Pesach: Breaking through the Limits

From the Joy of Purim to the Joy of Freedom!!!

This week we continued the idea of happiness. 

Were the Jewish people happy in Mitzrayim? 

No, the Jewish people were very sad.

Why were they sad? Was it because of the hard work the Mitzrim forced upon them?

Not exactly!! It was because the Jewish people were far from Hashem and they didn't have the freedom to learn Torah and do Mitzvos. This took away their happiness and made them feel stuck.

When a person is stuck it can make them feel sad. When a Jew is far from learning Torah and doing Mitzvos he can feel stuck and sad.

This is how we can understand what the Jewish people and children felt when they were leaving Mitzrayim. They started to see Hashem and understand that they were going to be free and not feel stuck from working for Pharaoh. 

This is true freedom! Leaving Mitzrayim- the sadness, and crossing the ocean and experiencing true happiness being closer to Hashem. 

When we are sad it's like the Yetzer Hara telling us don't do the things you really love and want (we want and love to be close to Hashem). When we are happy we can become closer to Hashem and have the energy to make the right choice. 

In class we spoke about how we can decide for ourselves. For example when a person makes the choice to be sad he makes the choice to be stuck and limited. When a person is happy he makes the choice of being free and close to Hashem.

Here we tried doing something in a limited way and then do it in a free way. They had to try writing in a limited way...

Here Rozie is using the opposite hand when usually she writes with her right hand here she is writing with her left hand. 

This wasn't easy!!! I felt limited.

This week we learned all about Pesach and the Seder night!

We also got to do Bedikas Chametz and find the ten pieces that Morah Davina hid.

we got the bittersweet opportunity to taste Maror...

Motty and Dovi reacted accordingly

Working hard to make our very own charoset, 

we were so excited to eat it!

Yam (sea) Yabasha (land) 

This jumping game tested our listening skills and our reaction times

Hebrew Capit!!!

Can you believe we are almost done?? 

This is so exiting. 

Here we are learning the Pretzel sound.

Colors, Crayons and More:

This week TK focused on learning and recognizing color words!

We spent some time working on mini color books that helped us practice recognizing and finding the word, as well as our writing skills!

Peeling crayons for a special rainbow art project

This was a surprisingly tricky activity that required fine-tuned motor skills.

Imagination at work! 

Menachem was inspired to write words that he found on a wrapper.

watching the rainbow colors appear as he scratched and wrote.

Coloring by color words.

Happy  5th Birthday Evan!!!
Keep learning and growing!!!
We Love You 

Getting ready for Pesach!

We have been getting ready for Pesach the past couple weeks. All different building experiences and role playing the Jewish leader Moshes caring personality.

This week we talked about some of the experiences and significances at the Seder table.

Maror/ horseradish we eat during the Seder to remind us of the bitter times that Hashem took us out of.

Esther got to help show where the Maror goes on the Seder plate.

Tasting it. Getting different reactions.

Making Charoset a mixture of apples pears grape juice and nuts that reminds us of the mortar the Jewish people had to make in Mitzrayim.

Learning life skills by peeling and cutting and we got to get a taste of it too.

One of the biggest miracles that happened to the Jewish people during the Pesach story is the splitting of the sea. When we were finally able to leave king's Parohs leadership we were being chased by the egyptians and were stopped by the sea in front of us. Hashem split the sea and we were able to pass safely.

Role playing the miracle during circle time.

 Yanky and Adelle recreating the splitting of the sea with blue play dough and little people.

 Blue cornstarch and water was a fun sensory experience to create the sea.

 Dancing with tambourines just like the Jewish people did when they crossed the split sea.

During the Seder it is customary to sit with a pillow to show how we are now free and like kings!

Cleaning our toys for Pesach.

Our two big boys who now get to wear a Yarlmuka and Tzisis since they are now three years old! Mazel tov Yanky and Shalom!

Enjoying making Challah dough together. Soon we will be taking a break from Challah/Chometz and enjoying Matzah instead.

We learned about the difference between Chometz and Matzah. Tasting Chometz pasta with Morah Rachel.

Happy birthday to our dear Morah Malka! We love you so much!

Parshat Tazria- Doing What's "Write"

In this week's Torah portion we learn about what happens to a person who speaks Lashon Hara - speaking words that are not nice about another person. 

A person who speaks Lashon Hara is called a Metzora. 

In the time of the Bais Hamikdash (Temple) this person would get a rash, called Tzaraas. This rash looked like white spots all over the person's body.

A person that got this rash needed to go to the Kohen and the Kohen would diagnose if it was really Tzaraas or if it was something else. Just like a doctor. The Kohen wouldn't want to tell the person that it's Tzaraas because he didn't want to hurt the person's feeling. 

If the person had Tzaraas the person had to do Teshuva. 

This week we started a really sweet new routine. Right before Davening we go around and each child shares one thing that they are grateful for...

For example: 

Bela Riva shared with us that she was grateful for her new shoes.

Motty shared with us that he is grateful for his sister Rivka that is coming back home.

Malka shared with us that she was grateful for being Tznius.

Saige shared with us that she was grateful for her friends. 

Evan shared with us that he was grateful for Papa Erik that is coming to visit. 

    

Here we see Malka and Motty writing what they are grateful for.

This way we got to focus on the positive versus the negative. We spoke about how these days we don't get Tzaraas but if we make the choice not to speak nicely about someone else we are bringing negativity to our bodies. 

Pesach is coming!!!

We are so excited for Pesach. We started talking about the big idea of Pesach and what it's all about. 

We had a wonderful discussion with the children. The Morah asked the children if they ever had an experience that they felt limited and stuck.

Dovi is writing a sight word with his eye closed. This is a very limited way to write.  

All of our friends were very passionate about sharing their stories and how it felt to be stuck. Some felt sad, some felt scared and some felt overwhelmed. It wasn't fun. The biggest fear was not knowing when are they going to get out of the bad situation!

Then the Morah asked the children, "Can you imagine how the Jewish people in Mitzrayim felt?"

Reading Games

A fun snack-time learning game. Read the letter and lift the cup, 3 guesses to get the cheerio!

Blowing and releasing air in balloons to see which aleph-bais letter it will get too! At first Faiga wasn't able to blow up the balloon, but she kept trying and after some hard work she was able to blow it up.

W and More

Practicing our Writing skills! Evan wrote his name with glue, coated it in salt and watched Watercolors travel and create beautiful colors. Mendel practiced typing his name on the computer. It was a little tricky.

Washing our toys for Pesach was a great sensory experience

Hands-on math practice! Making math problems for our friends.

Happy 5th Birthday Mendel!

We Love You. 

Keep Learning and Growing.

Tasting our 'tears' while learning about Pesach

Pesach learning filled week.

We keep saying the word 'Pesach' but what does that mean in the minds of our preschoolers?

We wanted the children to visualize what a Pesach Seder night looks like.

Drawing on knowledge we know the children have, we staged 2 tables. 

One set for Shabbos and one set for the Pesach Seder.

"Is it Shabbos party today?" Nope.

"Are there two tables- one for a birthday party?" Nope. 

Now that we got their curiosity, we looked a little closer and figured out the differences between Shabbos and Pesach.

Arik helped decided where the Matzah goes. 

Mendel helped us count the four cups of grape juice on the Pesach table.

Practicing writing the Hebrew word Matzah in salt.

 Mina showing us a real big 'Shmura' Matzah (hand made)
Arik traced his own matzah.

Matzah bakery 

Our friends had fun creating their own big oven for the Matzah bakery center.

We placed pictures of real Matzah factories that create hundreds of hand made Matzah for Pesach.

Chana Rochel baking her Matzah very quickly since it all has to happen within 18 minutes for it to be Kosher.

Sholom waiting so patiently to place his Matzah in the oven.

Concentrating on making it very flat.

 Eli making holes with a fork to insure the dough would stay flat and not rise.

Esther brought her baked matzah to the table and started a Pesach meal. 

Mina wanted to sing the Alef Beis.

We found Mina and Sholom with the King Pharaoh and Moshe puppet having a conversation.
King Pharaoh said "Make the Matzahs faster." Moshe said "I care, good job."

The Seder

We began talking about what is in the Haggadah this week.

We touched on the 10 plagues. 

How did Hashem help King Pharaoh learn his lesson on how to treat people?

The first plague was all the Egyptians water turned into blood! Adelle checked her water outside to see if there was blood.

We emphasized how Hashem wanted King Pharaoh to let the Jewish people free but he was very stubborn and he didn't change his mind.

After not listening to his first lesson he woke up one morning and there were frogs everywhere.

Our friends had fun trying to make their little frogs jump onto King Paroh.

Tasting our Tears

We learned about 'Karpas' when we dip a vegetable into salty water. 

Why? 

The Morahs started crying and secretly added water to their faces to look like tears. 

After discussing how we all cry sometimes we talked about what do tears taste like?

Batya tasting water and salt to see what tears taste like.

We remember the Jewish people who cried over the hard work in Mitzrayim.

Working as Jewish slaves in the sandbox. 

Pesach on our art table. Mendel painting on a Matzah. Chanie painting a pyramids.

We CARE so much about each other!