Gan Camarillo Preschool: "I care"

"Pesach Ba" (Pesach is coming)

To introduce the coming holiday of Pesach , we began with a whimsical story /puppet show "Pesach Ba" (Pesach is coming).

The children enjoyed witnessing a Shabbat table transform into a Seder Table as the Challa's danced off the table, and were replaced by 3 crunchy matzah's. The matzah's felt thin and bumpy...compared to the fluffy challa!

An additional bottle of grape juice marched on along with 4 special kiddush cups!

Then a round Seder plate came dancing on!.

Each of them sang the chant "Pesach Ba" (Pesach is coming) reminding the children that another special holiday is on its way.

Connecting the Seder and the Story

Now that the children were introduced to the new holiday that is coming up- it was time to connect "why" the seder plate, matzah, salt water and extra cups of wine!

Our story began in Mitzrayim (Egypt) with a King named pharoah. This king was not the nice type of King that cared for his people. He was mean, and only thought of himself.
In fact he decided one day- that he wanted to build lots and lots of huge buildings to store things in, and he decided that the Jewish people should be the ones to build them.

He didn't even give them a choice. At first the work seemed like fun, but then it got hard because Pharoah didnt let them take breaks for a drink of water, and he didnt let them stop to do anything else they wanted to do.

The bricks were so big and so heavy- To help the children understand the intensity of work the Jewish slaves experienced, we had one box that was filled with VERY heavy contents. It was almost impossible for one child to lift it alone, we needed 2 or 3 together to lift it!

To connect the seder plate items and the story- we spoke about the tears that flowed from the Jewish people's eyes, because the work was so hard. We tasted the salt water from the seder table- which reminds us of tears!

"I care" - Learning empathy from the Pesach story.

What would you do if you noticed someone crying??

"I would run and give them a hug" (Hannah said)

"help them" (Faiga)

"If someone was thirsty , we would get them water." (Saige)

" I would thelp them" (Dovi)

Moshe was a very Kind Jewish person who noticed how sad the Jewish people were. Hashem sent him to help the Jewish people.

To help the children develop this important value (like Moshe had)- we created an "I care" jar in our classroom, which we placed beautiful stones inside, every time we notice someone showing how they "care" for other people.

Saige showed how she cared on Monday- when she noticed Bela Riva's water bottle was left behind- she ran to get it for her friend, and carried it all the way outside for her!

Faiga caught on right away- while we were lining up to go outside, one of her friends was swinging her body and taking her space on the line- so faiga decided she would just pick another place to stand.

Throughout the week we spoke about how we can care like Moshe.

Hannah and Bela Riva drawing a picture together of how they care!

Let My People Go!

Our story continued with Hashem telling Moshe to go and speak to Pharoah- to tell him to "Let my people go." Hashem said to Moshe- "This is not what I created my people to do! They are supposed to be able to choose what they want to do each day, and I want to give them the Torah so they can choose to do Mitzvah's." So Moshe went to speak to Pharoah!

Pharoah was really stubborn, and he said, "No No No, I will not let them go"

So Hashem sent 10 plagues to teach him a lesson!

First plague of Blood- When Pharo sent his servant to get him a drink, the water turned to blood!

Then there were Frogs , wild animals and other very uncomfortable plagues that Hashem sent on the Mitzriyim (Egyptians).

It took 10 plagues until Pharoah finally agreed to let the Jewish people go! Next week we will continue the story to learn about Matzah and the miracles that took place after the Jewish people left Mitzrayim (Egypt.)

Hagadda's

This is a special book that is used on Pesach, which outlines the 15 steps of the Seder! We began working on different pages to be included in this special book that we will send home before Pesach!