semi-finals, which was a written test of 50 questions. Of those 56 boys only 15 joined the Grand Brochos Bee. Those 15 were the top 2 grade scores per class.
The Cheder was then divided into 2 divisions for the Grand Brochos Bee; the younger children (gr. 1-4) and the older children (gr. 5-8).
The Grand Brochos Bee consisted of 244 PowerPoint slides with over 300 questions, ranging from what the brochos reshonos and achronos are to other halachos and yedios that have to do with birchos hanehenin.
The two grand prize winners (1 for each division) received a $50 gift certificate to the Neshai bookstore and the runner ups both received $20 gift certificate to the Neshai bookstore.
Every boy who participated in the Grand Brochos Bee received an award.
The winner from the younger division is Menachem Drew (gr. 2).
The winner from the older division is Motti Krasnjanski (gr. 7).
The two runner ups are Mendel Touger (gr. 1) and Daniel Cohen (gr. 6).
A Proud Parent
thank you Rabbi Weiner and Rabbi Wolowik for the great job you are doing. We are lucky to have you in Monsey.