Mountains talking in our classroom! Living the lesson from Mt. Sinai

Mountains talking? 

Yup... that's what happened at our circle time this week! After learning the famous "midrash" (commentary) on the story of why G-d chose Mt. Sinai to give the Torah on, we helped the children better understand and relate to this story, by role-playing the dialogues the mountains had with each other!

Each child had the chance to be one of the Mountains... bragging about how tall, how wide or how beautiful he or she was.

To help the children connect to the story, and the Mountains- we showed visuals of various different Mountains. Some with snow all over its peaks, waterfalls, volcano's with lava erupting out of it, rock climbing mountains... each mountain had another reason to proclaim IT SHOULD  BE the one that should be chosen to give the Torah. 

Yitzi helped act out the tall mountain.
He too bragged and said " I am so very big". 

We asked the children what it might feel like, when a friend says, "I'm bigger or better than you!"

Har Sinai was small, and did not have a lot of the qualities that some of the other mountains had, but Hashem chose Har Sinai to teach us a BIG LESSON:

Har sinai was just HAPPY THE WAY HASHEM MADE HIM! He did not boast, or make other mountains feel jealous.

In the end Hashem made lots of flowers grow on Har Sinai, and then the Torah was given on the top of the Mountain! We will all try to be like Har Sinai... to be happy the way Hashem made us, and not make other people feel sad.

Mitzvah Notes bring message home!

Our Mitzvah Tree is bursting with Mitzvah notes! Notes that the children's Mommies or Daddies write each day, that describe a special good deed the child did at home.

During snack time, each child has their moment to shine, as their mitzvah is being read!

To help the children make the connection between the mitzvah's that they do, and the contents of the Torah (the gift Hashem gave us on Shavuot) we took some of the notes down, and had the children glue them into a paper Torah that they made for Shavuot!

This activity helped the children understand WHAT the commandments of the Torah are- in a relevant and meaningful way!

Even our youngest member of the class was able to recognize
 that her Mitzvah's are from the Torah!

It's amazing to see at this time of the year, that the children can recognize their own name in writing! Each time they sit for a project there are more and more discussions about the letters in their name!  A great educational moment while waiting for Morah Lisa to come around with the glue ;)

Levi was so proud of all his Mitzvah notes!

 Later Morah Lisa found Levi 'reading' from his Mitzvah note Torah!

 

Clay Mountains

We offered molding clay as an invitation for the children to manipulate, to look like a mountain. We placed a picture of a mountain with flowers on it (Har Sinai had beautiful flowers on it)
 To allow the children to create an authentic looking mountain (like the one in the picture we put out) we also set out some tiny colorful beads,

 

Yehudis wanted some of the beads out of the mountain, so she used a long stick requiring a lot of concentration.

That morning, Yehudis proudly came to school with a cup of straws that she worked hard at cutting into smaller pieces!  One of her friends decided to use them for the flowers on the mountain!

Upside down bowls and playdough became a half hour activity of trying to cover the bowl to create a mountain. Some of the older children persevered for quite some time, ensuring they cover every inch of the surface- so none of the bowl would be showing.

When Noach completed his mountain, after working super hard on it-  he ran to the Aron Kodesh (holy ark) got a Torah and placed it on his mountain! He was quite proud of the idea, and so were we!

Working on our listening skills with Morah Lisa.

Waiting patiently to understand what was required to do for this task!

Edible Har Sinai's- Shabbat Party Treat!

We are getting so big, we can wash our own faces!

Morning Fun!