Mitzvah Hunt Educator Guide

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An overview of the Mitzvah Hunt

WHEN YOU SEE A GOOD DEED, PUT IN A SEED!
This easy-to-use, colorful app encourages children to look for the good in other people and to see the good deeds that their friends and family are doing. Each time the child sees someone doing a mitzvah or good deed, they choose a seed, record what they saw, and drag it into an empty pomegranate, filling it up with a collection of good deeds that can be saved and viewed at any time. As they fill up the pomegranate with these seeds, they come closer to the concept of “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

The Mitzva Hunt is an opportunity for educators and parents of children in preK -G2 to encourage positive reinforcement of good behavior and help instill the character trait of looking for good in others. The Hebrew phrase ” v’ahavta l’rayacha kamocha” is a key focus with a catchy song about its meaning and information about its significance in Judaism within the app. This is particularly fitting in the reflective months of Elul and Tishrei where we can encourage the class to try and better themselves. Another fitting time to use this app is in the month of Av during the Three Weeks.

Within the classroom environment educators can use The Mitzvah Hunt with the class on the interactive whiteboard (IWB) or on personal devices. The app will ask you to name each new pomegranate before it can be filled in.  The educator can fill in a name for the pomegranate e.g.: Grade 1.
When a mitzvah is spotted, the educator can encourage the children to fill in a seed and drag it to the pomegranate. When the pomegranate is filled, a list of all the people doing mitzvot and who spotted them will be provided for you to download and print for a bulletin board or to give to individuals.

There are educational opportunities within the app where children can learn about sources in the Torah where pomegranates are mentioned and this can be tied in with teaching about customs on Rosh Hashanah and why pomegranates are significant.

The Mitzvah Hunt is available as an iPad app.

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How to use

The goal of the game is to get your children into the habit of  noticing all the positive their siblings and people around them are doing. The Mitzvah Hunt is a tool to stop the ‘telling tales’.

Educator tool

To use The Mitzvah Hunt as an educators tool:

• Ask  your students  to look out for a Mitzvah or good deed that other students in your classroom are doing.
• Every time a student spots a Mitzvah being done they can ask you to play The Mitzvah Hunt.
• Play The Mitzvah Hunt game and let the student describe the Mitzvot or good deeds that they saw.
• Have a competition in your classroom: The winner is the student who saw the most mitzvot and good deeds and filled in their pomegranate first.
• Each student can email you the final screen of the pomegranate that gives you a description of all the mitzvot and good deeds they saw. Click the SHARE button that appears when a pomegranate as been filled.

Discussion

• Pomegranates are a symbol for the goodness within each Jew. We are filled with mitzvot like a pomegranate. On Rosh Hashanah we say a prayer asking G-d that our good deeds in the new year will be as plentiful as the seeds of the pomegranate. ‘May it be G-d’s will that our merits will increase like a pomegranate’.
• Pomegranates are supposed to have 613 seeds representing the 613 mitzvot in the Torah. One of the 613 mitzvot is to ‘love your neighbour’  (Leviticus, 19: 18). Rabbi Akiva says that in order to ‘love your neighbour’ you need to see all the mitzvot or good deeds that they do.
  Do you see all the good things everybody is doing?

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Digital activities

Download the photo roll and use the images to make a digital presentation on stories to do with:

• Forgiveness
• Seeing the goodness in others
• Stories of repentance and saying sorry

You can even describe the customs we have on Rosh Hashanah.

Send us your digital creations to share on this website. Email them to [email protected].

Recommended Content Creation Tools

Download JI Studio and access an incredibly rich collection of Jewish photographs, clipart, words and backgrounds for children to make their own posters about good deeds. There is access to Tanach texts, ability to bring in your own photographs and record your own sounds.

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Download the poster

Click here to download The Mitzvah Hunt poster for your family.

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