When the fifth-grade boys from the Jewish Educational Center's Elementary School were brought to sing to residents of the Elmora Hills Health and Rehabilitation Center on Dec. 5, it was at first unclear what effect the activity had on the students.

Asked how it felt to do that mitzva, most resorted to monosyllable mode, doing their best to escape adult interrogation. They said, "Good," or "Okay," or "Yeah, it felt nice." The most forthcoming among them said, "It was a good deed to sing and make them happy."

But then one boy, looking out at the room of wheelchair-bound, impassive old people, started to talk about his grandparents. Then everyone wanted to talk. Suddenly, it was clear just what resonant chords this audience touched in the youngsters.

Music teacher Hannah Solomon, who also took a group of girls from the Elizabeth school to Trinitas Hospital the following day, said, "I told the children that they might see people who don't feel well, and that some of them might have trouble hearing, so they should sing very nice and loud and clear." An observer could see some of the boys really trying to do that during their performance, making their lips extra round as they sang their rollicking medley of Hanukka favorites. But when Solomon also encouraged the children to talk to the residents, few did so.

Now the words were tumbling out. Solomon would have introduced each boy by name, but with at least 12 of the 15 all trying to have their say, niceties fell away.

One said, "When we go to visit my great-aunt, she loves seeing us kids. She's 97."

His classmate said he also visits a great-aunt: "When we go to see Aunt Suzie on Sundays, she never wants us to go home."

Another talked about his great-grandparents, and how his grandparents — maybe just relatively — aren't all that old. Another said his grandfather has a hard time recognizing people; "Alzheimer's? Yes, that's what he's got," he said.

Another boy said his great-grandmother is a Holocaust survivor from what was Czechoslovakia. She is 83, so she was pretty young during the war, but she has told him quite a lot about her experiences, he said, and he wants to know more. He agreed that by telling him what happened to her, the story will live on.

One of the residents, Harold Katz, beckoned Solomon over to his wheelchair. He had trouble hearing, but he said he had enjoyed the performance. He wanted her to know that he is Jewish too, and has lived all his life in Elizabeth.

Another resident, Clare Newman, a woman with soft white hair tied back in a braided knot, said she thoroughly enjoyed the children's visit. "It was very nice," she said. She talked about her youth in the Catskills and how she worked briefly for the telephone company. She said she didn't get visitors, and it was a welcome change to see the children.

Another woman, wearing a delicate gold cross, said the songs were new to her but she found them very catchy, and she nodded in time to the singing. "It was lovely," she said.

Solomon and fifth-grade teacher Rabbi Yosef Carlebach looked pleased. "I think it was meaningful for them," Solomon said, smiling as she looked around at the boys' animated faces.