Friday, July 18, 2025

Tefillah from the Heart 💗

This week, we "landed" in Chevron, a very special city in Eretz Yisrael!
Chevron, is home to the Ma’aras HaMachpeila, the cave where our forefathers and mothers are buried, including Avraham Avinu and Sarah Imeinu. We learned the story of how Avraham was looking for a special holy place to bury Sarah, because Sarah was a tzadekes — a truly righteous woman. Avraham was walking next to the Ma’ara, and he smelled a beautiful smell coming from inside, the smell of Gan Eden (heaven). That’s how he knew it was a holy place.
He bought the cave from a man named Efron, paying the full price of 400 silver coins, even though Efron had offered to give it to him for free. Avraham wanted to make sure that everyone would know it belonged to the Yidden forever.


We made our own contract scrolls between Avraham Avinu and Efron, just like in the story! Eli, practiced his fine motor skills and used a ruler to carefully draw the Ma’aras HaMachpeila on his contract.

People come from all over the world to visit the Ma’aras HaMachpeila and daven to Hashem there. To bring Chevron into our classroom, we spent the week talking about tefilah — and we even turned our classroom into a shul!



Morah asked, “What is tefilah?”
Mendy raised his hand and said, “When we talk to Hashem!
Shai added, “Our tefilahs brings Moshiach!

We learned that there are two kinds of tefilah: One is from the siddur or brachos we remember by heart, and the other is when we simply talk to Hashem in our own words.

To bring this idea to life, we set up a special mailbox in our classroom labeled “Hashem’s Postal Service”!
Whenever they wanted, the children could come and write a letter to Hashem! Because tefilos are like letters, and Hashem always reads them!

The children wrote the sweetest tefilos to Hashem from their hearts! Shai asked Hashem to protect all the Yidden in Eretz Yisroel. Yossi asked Hashem to watch over his cousin who fights in the IDF. Axel wrote “Thank you, Hashem!” and Eli asked Hashem for a chicken and a cow! 💗



We learned about the beautiful mitzvah of saying Shema Yisrael before we go to sleep. Each child made their very own Shema card and stitched it onto a soft, cuddly sheep, perfect for bedtime snuggles and tefillah.

We talked about what the words mean:
שמע ישראל ה׳ אלוקינו ה׳ אחד
"Hashem is One! Hashem is King! Hashem created everything!"
Yossi showed us how we lay in bed and say Shema with love and kavanah (intention). What a special way to go to sleep feeling safe, happy, and close to Hashem.

Sarah was such a tzadeikes that Hashem made a special miracle — her Shabbos candles stayed lit from one Shabbos to the next. Ashira created her own beautiful candle holders.


We had a super exciting surprise this week — real karate masters came to visit our Gan! They taught us some awesome moves, showed us how to focus and stand strong, and even let us try a few karate poses ourselves. Mordy was our star assistant! He showed us some cool moves he already knows and helped teach the class like a real pro! We all felt so strong and powerful by the end of the lesson!







Pizza time!



Kria

Golden Glittery ג (Gimel)! 


Academics

STEM challenge 2D & 3D shape building time! We used playdoh & packing pellets, & voted on which made the most sturdy structure. Here Shai &Mendy used packing pellets to make a triangular prism.


Axel used playdoh to build a trapezoid.


Aftercare

The children had an incredible time learning about Jewish leaders from the past by acting out scenes from the Torah. They shared what they learned, what they love, and how these leaders inspire them today. Each child expressed why they’re proud to be Jewish, bringing so much heart and creativity to their performances. The experience strengthened their confidence, teamwork, and connection to their identity. It was fun, meaningful, and their improv skills were amazing!


Making and enjoying homemade Falafel!


Shabbat Shalom!


Traveling to Cheveron !



This week we traveled to Chevron, one of the four holiest places in Eretz Yisroel. 
Maras Hamachpala which is in Chevron is the place where our foremothers and forefathers are buried. Avraham, Yitzchak, Yakov, Sara, Rivka, Rochel and Leah! People come from all over to pray at their gravesite. Yocheved Sara, while looking at a real picture of Maras Hamachpala creating her own.



Who was Avraham and Sara? We got to get a taste of what they were like by having puppets act out their hospitality. It felt so good to be greeted and we learned how we can be just like them! 


Sara was the very first women who lit the Shabbos candles. We created our own made out of clay to take home for us to light or our mommies. 



Our friends, became little professional chefs one morning making their very own pizzas for lunch. We learned how to portion control the sauce and how much toppings we like. 



O boy was it delicious!



Karate day! 


Celebrating our friends' strengths! 



During aftercare we played an Eretz Yisroel board game.


Fun in the sun and getting wet is the best part!





Friday, July 11, 2025

We need each other!


This week at Gan we 'landed' at the Kibbutz! A lesson we can learn from Kibbutz living is being a community, we all need each other!

We role played this by having a animal on the Kibbutz keep running away. Our friends came up and problem solved together. They come up with building a home for the little giraffe to keep him safe. We feel safe when we have each other to help us out! It was a powerful lesson we all learned together.


Using pictures of animals at the Kibbutz as inspiration to make delicious animal cookies.


It was quite tricky matching the right stamp to the animal cut out. 


Painting animals together.



A petting zoo came to visit camp! We all loved the duck's fun hair style.


Using our calm hands to help the animals feel safe with us.




Yehudis, showing us her own chickens that she has at her house! 



At the Kibbutz you might see a lot of gardens!
To bring this into our classroom we planted our own seeds.


Filling up the soil at the sensory table.


Eliara, planting her flowers in the playdough 'dirt'. 




Thank you, Rabbi Lang for coming in to do a rally with us! This week we celebrated the 13 of Tammuz which marks the day when the Frierdiker Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, was released from Soviet prison after being arrested for spreading Torah and Judaism. His release is a celebration of Jewish strength, faith, and the power of standing up for what’s right—even in the face of danger. 


Saying the Torah Pessukim is a big highlight at the rallies!


Enjoying fresh watermelon together on a hot sunny day.