A very special building...

On Tuesday we commemorated a very sad day in the history of the Jewish people. It was the day that both Holy temples (Beit Hamikdash) were destroyed.

 

To mark this important day on the Jewish Calendar, we chose to teach the children WHAT is the "Beit Hamikdash" in the hope that it would be meaningful to them, and spark their excitement to do what they can, to make the world a better place, so we can once again see it in real life!

I began with a circle time discussion about why we love our home! It's always important that the lessons are relevant and meaningful to the children, at their level...so i like to start with something that is! Each of the children were thrilled to share with their friends what they love about their homes.

The next step was for me to help the children connect the love and comfort of their OWN homes, to the home that is G-d's! 

 

I explained to them that there was a SPECIAL BUILDING, in Israel, that is called the BEIT HAMIKDASH. 

 

I showed the children some pictures of what it looked like.

Cooper helped me by showing some of what the Temple looked liked to get the idea how special and beautiful it was.

Then I asked the children have you seen a building like this? Gold and tall and beautiful? Have you seen the Temple where there is a gold Menorah? Jewish people excitedly going in and out to get a look?

Well that place is G-d's home!

We decided to have a look to see if we could find it....

Levi said "look a Menorah!" I was so proud of him he took the knowledge he just heard from circle time and applied it to what he was seeing. He was getting excited we were in the Temple so we had a little discussion by the Menorah..

Yes this was a Menorah but not the one in the Temple. The one in the Temple had 8 branches and it was a lot bigger with steps going up to it.

So we came  to the conclusion the  Beit Hamikdash was not here in Camarillo or some other places we thought it might be! WHERE WAS IT?

We came rushing back to circle time to continue our discussion about this special building. I told them that this building was in ISRAEL.

I explained to them that today was a very sad day, because many years ago on this day, the Temple was taken away. 

I told them that there's just ONE WALL left, and that's the Kotel--the special Wall in Israel that some of them may have visited, and the place where many people visit every day.

Silver Bricks...

How can we help rebuild this beautiful and special home?

Any Daddy's are builders? ... well I explained to the children that we need more than just builders but Mitzvah's - good deeds to create this Temple to be everlasting!

Children learn best through visualization and hands on... so I covered some blocks with shiny paper...

I took their mitzvah notes that the Mommies and Daddies wrote them and showed them these mitzvahs that YOU DID will create another brick in the Beit Hamikdash!!

Now they were getting excited, it was so real! 

 

Each child glowed when I read his/her mitzvah note and he/she  came up and placed it on another shiny brick!

It was getting bigger!

I pointed out to the children that it's not just the mitzvah notes but ANY MITZVAH they did is building the Holy temple! Here is a glimpse of the different kinds of Mitzvahs that go on in our classroom:

Menucha: " Look I found shiny like the Beis Hamikdash in my lunch box!"

Caleb saying the holy letters of the Alef bet

Menucha helping to clean up

Menucha and rochel playing nicely together



Giving Charity

Levi sharing the cheese with Healey (We enjoyed delicious Pizza lunch this week)

Even taking good care of our pets is a Mitzvah!

Ellah cleaning the doctor supplies