Pesach: Humble Like Matzah

Pesach Preparation

Before Pesach starts we make sure our house is clean and all the Chametz is gone. In our class we spoke about how to clean the "Chametz" inside of our hearts. We do this by getting rid of all our bad Midos (character traits).

Chamets is any food that is made of grain and water that has been allowed to ferment and rise for more then 18 min.

Matzah is hard like a cracker. Its made from flour and water which has not been allowed to rise. We eat Matzah to remember how quickly we left Egypt and put our faith in Hashem that He would save us.

Matzah is flat and simple, therefore we can learn from it to be humble. 

The children had a discussion about being humble: 

"I can be proud of my hard work but I don't need to shout it out load" 

"I shouldn't show off my pizza because it might make my friends jealous"

"Instead of saying I am better than you, I can say I can help you"

Learning about the seder plate.

Lifting heavy bricks like the Yidden in Miztrayim. It was hard work!

The ten plagues show (ask your child to put on the show at the seder)

The children getting creative with their personal Seder Plate

Yisroel makes a page for his Haggadah

 Max working hard on the hagaddah

In the spirit of Krias Yam Suf we played instruments while going over the sounds of the letters.

Strengthening fine motor skills and hebrew name recognition.

Devorah Leah uses a pencil pin to practice using her pincher fingers.

Morning  Centers

Levi Yitzchak was so proud that he followed the design.

Yisroel and Menucha tried to put together the map of the United States

Mazal tov Menucha for your baby brother!

Preschoolers Preparing for Pesach and The Seder!

There are many traditions that Jewish families do in preparation for Pesach! Cleaning our homes are one of them! The chassidic explanation for this is that we must "clean our souls"- meaning to get rid of the "Pharo" in us, and break through the "slavery" that our minds are sometimes "stuck in."

 

cleaning in our classroom!

'Bedikat Chometz" "Cleaning for Chometz"

We taught the children about the ritual that is done the night before Pesach- where each household hides 10 pieces of bread. We walk around with a candle, spoon and feather searching for each of the 10 pieces of bread, and then save them in a bag- which will be burned the next morning! 

Each of the children had a chance to find a piece of the hidden breads in our classroom! 

To help with their number recognition, we numbered each of the pieces with dots. After finding a piece, the child was invited to find the corresponding number to the dots that was on the paper the Morah held! It also helped us keep track of how many pieces were still hidden!

Sweeping into a pile

We created some boxes on the floor using tape as a guide, for the children to learn how to sweep into "piles." Some of our older students really caught on, and learned to create a pile, vs sweeping in many directions!

The Seder Plate- 

The children had an opportunity to peel and cut the apples for Charoset- the traditional food that is on the seder plate, that reminds us of the cement that was used to build bricks in Egypt.

They also crushed nuts using bricks! (sorry, didnt capture any pics of that!)

We Enjoyed going through the 15 steps of the seder, using the beautiful Haggadot that the children made with their Morah's help! The children are very prepared for the real thing!

Breaking the Matzah!

Tasting the bitter Marror!

Seder plate math!

The children enjoyed a fun Roll the seder plate game! This self correcting game allowed the children to work on their number recognition and counting skills while learning the items of the seder plate!

Setting the table

The children were invited to make places for each of their friends at our "seder table" for the "Shulchan Aruch" part of the seder. They carefully placed plates, cutlery, cups to ensure each setting had what they needed.

All round smiles ;)

We are leaving Egypt..All about Matzah!

Leaving Egypt

We continued learning the story of Pharoah being not very kind to the Jewish people. He made them work hard carrying heavy bricks and they didnt even have a choice. They were tired and sad.

Hashem said, "This is not why I created my people!" I need to take them out of this slavery, so I can give them the Torah. Then they will have the choice every day to fill their time with Mitzvah's!

Hashem told Moshe, "Go to Pharoah, and tell him to Let my people go!"

Pharoah was very stubborn, and refused to listen to Moshe. Pharoah thought he was greater and stronger than Hashem!  Hashem needed to teach Pharo who was the real King of the whole world, and Finally after 10 plagues he said, "GO!" 

Moshe gathered all the Jewish people and told them its time to leave Mitzrayim.

They made Matzah to take with them. They didnt have much time to cook the Matzah!

But after travelling for a little bit, they reached a big ocean! What shall we do?

 Some people said we should go back... but Pharoah was chasing after them because he had changed his mind!

Hashem made a big miracle and SPLIT the sea in half! The Jewish people were so thankful to be able to cross the ocean on dry land!

We set up a special "splitting of the sea" center- inviting the children to experience the miracle!

 

I wonder if the Jewish people were able to see all the beautiful 

fish and creatures from under the sea?

Matzah VS Challah

We set up a model Matzah bakery, to help the children learn how Matzah is made, and the differences between Matzah and Challah!

We used forks to make holes, and set timers to 18minutes to make sure the Matzah was baked in quick enough time! We learned that if Matzah takes longer to cook, it can become Chometz!

What is Chometz? Science experiment!

To illustrate the differences of ingredients in Challah vs Matzah we did a science experiment!
Using 2 water bottles with balloons ontop. One bottle represented Challah. We poured some yeast into it! The other bottle represented the Matzah -- and this one only had water! We left the water bottles to see what would happen to the balloons after the yeast had time to activate!

 We were all excited to see the "Challah" balloon had risen!

Chometz Sorting

We learned that one of the ways we observe the Pesach Holiday is by only eating foods that do not contain "Chometz." We played a sorting game to decipher which foods are Chometz, and which are not.

All round fun and learning...

Mazaltovs!

Baby Yakov Mordechai Muchnik on your Bris Mila and beautiful name! May you grow to live up to your special namesake!

Bela Riva on your 5th Bday, Mendel Paller on your 4th birthday, Menachem on your Arainfernish!