Galil Blog

Howdy, Galil families! 

Our first real day of second session went so well! We started by going to hitkansut (flag raising) and watching the first of the session’s series of ivrit shimushit, a daily morning skit to teach the chanichimot (campers) a new Hebrew word. This session is courtroom-themed. We can’t wait to watch the story unfold! 

Then we did avodah (work). On our first night, everyone chose a daily chore. We have briut (bathroom cleaning), gan/beit-o/mini mo (gardening/cleaning the art room/cleaning our sensory space), toranut boker (setting up and serving or cleaning up the meal), ashpa (taking out the trash), brecha (cleaning the pool), and medurah (preparing our weekly bonfire). After avodah, there was nikayon tzrif (cabin cleaning), when we finished unpacking and settling in. Then we all went to sadna’ot (specialist or madatz time). Each shichvah (age group) learned from a different specialist or the madatz (counselors-in-training). For the comms sadna, we dressed up in different themes and did a fashion show! 

After sadna’ot everyone stayed with their shichvah and went to pish alef (age group activity). They discussed numerous topics, such as confidence. Some kvutzot (age groups) even went in the pool!

After pish, we headed off to lunch, where we ate meat quesadillas with dairy-free cheese. Lunch was followed by a short rest time before we jumped into chuggim (mini clubs), which were also chosen the night before. With themes of chess/music, soapstone, mural painting, and more, everyone had a great time!

From chuggim, all the kids went to pish bet, where they had another educational discussion or activity planned by their madrichimot (counselors).

Pish bet went right into kibbud (snack). We noshed on pretzels and had some free time before going to sports. We all played frisbee, ran, went to the pool, or even climbed the rock wall to get our bodies moving. 

Sports led into schiya chofshit (free swim), where chanichimot could splash around in the pool. Otherwise, they could just hang out around camp. After swimming, we had rachatza (shower time), to get all the chlorine out of our hair and be nice and fresh for the evening ahead. After getting all clean, we went to shira (singing), where we learned the song Power and Glory that we sing every morning at hitkansut boker. The chanich with the least ruach (spirit) got water splashed on them. We all learned not to be distracted by Rubik’s Cubes during shira!

Next on the agenda was hitkansut erev, or our evening lowering of the flags. We sang more songs as the flags came down, then made our way to dinner.

We had a delicious dinner of pasta with our choice of sauce, which gave us all the energy we needed to have an incredible tochnit erev (evening activity). For the tochnit erev, we did different taskmaster challenges like breaking and eating a watermelon with no hands, making a stop-motion using rubber ducks, and building a bridge that could withstand the weight of a potato between two tables.

After each shichva made their way through all the different activities, we regrouped to watch the videos we made and announce the winners of each challenge. In the end, the bogrimot (oldest campers, going into tenth grade) won, but everyone did an incredible job. We finished the night by singing rad hayom together before heading back to our tzrifim (cabins) to get some much needed rest. Sweet dreams! We’ll see you after another wonderful day at machaneh (camp)!