Rebuilding Hashem's Home

One of the ways we help the children really understand the Chanuka story is by giving them a foundation of what the Beis Hamikdash (Holy Temple) is. So that when we learn the story, they can appreciate what actually happened.

The Beis Hamikdash (Holy Temple). 

Hashem made this world, so he could have a home for Himself.  During the times of the Chanuka story, there was a beautiful building called the Beis Hamikdash where people came to be close to Hashem.
We watched a video of what it looked light. It was big, beautiful and golden. Next week we will learn even more about what happened in the Beis Hamikdash!

Although we don't have the Beis Hamikdash in all its glory (we only have 1 remaining wall in Israel) we learned that we can turn our own home's into a "mini Beis Hamikdash"

When we have a Mezuza on our door, A Tzadaka box in our house, and Sefarim (Jewish books), that invites Hashem to be comfortable in our own homes!

We read a book about our Home and Hashems home and we spoke about different colored walls in our rooms and our favorite places in them.

Creating our Gan family Beis Hamikdosh which included Mitzvos that we do throughout the day

Weekly Torah Portion- Vayeitzei

Yaakov (Jacob) left his home in Israel, running away from his brother Eisav, to go to his uncle Lavan in Charan. On his journey he needed to rest and so he set up a resting place for himself.  he set up a bunch of rocks to protect his head, from wild animals. The rocks had a fight because they all wanted to be under Yakov's head. Hashem made a miracle and turned them into 1 rock!

Rock painting

 

We placed rocks around in a circle to help us visualize this story!

before davening we all laid on a rock to try it out, we agreed it was not too comfortable!

The spot that he lay down on, actually is the spot where the Beis Hamikdash would later be built. 

The Torah teaches us that Yakov was "full" of Torah learning and Mitzvos, and that's how he was able to stay strong in the land of Charan, where he was among not nice people, like his uncle Lavan. 

To help us learn this idea, we played a fun game "Filling Yakov with Torah & Mitzvos"

We taped our Mitzvah notes onto balls, and worked on our aim to throw them into "Yakov" so he could be "filled" with Mitzvos, to go on his journey to Charan! 

When we fill our buckets up with Doing good deeds we can enter any place with strength! 

We also did an experiment to by filling up a cup of water to the top and when its filled nothing more can go inside! We tested it out by sticking our fingers in and bouncing them out from the top of the water.

Aleph Beis: Letters Vov & Zayin

We identified the difference between the Vov and Zayin with each of them holding a small paper with the letter and listening to the letter and raising that one. The challenge got faster and it was very exciting! 

 

Using our whole body we jumped on the letters 'Vov 'Zayin 'and Ches'

Creating the letter as a team we also made the sound of the letter with a beat :)

Preparing for Chanuka, making clay Menorah's!