The Story of Noach and the Ark is one of the most famous stories children learn. What might not be as famous is the Kabalistic interpretation of the story, and its message for us.
What kind of a message can a preschooler gain from a drastic moment in History- of G-d flooding the world and saving Noach and his family?
To help the children appreciate the true meaning of the story we started by setting the stage for what the world was like , a LONG time ago- during the times of Noach.
The world was not a nice or fun place to be!
Aron was the volunteer of what it would feel like back then.
The block he was holding got taken away.
He didn't like that too much...
Not nice things kept on happening, in fact the whole world was filled with that type of behavior, and the people didn't feel sorry or want to change their ways!
There was ONE SPECIAL FAMILY who did beautiful mitzvah's and didn't treat people badly, NOACH and his wife and children!
The world was not a clean, beautiful place. G-d needed to give the world a BIG BATH!
(Kind of like what we do when we get all dirty-- we need to wash the dirt off ourselves! We modeled for the children a plastic doll getting dirty with mud, and then having to clean it in a bath!)
Now, Noach and his family didn't have to have a big bath--they always made good choices and did what G-d wanted.
So G-d told Noach to build a big boat, and bring all the animals and some food. (this was a great opportunity to talk about sinking and floating!)
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| The older class learned that there were 3 floors on the Ark. The top for Noach & his family, the middle for the animals, and the bottom for the garbage! |
Once Noach was in the boat, G-d made it rain and rain and rain!
After the world had its BIG BATH, Noach looked out his window and got quite a scare! The world was empty and not beautiful! He wanted to stay inside where it was cozy and happy.
We had great discussions from what the children experience when they feel scared or they just want to hold onto their parent...
What did Noach do?
He looked up!
He saw a RAINBOW!!
G-d (who is like our parent) was comforting Noach and telling him "Don't worry you can come out and look up, see this BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW?- When you do BEAUTIFUL MITZVAH'S (good deeds) the world will be beautiful like this rainbow! You can do it!
We wanted to EMPOWER the children to appreciate what Noach might have felt like after seeing the rainbow, as well as what the real message of a rainbow is. So we used our mitzvah note system as a tool to accomplish this!
This weeks Mitzvah notes were all different colors like a rainbow! Instead of placing them in our tree as we usually do each day- we placed them on a rainbow artwork that the children painted on Monday. The children were able to see the rainbow colored squares (of the mitzvah notes) beautifying their rainbows, and make that strong connection:
THAT THEIR MITZVA'S, ARE WHAT BEAUTIFY OUR WORLD! (like a rainbow.)
What a powerful lesson and it definitely showed on their faces but we wanted everyday this week to be full of this feeling of each child thinking " I am making this world beautiful!"
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"I did a mitzvah!"
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You can see on their faces what it feels like when they get their mitzvah note sung by snack time!
Showing each other what color mitzvah they got.
( was good color recognition practice!)
Another way to reinforce this idea- was by making all their mitzvah notes into a rainbow -- they are truly everyday making this world so beautiful and they are so special!
To complete our week, each child made a "rainbow mitzvah hat" to take home for Shabbat!
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| Ellah was so proud and we sang for all of them and cheered! |
The classrooms came alive with a variety of centers for many different modes of learning.
Sensory
Shua and Chani adding different rainbow colored beads in their play dough.
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| Chani said they were sprinkles :) |
Sink and float.
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| Mendel made a boat out of a cork and it floated! |
Art
Hand painting different colors that are in the rainbow
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| "mine is a green rainbow!" |
Audio
Pictures of rain and flooding to look at while listening to real sounds of a rain storm!
Literacy
Thank you Morah Lisa for getting all types of rainbow/ color books from the library!
Science
Learning how to make a rainbow using water and sunlight!
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| Mixing water colors to create different colors in the rainbow |
Motor skills
We put out a real picture of a rainbow and a pattern of the rainbow using beads in the middle of the table to see what the children would create and try to copy the pattern!
Look how proud! :)
Menucha after creating a replica of the pattern decided to bend the pipe cleaner! "Now it really looks like a rainbow!"
"I did it!"
Placing the correct color sticker on the rainbow
A glimpse of some of the BEAUTIFUL mitzvah's we caught Torah Tots doing this week!
Chani and levi sharing with Jacob's baby sister Hannah
Andor building with our new friends Perel and Moshe!
Jacob stopped his bike to show his friend a rainbow he found!
Mendel giving Shua a ride and showing him an exciting big puddle!
Menucha and rochel passing each others shoes and socks
Friends cleaning up!
Shua helping put the bikes away for lunch! He worked really hard keeping it straight.
Look who's getting a ride!
Perel wanted to stay outside and Aron thought on his own to take her by the hand and bring her back to class.
Noach and Mendel Sharing the bead bucket!
As you can see our classroom and world is getting brighter and prettier each day by our Torah Tots Mitzvah's.
We are so proud of them!
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