Follow the Leader

This week in conjunction with Purim, Pre-K talked about what it means to be a leader.

Mordechai and Esther are great examples of leaders we want to be like.

A leader is someone who shows other people what to do in a kind loving way.

Leaders always try their best and will work together as part of a team.

Moshe told us that sometimes C-TEEN has  leaders too!

To really understand and internalize this concept, everyone worked very hard to create their own Shabbos Party Box, for them to lead a Shabbos party with their family at home!

From start to finish! Creating the box that would hold our party supplies was a lot of fun!

Because no Shabbos party is complete without a story!

Each child beaded a story chain to help us remember the story we will tell.

(copy of the story included in box so parents can remind)

Spencer designs her matching game for the box.

Preparing our food art activity!

We are going to show our family how to do it!

Knowing how to work with a team is important for a leader.

This STEM activity needed everyone to pull on their strings to stretch the rubber band to lift and lower each cup into the stack.

A good leader knows how to encourage their teammates!

In this game, we needed to get the hula hoop around the circle without letting go.

Everyone encouraged Mendel when it was a little tricky!

Covering with Kindness!

This week we learned the story of Purim, as its told in the Megilla that we will read on Purim!
Through costumes, puppets and conversation we got to know our Hero's Mordechai and Esther!

The name Esther means hidden! We looked at the way Esther acted throughout the story of Purim. She was humble. Esther was happy the way she was. She didn't brag, or show off how great she was.

King Achashverosh saw how special she was INSIDE. She didn't need makeup or fancy dresses to show her beauty.

Acting out the story!

A Song we learned to remind us of the 4 Mitzva's of Purim:

Send shalach manos to your friend

Give tzedaka to a poor person

Hear the Megilla read in shul

and eat the Purim feast until your full!

Four Mitzvah's of Purim

1. Hear the Megilla- 

We made our own Megilla with pictures and art. Decorated special cases to hold it in, using very fine motor skills to adhere tiny sequins to the glue!

2. Give Tzedaka to 2 people: Covering with Kindness!

We doubled up 2 Purim practices, and gave over a very important lesson to the children! One of the things we do when we listen to the megilla, is make noise (use a gragger) when we hear Haman's name! TO drown out any memory of the evil he did. 

We decided to make our gragger (tool to drown out Haman's name) into a Tzedaka Box! 

The important lesson, is that the best way to get rid of something bad, to block it out of our lives, is to ADD IN MITZVAH's! 

The children worked hard taping decorations onto a Tzedaka Box Gragger! They look forward to doing a mitzvah at the same time as shaking their Gragger!

3. Give Shalach Manos-

It is a Mitzvah to give a gift of food to a friend on Purim day! The children decorated pretty boxes which we will use for our classroom Shalach Manos exchange!

4. The Purim Feast-

Eat a yummy meal and celebrate the holiday with friends and family!

Purim inspired Challa today! Some friends turned their Challah into a Hamentash!

Hide and Seek gets Deep

Reviewing the Purim story with our very own Megillahs.

Role playing it with toys and puppet shows!

After learning about Haman's character, we learned what happens when we hear his name during the Megillah. Whenever a friend picked up the Haman puppet, we made lots of noise.

Making our very own royal graggers. Thank you Morah Malka for all the orange juice containers!

 Discovering at the sensory table what makes a louder sound when its filled or just a little bit?

Learning shapes while making Hamentashen.

Before learning the technique of making a Hamentashen, we focused on the shapes will be creating, the triangle and circle.

Sholom tracing a circle.

 Mina and Chana Rochel placing stickers on the triangle lines.

 Esther, using a circle paper to practice how to make a Hamentashen.

Professional hamentashen bakers at work.

 Portion controlling the jelly.

Why do we eat Hamentashen ? Why do we dress up ?

We learned a deep lesson while playing a hide and seek game.

We hid a Torah in the palace, who can find it? Is it still there even though we can't SEE it?

After finding the Torah we learned that when Esther was going to the palace she was reassured that Hashem is IN the palace too! When evil Haman made mean rules, Hashem was with us too it was like He was hiding!

That's why we hid the filling in the Hamentashen, and get dressed up!

Wearing our masks and making a clown costume on top of our pictures.

Menachem, making a self portrait while dressed up as the king. Arik, used a necklace to trace to make his big van.