The ancient hand-made matzah- hand made by our preschoolers!

 Matzah factory!

The children painted a big box that transformed into the matzah oven.

The first reaction to seeing dough on the table was "Challah dough for Shabbat!"

This was a great hands on way to learn the difference between Challah and Matzah.

Matzah has to be made with only flour and water and under 18 minutes. (In contrast to Challah has many other ingredients, and is allowed to rise for a long time!)

 

Eva and Muka making sure their matzah was flat!

Working together bringing out discussions about what we learned on Pesach.

Levi Lubin and Levi A creating holes to make sure it doesn't rise in the oven!

Devorah Leah was waiting for the timer to ding for it to be ready!

With pictures from a real Matzah factory the children figured out on their own how to stick the dough on their sticks to place in the hot oven.

Levi wanted Elizabeth to check out his matzah before going in the oven!

We placed ticking timers around the Mini factory to make sure the process was fast and that their matzah wouldn't turn into Chometz!

Learning numbers by setting it to the right time.

Evi seeing if his matzah was ready!

They had so much  fun seeing the full circle of making the matzah and then placing it in the Matzah box when done and finally delivering it to their seder meal! 

Enjoying their hard work

Levi's Abba got to have some fun in the Matzah factory! :)

Lately some of the children in the class have loved the feeling of burying their legs in the sand ...

Highlights of Circle Time

We have a roster/schedule for each day of the week- that reminds us of something special that we do by our davening circle. This helps them learn the days of the week as well as maintain enthusiasm in davening to Hashem.

Tuesdays are our instruments day!

The joys of working together...

Egypt in our Classroom

 

 Mitzrayim- Egypt Center:

Our classroom traveled back in time to experience the Pesach story in a real and hands on way, while learning lessons that are relevant for now!!

We placed Pyramids (that the children decorated) with a hot sun beating down too,  with a lot of boxes for the children to role-play moving heavy bricks and building pyramids in the Desert in Mitzrayim.

During snack time Morah Micheala and I role played what a Jew in slavery might have felt like.

Using oversized 'puppets' of the King Paroh and Moshe (Moses) we demonstrated the different characters. King Paroh wanted the Jews to build him Pyramids. They didnt have any other choice but to build.

We focused on what having a CHOICE means.

Slaves dont have a choice!  As the week went by the children got a sense of how unfair it must have felt to be bossed around by King Paroh.

We always want to put our focus on the positive and thats when Moshe came into play. He was our caring leader who told us not to be afraid or worry, because Hashem will get us out!

 

 

 

 Hard at work!

We put out slave costumes to make it feel real

 

Elizabeth reaction to the way she looked was priceless!

 

 

 

Making a "pyramid house"

 

 

King Paroh was left in the center to role play.

 

 

 

 

Levi working really hard on his pyramid!

 

Eva working on balance.

 

We used the play in this center as an opportunity to discuss what it feels like when we accomplish something.  When someone says 'great job' or 'wow, what a nice pyramid'. It feels good!

King Paroh didn't say those things. We contrasted this to the way Moshe would speak. He was always caring. This was a great lesson for our class to make someone else feel good by complimenting and encouraging them!

 

Beautiful to see them take Moshe and help each other out!

 

 

Shua making everyone feel good and special with Moshe.

 

Hard work with Team work!

The bricks were quite heavy in Mitzrayim and I'm sure they had to work together to lift the big ones. In our class we saw a lot of team effort carrying BIG boxes to make pyramids with !

 

 

 

Evi wanted to make a big pyramid to the sky! He kept on asking king paroh "Is it good enough??" After getting the answer "no" he knew to turn to Moshe! We quickly picked up Moshe and said "Evi! That is quite an amazing pyramid!" His face shows it all :)

 

We placed pictures of hard working Jews and a place for the children to return their costumes when they were done.

 

 

Shua deep in thought while looking at one of the Mitzrayim pictures.

 

 

Construction Site 

Next to the pyramid block area we placed trucks and pictures of  what a modern day construction sight might look like. This was for the children to contrast the kind of  back breaking work the Jewish people did (by hand) back then,  as opposed to using machinery and trucks- which is what we have now.

Not only did King Paroh make them do everything by hand but he eventually didnt even give them bricks to build and they had to make their own!

 Took this part outside ;)

With sand and water and brick molds the children had to make bricks with Paroh telling them to work faster! 

 

 

 

One morning we noticed all the chairs being placed in a very long line!

The whole class was taking a trip out of Mitzrayim!

There were different opinions where they were going ;)

(some said Florida, others Israel)

 

Block pyramid making:

With a picture of pyramids and an example of how to make one we placed blocks on each tray as an invitation for the children to expperiement building Pyramids. 

  It was a great math skill to count each row the correct amount of blocks.

 

 

Sense of accomplishment!

 

 

A different dimension

With clay and a triangle shaped out of popsicles, Levi worked hard making small bricks and filling up the shape.

 

 Eva creating a pyramid with popsicle sticks!

 

Learning about the Seder

We set out all the items for the seder table (matzah, four cups of wine the items on the seder plate)

At first we got these questioning looks "is it friday today? Are we having a Shabbos party?"

We talked about all the differences between the SEDER TABLE and the SHABBOS TABLE!

Levi looking at the seder book and copying what he was seeing!

 

 

Devorah Leah adding the food items on the seder plate

 

 

 

Levi offering grape juice to everyone!

 

 

 One day this week it was quite hot. We put out some sponges and a water table for some refreshing fun!

Evi and Eva washing our bikes! :)

 

We want to wish a Happy birthday to Shua and Chani Shneerson!! It was double the fun!!