A Few of My Favorite Things (to use when teaching Biblical Hebrew)
Posted Under: Hebrew Bible, Languages, Pedagogy
Who says learning Biblical Hebrew has to be dull? Here are a few things (in no particular order) that I recommend to liven up your language learning/teaching.
Aleph Bet Magnetic Letters
These are just fun to have on the fridge at home, but you can also use them for all kinds of games.
Aleph Bet Sliding Puzzle
The ever popular Passover 10-Plagues Finger Puppets
Also available here.
See my earlier blog post on Comic Books to Learn By.
Hebrew Scrabble
Harder to find (and usually more expensive), but fun to pull out on game night. Try ebay or Google to find your own copy of the game. Look for “Blanko” too (another name for the Hebrew version). There is also a Blanko Jr. version that you might find.
Hebrew Stickers
Nothing improved quiz averages like when I started silently putting stickers on papers. All of a sudden people were asking “Hey, how come I don’t have a sticker? How can I get a sticker?” Mind you, these were grad students.
Food (all students, everywhere, love food)
Apples and Honey for Rosh Hashanah
Latkes for Chanukah
I also make weak verb muffins (Mini blueberry muffins with and without the blueberries… to illustrate that sometimes the root doesn’t show up).
Reader Comments
Hebrew scrabble! Surely that’s incredibly difficult because so many words have only three or four consonants?
Ros,
You would enjoy the challenge. We’ll have to set up a Scrabble session at SBL.
These are amazing! We love the Og comic books. We’re going to have to get some of this stuff.
We need to organize a Hebrew scrabble game in New Orleans.
D&T
Oh, you already thought about the Scrabble game.
Nice stuff Karyn! My supervisor always runs a Hebrew scrabble game at the end of each semester of Intermediate Hebrew, called “The Battle of the Champions.” We play in teams, eat pizza and there are prizes (usually duplicate books from his library) for the winners. It’s an awesome time. So far my loosing streak is intact (0-2).
Must.
Have.
Hebrew.
Scrabble.
I don’t have the finger puppets, but I have the Ten Plagues Mini Bowling Pins set!
Colin,
What a great supervisor!
Brooke,
Get thee to ebay (there is a Hebrew Scrabble set up for auction, ending in a few days). Another copy sold the other day for $34.