Parshas Vayechi- Blessings that were switched

Parshas Vayechi

In this week's Torah portion Yakov blesses the 2 sons of Yoseph- Efrayim and Menashe. Even though they were his grandchildren, he wanted to bless them as he blessed his own 12 sons. By blessing them, he elevated them to the status of his own sons, making them part of the tribes of Israel. The older brother was to be blessed with the right hand, and the younger brother with the left hand. But yakov switched his hands, and so his right hand went on the younger one, and left went to the younger one.

 

Right and Left Bracelets

The RIGHT side plays an important role in Judaism. For eg, we are encouraged to use our right hand when doing a Mitzvah (placing a coin in the tzedaka box, lighting shabbat candles, covering our eyes to recite the Shema Yisrael prayer...)
We made color coded bracelets to help the children identify their RIGHT and their LEFT hands. Each child was given a blue and a red bracelet to help them remember which side is the right and which is left.



The story of the Parsha continues...

The 12 brothers followed Yosef back to Mitzrayim, and saw that he went on a different route than they came. He went back via Shechem, which was the location of where the brothers had thrown him in the pit. He stood there for some time, which made the brothers think that Yosef would  be angry at them, because of the memory of what a mean thing they did to him at this place.

Here the children were role playing the scene of the scared faces the 12 brothers had at the site in shechem.

We learned the incredibly high level that Yosef was at, of why he stopped at this site. He was not upset at his brothers. Really he stopped to THANK HASHEM for the miracle of him being sold and sent to Mitzrayim so he could become second to the king and eventually save his brothers.

Writing Centers inspired by Parsha

Faiga is writing the special lesson that she learned from Yakov. What does it mean to be a Jew? To dress, learn and act like a Jew that we learn from Yakov.

As this is the last of the Torah portions for the First of the five books of the Torah, we put out all the parsha props/puppets and pictures from all the portions from Bereishis, until Vayechi. The children were invited to recall the stories and recollect their favorite parts of the story.

STEAM bins (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics)  - Rhyming activity 

The children were invited to pick a STEAM (click link for more info on steam) bin to create a story on a topic of their choice. The task was to

1. Think about something to create

2. Create it

3. Write a story on it

Bela Riva chose to write a section of the Torah portion that we learned. She described the part of the story where the 12 sons were looking for a place to bury their father Yakov and it was not an easy job finding the "Mearas Hamachpela." She Built the cave using Legos. She then used her language writing skills to describe her creation!

Science- Sequencing-  Life Cycles

There are many life-cycles in the world around us. The children cut out, colored and sequenced the metamorphosis of a butterfly starting off as a seed, turning into a caterpillar, then caccoon and finally a butterfly. We discovered that Trees also work in this way- where the seed turns into a plant, and then a tree that produces more seeds.

Dovi shared a photo of his Bubby and Zaidy Zev and Rochel Simons Ob'm on the day of their Yartzeit. Gan Camarillo Preschool is named for these special people. Dovi gave each of his friends tzedaka and a treat so that the mitzvah the children perform in their honor, will bring an elevation to their neshamos!