Learning the Story of the Megilla-- now that the stage was set! Lessons on what is truly important in life, and where our help comes from!

After living peacefully in our "Mordechai & Esther's Jewish Home" the stage was set to begin the Purim Story! (Megillah)

We created an additional center in our classroom:  King Achashverosh's palace.

In contrast to the Jewish home, this was more focused on dresses, glamour, jewels and mirrors.
There was definitely a contrasting atmosphere between the 2 centers. Which is what the Jewish people  would have experienced upon attending the Kings feast in his palace!  We wanted the children to feel the difference between the flashy showy palace and the Mitzvah filled home of Mordechai and Esther.

Eva experimenting with make up ;)

King Achshverosh picked Esther to be his new queen!

We discussed how uncomfortable this was for her, as she wanted to be in her own home doing mitzvah's!!  However, she knew this was Hashem's plan and EVEN in the palace Hashem will be watching over her!

This was a powerful practical lesson for our class and explored it for a couple days. Even when we feel sad or scared just like Esther must have felt when she first became Queen, Hashem is helping us and is with us -every step of the way!

Role playing the king and the queen

The king puppet helped us understand what King Achashverosh was like, he had a big feast in order to show off all his wealth. Now our class really understood after living in our "Jewish home" center, the difference of how Mordechai treated them and how the King was treating them at the feast.

It was so amazing to observe that even with all the glamour and bling that the palace brought out the children still felt at 'home' and comfortable in our Jewish home center.

We even did circle time in Mordechai and Esthers home. A great learning opportunity to make space for all, in a small area!

One morning Evi came in with a bag of ice and a lemon.
He said it was for his friends!
It is so rewarding for the child when taking their lead and interest.

We came up with an idea how to share - make lemonade!

Friends stopping by to see the action..

Evi was so sweet and offered all his friends lemonade before he tasted some himself!

We lightly touched on Haman and used it as a way to bring out a positive lesson.

In the story....Haman wanted everyone to bow down to him!

For the children to understand what "bowing down" meant, we talked about what Jewish people do when they daven. The only bowing down is to Hashem during prayer.

 

After learning about Haman and how he was quite mean, we asked what should they do??
Should we Cry?  listen to Haman?...

Mordechai took the children and learned torah, knowing that their faith in Hashem  is what would save them.

Friends

Traffic and working on patience;)

Jewish Superheroes-- teach a powerful lesson! The way we tell the Purim Story makes all the difference!

Jewish Holidays are a golden opportunity for us to instill life lessons in our students... and at the same time help the students realize that our Jewish history is not a bunch of stories that remain in the books (on the shelf!) they are stories that come to life- with relevant, living lessons!

We pride ourselves in taking a step back, visualizing the story through the eyes of a two, three or four year old...and only then- choosing how to tell the story, so that the lesson we want them to gain- is bright and clear!

We wanted the Jewish Heroes ESTHER & MORDECHAI to receive as much of the lime-light as possible (so the children would emulate and strive to be like them!)  All the good deeds they did and what their Jewish home might have looked like. We wanted the children to be empowered that they too do so many mitzvah's just like these two Jewish heroes and want to do more!!

Before introducing the palace with kings and queens... we wanted to ensure our students recognized WHO Mordechai and Esther were. (Characters that they could relate to!)

We spent this week focusing on:

ESTHER AND MORDECHAI'S JEWISH HOME.                                                  It was amazing to watch what unfolded this past week as we lay the foundations for the Purim story.

Our dramatic play center turned into "Mordechai & Esther's  Jewish home." We filled their home with items that might have been found if we went back in time and were invited by Mordechai and Esther themselves.Lots of Judaica, Shabbat supplies: candles, challah, flowers...

Placed pictures on one of the walls depicting the children doing mitzvah's! Through out the day we saw different children checking out their mitzvah pictures and talking about what they did.

A large mezuzah was placed on their 'door' Levi Lubin knew just what to do when he saw it ;)

 He gave it a BIG kiss.

Challah center

Esther lived so long ago but i'm sure had the same delicious smell coming from her home before Shabbos!
Levi A. and his sister Lia making challah.

Pictures of delicious challah and how to braid it helped the children create their own challahs.

Elizabeth found many siddurim- prayer books and helped organize them!

Time to go in the oven! Through-out the play, we constantly made the connection to Mordechai and Esther to help the children connect with the characters, and understand how they must have lived.

"Mmmm, what yummy challah's! Just like Esther would make" etc..

By the end of the week, we heard it in the children's conversations among each other--- the talk of feeling so special like them!

Stuffed stockings was another way to practice the technique of braiding challah.
Levi .L. "its so soft!"

Esther and Mordechai also gave Tzedaka! We placed a lot of coins and Tzedakah boxes around their home for the children to be able to give whenever they wanted.

Max giving Tzedakah before cooking a meal.

Evi was role playing Shabbos and singing the Kiddush!

Devorah Leah took out her challah from the oven for the occasion. :)

Beautiful to hear and see the children singing the Alef beis from the Siddur.

Mordechai and Esther come to life

At snack time we sing  their Mitzvah notes. This week, Mordechai and Esther got to sing them and the children felt so proud when they heard their name and how much Hashem is so proud of them!

We also took this opportunity to sort out any issues that might have occurred during the day! Our  Mordechai and Esther puppets helped role play how to work it out. (we asked the children, "What would Mordechai and Esther do in this situation?"

They joined us for circle time!

Muka helped Mordechai give tzedakah too!

Girls teaching Esther the 'girls in the army song' (talking about the special mitzvah's girls have)

Not only was this a foundation for telling the Purim story, we REALLY saw a change in the children role modeling good behavior from these two Jewish Heroes.

Levi and Aron sharing a siddur together .

It was quite catchy !

Drawing Mitzvah's that they do!

Aron "I shared my tzizis with a friend who forgot theirs"

Tzedakah sensory bin

Quarters, nickels, dimes and penny's hid in the rice table with funnels and tubes.

Eva knowing just what to do when she found a penny!- Placed it in the tzedakah box :)

Levi .A. putting them in and proudly wearing his new kippah!

Paint and cars fun!

Mixing the colors to see what color it will make while making different tracks.

What can we learn from Trees? Happy Tu B'shevat!

Happy Birthday to the Trees!

This week we celebrated Tu B'shvat, the Jewish New Year for Trees.
At Gan Camarillo we always dig beneath the surface to make the lessons relevant and meaningful to our students. 

The Torah states- "Ki Adam Eitz Hasadeh" "For man is compared to a tree of the field"- this verse instructs us to take many lessons from the make-up of a tree, to adapt into our own lives as humans.

Here's how we gave these ideas over to the children:

We Introduced this concept by talking about babies!
With two students in our class who just welcomed new born siblings into their home, it was a very relevant topic-- and easy for them to understand the difference in the care a newborn baby needs!

Eva was very concerned when our 'baby' started 'crying'. Which is the natural response, we want to take care of the delicate and fragile baby.

We then connected the newborn baby to a seed: how much care it needs in order for it to grow into a proper plant or tree.

What kind of care?

After some very humorous answers, we placed our little seeds in the soil and added water.

As a class we found the best, sunniest spot for our seeds!

During outdoor play we had many children running over to see if they started to grow yet..

This was a valuable lesson how much patience and care a seedling needs as well  the time it takes for a baby to grow.

Manipulating our bodies into tiny seeds..

starting to grow...

and grow!!

 

During circle time by our Torah song, we gathered all the children under our classroom tree along with pictures of plants for another lesson on Trees!

 

"A person is like a tree" 

A tree needs WATER to survive

As a Jew our water is the TORAH.!

 

When we learn Torah it gives our special soul (neshama) 'water' to drink.

 

 
Devorah Leah making her hat for the Tu B'shvat party!

 

:)

 

 

 

Levi creating a tree on contact paper.

 

 

Tu B'shvat sensory:

We placed green play-dough, sticks and leaves  as an invitation for some creativity from the children. 

 

Aron: "I'm making green apples for my tree"

 

"My big apple"

Playing with seeds,

placing them in small containers...

Levi placing seeds biggest to smallest in the different size compartments

Levi getting the seeds to fit in the holes.

Let the party begin!

On Tu B'shvat (Tuesday) we started by wearing our tree hats and singing our davening songs.

Happiness

Favorite part: "Oh lets be friends ' song.

Tasting the sheva minim - 7 special fruits of Israel.

Was great to see children trying new fruits that they usually don't get to eat!

Discussions on which have seeds...!

Dancing around a tree...