Teachable Moment....after the rainstorm!

On Monday morning Rochel came in really excited to share the news that there was a tree outside our school, being chopped down since it was no longer strong enough to stand, it had fallen from the storm over the weekend.

One thought that went through our mind was, "oh well... and lets get on with our Purim lessons..."

But then a bigger thought popped up..."Hey-look how excited she looks about this! Lets take a deeper look at the tree...what a rare opportunity to see the roots of a tree and learn more about why it fell, and even more...how could we use the fallen tree at Gan...to enrich our classes!

"Look at the big roots!"

With out saying any information we let them just sit there and take in what they were seeing while the children discussed it among themselves.

Yaisef trying to balance on a piece of the tree trunk! 

It was a fantastic gross motor skills activity!

The kind workers who were cutting the tree, preparing it for removal; were gracious enough to create for us a three level tree stump! 

(They even walked the heavy stumps over to our yard for us to keep!)

The kids were so excited to explore, feel and look at the inside of the tree.

Climbing, taking turns and making room for all...

  Noach discovered little white bugs that were eating at the wood.

We discussed that those bugs might be the reason for the tree falling, not being able to weather to storm!

Ilani peering into the hole

What a great learning experience.

Menucha noticed the biggest one was a heart shape!

Walking from stump to stump.... became jumping!

Thank you tree ;)

Purim Played out in our Palace!

After living peacefully in our "Mordechai & Esther's Jewish Home" the stage was set to begin the Purim Story! (Megillah)

We created an additional center in our classroom:  King Achashverosh's palace.

In contrast to the Jewish home, this was more focused on dresses, glamour, jewels and mirrors.
There was definitely a contrasting atmosphere between the 2 centers. Which is what the Jewish people  would have experienced upon attending the Kings feast in his palace!  We wanted the children to feel the difference between the flashy showy palace and the Mitzvah filled home of Mordechai and Esther.

We created a dress up shelf that offered a self correcting way of learning responsibility (putting things away after you use them) and at the same time helped us to keep our costumes organized. 

There were pictures of the different characters from the Megillah, that accompanied a tray to hold that characters costume.

 

Of course with the dressing up some of the children had fun mixing and matching different article of clothing, it definitely put smiles on our faces!

To help the children with taking turns, since a lot of children wanted to be the king and queen at once. ...We had little paper people (one for each child with their name or pic on it) and a chart to place it on, for the children to "get on line" for a turn! This was a great way for the children to visually see and patiently wait for their turn.

Check out Jacob excitement in being the King!

The king puppet helped us understand what King Achashverosh was like, he had a big feast in order to show off all his wealth. Now our class really understood after living in our "Jewish home" center, the difference of how Mordechai treated them and how the King was treating them at the feast.

King Achshverosh picked Esther to be his new queen!

We discussed how uncomfortable this was for her, as she wanted to be in her own home doing mitzvah's!!  However, she knew this was Hashem's plan and EVEN in the palace Hashem will be watching over her!

This was a powerful practical lesson for our class and explored it for a couple days. Even when we feel sad or scared just like Esther must have felt when she first became Queen, Hashem is helping us and is with us -every step of the way!

 Yitzi picking chani to be the next queen.

 

Katherine enjoying her throne.

 

We lightly touched on Haman and used it as a way to bring out a positive lesson. 

In the story....Haman wanted everyone to bow down to him!

For the children to understand what "bowing down" meant, we talked about what Jewish people do when they daven. The only bowing down is to Hashem during prayer.

We placed pictures of Jewish people praying to Hashem next to wicked Haman for them to see the contrast and encourage conversation amongst the children.

A beautiful moment..

During circle time there were two children fighting over a certain toy. Levi took the Mordechai puppet and started helping his friends to come up with a solution! 

The two friends quietly listened to what "Mordechai" had to say and it was beautifully resolved! :)

After learning about Haman and how he was quite mean, we asked what should they do?? Cry?, listen to Haman?...

Mordechai took the children and learned torah keeping faith in Hashem to help save them!

At the end of the Purim Story,  Mordechai was honored with riding the Kings Horse! The children had fun dressing up as Mordechai...and riding the horse!

Hamentashen and shapes fun!

Before we headed to the baking table we learned with a circle paper how to create one! A circle turned into a triangle!

Each child received a turn to practice on the paper circle ....then they all were able to make their own hamentashen triangle!

Levi was so excited that he got his circle into a triangle!

A circle with the dough!

Turned into a triangle hamentashen!

Levi helping out with rolling out the dough

With all these shapes we also drew shapes on papers and with the play dough the children had to manipulate it to the correct shape.

Rochel working really hard to fill it all in.

Katherine decorating her Megillah cover.

Glitter glue is a great way for the children to  control the amount that they want.

It was time to celebrate! With Purim coming in a week and a double month of Adar we cranked up the music and got them moving!

Bouncing to the music :)

Finger sponge painting

Ilani liked the hand print idea

Rochel "A blue star fish"

Menucha " A water fall"