Puppets teaching a Yom kippur lesson.

  For Yom Kippur, we wanted to build on the Rosh Hashana big idea of Hashem loving each child/person. That love the child feels for his/her parents, is the love Hashem has for each of us.

Building on this idea- we posed the question to the children, "What if I make a mistake? Does Hashem still love me? Does my Mommy or Daddy love me even if I make a mistake?

Our goal was twofold- 

1. We wanted the children to walk away from this week with a sense of safety that Hashem will always love me no matter what, just like my parents do. (and that same love towards them is also there from us--their Morahs :-)

2.  To teach the children a sense of responsibility-- and give them the tools for what to do IF THEY DO make a mistake! It's okay to make a mistake. When we DO make one, we have a job to TRY AND FIX IT!

 

 

This is where our puppets Dina and David came in handy! :)

 

Dena and David puppets visit our classroom to help us explore social skills. We use puppet shows as a venue to explore social situations that unfold in our classroom. Puppet shows give children the opportunity to be ‘objective observers’, allowing the child to take in the whole picture- ‘both sides of the story’- and honestly assess right from wrong. 

The following Dina and David story describes a fairly typical scenario: Dena created something; David was careless, Dena was sad. How can David rectify his mistake and try to learn from it? What does forgiveness look like?

The story that you see below is what each of our classes enjoyed during circle time over the last 2 days. It is also what we sent home with each child as a preparation for Yom Kippur. (Your children decorated a beautiful cover for the book!)

Our children are so imaginative and intelligent. Encourage your child to expand on the story by asking for more details, or more interpretations. We included sample questions you can ask your child to help describe the scene and get into the hearts of Dena and David. Ask questions that will allow your child to think about the puppets’ behaviors and guide the puppets in showing caring and friendship for each other.

A Yom Kippur story:

“How We Show Our Friends We Care About Their Feelings!”

Dina is building something interesting in the block area.

Discuss: Describe what she is building. How did she feel about what she is making?

David walked by the block area to get to the other side of the classroom. There was not a lot of room there and he….

Discuss: If there was no room for David to walk what could he have done? Should David continue walking or does he need to stop and think about what just happened?

Dina saw her block building break. She started to cry.

Discuss: What happened? Why is Dina crying? How does she feel when something that she made broke?

David stopped and looked on the floor. Oh no! He knocked down Dina’s building.

Discuss: How does David feel when he realizes what he did? What would be a friendly thing to do when he realizes that he knocked down her block building? Is there something he could say to make her feel better? Is there something he could do? How can Dina let David know that she forgives him?

We had fun singing with Dina and David our new song:

 (TTTO: Where is Thumbkin)

Let’s be friends, let’s be friends,
Let’s share and play, let’s share and play.
I care for you, you care for me, everyday.

WHEN WE MAKE A MISTAKE....

Oops I’m sorry, oops I’m sorry, 

What did I do? What did I do?

I didn't want to hurt you, I want to make it better.

I made a mistake, I will fix it too!

 

 

 

That very day we introduced the puppets, we observed Yitzi using them to role play with Aron and Levi.

Chani also enjoyed pretending to be 'Dina' and build a house.

Dina and David puppets have been helping ALOT with different conflict scenarios in our classroom!

 

Here, I share with you just a few of the many examples of how this played out!

Jacob and Ilani were playing with play dough at the activity table. All of a sudden, they both wanted to play with the same snake machine! After bringing up the Dina and David puppets we asked 'what should we do?, how can we work this out?' (we modeled the scenario using the puppets.)

 

Notice this is also a teachable moment for some friends in the back round! ;)

Jacob and Ilani both started discussing what they should do and they came up with their own solution!!

"We will look in the Morah's room for another one! Then we can both can have at the same time!" They decided.

Luckily we did have another one on our play-dough supply shelf!

They were so happy and thrilled that they worked it out together.

Jacob had important information to share afterwards:

 "Ilani even gave me some play dough so I can make a BIG snake!"

 

On another instance, while we were singing our 'lets be friends song' in the background.....

Look what we saw Levi doing: Helping Shua open his new lunch box!

Rochel really wanted to just play with Menucha, but she heard some of the other children wanted to play too! Just from a Morah singing the song in the background... Rochel came up with a new idea for their imaginary play... and came up with a job for Yaisef and Ilani to do, to make the game more fun!!

Levi being a great friend and giving Aron a ride!

 

Thanks to Dina and David we feel the big idea to know we can always "fix up" mistakes, as well as care for our friends exceeded our expectations! We are so proud of all the children! (Wish we could have more footage to share of the mistakes and beautiful ways the children "fixed it!"

We need a photographer to help us with better footage for this blog :)