Be Our Guest!

 This week’s parashah is Parashat Vayera, and we learned all about the beautiful mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim (welcoming guests) through the story of Avraham Avinu! We talked about how Avraham’s favorite thing to do was sit outside his tent and wait for guests to come, because he loved having guests so much. Yossi helped us act out the story, Avraham was already 90 years old and had just done his bris! Hashem wanted him to rest and heal, so He made the day very, very hot with a big, bright sun. But even though it was so hot, Avraham didn’t rest, he still waited outside, hoping someone would come by!

Since nobody was walking in the heat, Hashem did something very special for Avraham. He sent three malachim (angels) who looked like regular people.

As soon as Avraham saw them, he ran to invite them in. “Come, come inside! Please stay for a meal!” he said. He quickly brought them water to wash their feet, because people in those days would worship the sand, and Avraham wanted to show them to wash it off and believe in Hashem!

 Then he ran to tell Sarah to bake delicious challah and brought the best piece of meat to serve his guests. While they were eating, the angels told Avraham something very big and exciting! They said he and Sarah would have a baby boy! Sarah was listening from the tent and she laughed a little to herself, thinking, “How can that be? Avraham is so old!”

Chana acted out Sarah laughing when she heard the news!

When Hashem told Avraham what Sarah said, He changed her words to, “She said she is too old,” to show us how important it is to always speak kindly and say good things about others. Later, their baby was born, and they named him Yitzchak, which means “he will laugh,” because there was so much joy and laughter from this miracle!

To bring the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim to life, we made a big, beautiful invitation for the Torah Tots class and invited them to join us for cookies that we baked together!

It was so special to see how excited the children were to welcome guests, just like Avraham and Sara. What was especially heartwarming was how, when we didn’t have enough chairs for everyone, our hosts stood up and offered their seats to the guests 💖

Later, we even got to experience what it feels like to be guests ourselves, when the Torah Tots class invited us to join them for a delicious fruit salad. It was a beautiful way to learn and live the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim!

This week we also created a model of Avraham’s tent! We learned that Avraham’s tent had four open doors, one on each side, so guests could come in from every direction. That way, no one would ever be missed or turned away! The children imagined what Avraham and Sarah’s tent might have looked like and drew their own creative ideas of what could be inside, like food, candles, and cozy places to rest. Then they built the model using recycled materials, boxes and fabric scraps into a beautiful, welcoming tent filled with kindness and light—just like Avraham Avinu’s!

We had so much fun being silly and creative—we even made up our own song called “Be Our Guest!” 🎶 You can ask your child to sing it with you at home!

Pre-K Kria

We learned the letter Daled!

K Kria

This week we learned about Sara Imeinu and the three special miracles that happened in her tent! Her challah stayed fresh all week and it never ran out, her Shabbos candles stayed lit until the next Shabbos, and a beautiful cloud of the Shechinah rested above her tent. In class, the children practiced reading some of the words they already know, like “challah” and “Shabbos”, and glued them in the right places to show understanding. They also created beautiful artwork inspired by Sara’s miracles! Moshe experimented with yellow watercolor, pressing his brush with different pressure to make lighter and darker shades, showing how one color can create many beautiful tones!

Academics

We have been learning about seasons & weather. Here Yehudis (the sun) & Eli (the earth ) demonstrate how Earth’s movement around the sun, combined with Earth’s axial tilt, explain the seasons & different weather effects in the northern & southern hemispheres.

Chana, using fine motor skills & excellent penmanship to trace.

Aftercare

We had such a wonderful time making pumpkin soup! 🧡 It was a healthy, hands-on activity and a fun way to use the pumpkin we explored last week. The children loved seeing how we could cook with it and remembered planting the seeds too! 🌱🥣 Thank you Hashem for all our pumpkins!!!

Shabbat Shalom!