Tying Tzitzit

My 7th graders at the reform temple got a chance to learn how to tie tzitzit today.  We were just practicing, so we didn't have kosher string, and we used brown for the shamash rather than techelet (blue) or white, but everything else was authentic.  They tied onto a key ring, and if this class is at all like the class I had three years ago, the key rings will stay on their backpacks through the next few years.

They can all sing the "vayomer" paragraph of shma, and kiss tzitzit at each mention, and they can answer these questions:

 ציצית

1)          What are tzitzit?

2)          What is the tzitzit commandment?

3)          Where in Torah does it come from?

4)          How is the tzitzit commandment different from some of the commandments God gave through Moses?

5)          What do tzitzit remind us of?

6)          What’s the name of the prayer that includes tzitzit? 

7)          Which paragraph is this?

8)          Why did the reform movement stop saying this prayer for 100+ years?

9)          Why was it added back in?

10)    Which section of the service includes this prayer?

11)    What color did tzitzit used to have?

12)    Why did they stop using the color?

13)    How many times do we kiss the tzitzit during the prayer?

14)    What is the name of the longest string we use when wrapping and then tying the knots for the tzitzit?

15)    Where else have you heard that word?

16)    In class, did we learn the Sephardic or Ashkenazi way to wrap tzitzit? Why?

17)    What do you like about tzitzit?  Are they a reminder?  Do you think you’ll like wearing them when you’re an adult?