A 3330 year old gift that is re-gifted every year!

The giving of the Torah on Har (mount) Sinai happened 3330 years ago! On Shavuos we celebrate that we were gifted with the Torah and re-commit ourselves to this beautiful gift from Hashem.

The children were invited to help act out the scene that took place many years ago. 

We learned that there was lightening and a loud shofar blow. There was fire on top of the mountain that the Jewish people could not touch. While Hashem said the first two commandments the whole world froze it was revealed how the whole world is one with Hashem.

Silence for thinking

Thinking before answering is a very important skill. 

"Why did Hashem place flowers on the mountain?"

(hands started to wave in the air to answer)

We told the children before they answer we will have 30 seconds of quiet thinking.

The goal was not about the answer but to get into a habit of taking time to think. 

 

Har Sinai Provocation

A pile of sand mixed with shaving cream and baking soda was a fun way to re-create the mountain Hashem choose to give the Torah.

Bela Riva making her Har Sinai with a tool. Mendel figured out how to use his hands to create a firm  mountain.

 Batya busy at the sensory table planting flower seeds. 

Overheard outside, "Look I made Har Sinai!". Saige was hard at work creating a mountain out of sand with rocks being the flowers and a green bottle cap as the Luchos (Tablets).

Rozie and Evan placed a picture of themselves hugging the Torah that went inside the Luchos (Tablets). Each one of our souls were present at Har Sinai and the Torah is a gift straight from Hashem to us!

 At Har Sinai, Hashem made lightening strike. A lot of our friends have never seen lightning, so we watched it on an iPad to get an idea of what it was like at Har Sinai.

 

Lightening experiment.

We rubbed a balloon on our hair to create electricity. We than placed a metal spoon to the 'charged up' balloon. This created a little buzz sound. The room was not dark enough to see the spark but their hair standing up from all the rubbing was cool enough ;)!

Shayna helping us learn how at Har Sinai each person received two crowns.

One for saying "Naasah", we will DO (your Torah).

The second one for saying "Nishmah", we will LISTEN. (To your Torah) 

Tracing the Alef Beis with a feather and black ink just like a Sofer who writes the Torah on a parchment scroll.

Show and Tell

There is something so special about bringing an item from home and showing it to friends. It helps build confidence to stand up and explain what they have as well as public speaking skills.

 Batya showing 'baby Mina' to Mina.

 Soccer game with color vests to help with team recognition.

I love the Torah! Happy Shavuos!

Parshat Behar Bechukosai

Parshas Behar Bechukosai

The name of this week's Parsha is Behar. Hashem spoke to Moshe on the "Har" which means mountain. The Torah was given on Har Sinai. The lesson we can learn from Har Sinai is to be proud of who we are and what we have, the Torah and Mitzvos. On one hand it's important to be humble like Har Sinai. On the other hand Hashem didn't give the Torah in the valley where no one can see. He gave the Torah on a mountain to teach us that we need the right amount of Jewish pride. 

The children created shapes of a mountain with their bodies. 

Healthy Pride

We compare the right kind pride to the right kind of Neshek.

 Neshek means a gun but the letters stand for Shabbat candles, the Torah and Mitzvos. Pride that is done in a "show off" way or in the wrong setting can be bad. Like talking to a friend in a Gayvah (show off) way that would hurt her feelings is not the right kind of pride. But going out to the world and wearing a Yalmuka and Tzitzit or a dress for a girl, is being proud of who we are and what we have! The Torah and Mitzvos.

We created shows to describe the right and wrong ways of using words. Words are powerful, but the way we can use our words, like the tone we use, can be even more powerful.   

The Mitzvah of Shemita

 There is a special Mitzvah we can only do in Eretz Yisroel. The Mitzvah is called Shemita. The farmers work the land for 6 years, then during the 7th year they take a break and do not work the land. Just like the days of the week, 6 days we work and on the 7th day, Shabbat, we rest. 

Levi Yitzchak and Yisroel are making pictures of the different stages of planting. Plowing, preparing the land for planting seeds and reaping.

Another important Mitzvah we learned from this week's Parsha is to give Tzedakah to poor people and to people that are on the way to becoming poor.

The Torah teaches us that it's much easier to help a person to get out of a situation where he can become poor then to help a person that is already poor.

Much easier to help someone that is about to fall than a person that fell already.

Reading Hebrew 

This week we began to practice reading words from our Siddurim (prayer books.) 

This was so exciting for the children to do. Yes, we can Daven and read the words at the same time.

Its hard to believe that we can actually read from the Siddur.  

New sounds 

This week the children were interested in the sounds SH, CH, TH.

Here we are playing a fishing game. The fish had interesting names. The children had to fish for the words they can read.   

Muka is doing a great job writing. She remembers to put a finger between each word to make the right amount of space.  

Elizabeth and Menucha are sorting the letters into vowel and constants. 

We love calendar time because we get to do so many different activities.
This time it was a word search.  

Welcome back Morah Davina. We missed you so much!
Mazaltov to Malka and the Nemtzov family on the birth of their Baby Boy!

Promoting a healthy sense of self- learning from the Mountains!

Shavous Unit

The Jewish Holiday of Shavous, is right around the corner! The day Hashem gave us the Torah- an ongoing gift expressing His love for us and the precious tool we have to connect with Him in our practical everyday lives!

Why a mountain?

A circle time experiment helped answer this question. All our friends sat on the floor like a mini crowd. Faiga held a siddur with Alef Beis. All of a sudden we heard Ari in the back, "I can't see!" Menachem complained, "I'm being blocked."

The children then figured out on their own why Hashem chose a mountain, "So everyone could SEE this special event! 

At circle time we looked at  pictures of many different terrains...flat sand, valleys, fields and then mountains. We asked the children which would be the best option that would allow for all to be able to see the Torah being given?

Sometimes we place circle time pictures on our door for children to review among themselves at a later time.

Deeper lesson on a mountain.

Hashem wanted to teach us an important lesson on how we must live our lives. By choosing a Mountain (that stands tall- as opposed to a valley) Hashem is reminding us that we each have something worthwhile to contribute to our surroundings, and that our sense of self worth must be healthy.   This a skill that starts at a very young age. 

We learned there is a healthy pride as well as a non-healthy one, like boasting or putting others down to make someone feel big.

This was a beautiful lesson that came to life as we posted two different mountains and the children were invited to place different scenarios on the correct mountain.

This lesson came into our play time as Evan announced how he was so good at making a spaceship. He used it for the good by sharing his technique with his friends and we watched the children creating  their own with his encouragement!

Menachem chose a toothbrush to create his mountain.

Dovi and Mendel covering rocks with play dough to create their mountains.

Hannah PROUD of her mountain mitzvah note!

Now we were ready to learn the Shavous story. Hashem chose Mount Sinai which was not one of the tallest or widest to teach us about humility.

Rozie role played Har Sinai who was gifted with the growth of flowers during the giving of the Torah. She was very excited she came into school that day with a flower headband!

Flower art using cup cake holders as the center.

Tie dyed baby wipes!

What a fun and different way to create flower art by using baby wipes and water colors!

The older children had fun putting the rubber bands on themselves.

Motty decided to do a different technique and roll up the wipe.

 

Documenting our project was a great way for our friends to come and visit and see the process of their work.

Bela Riva and Evan trying to get flowers and stems out of the ice mold.

Working together on their Mother's Day project!

Good Shabbos!

Lag BaOmer - Ahavas Yisroel

Learning the story of Rabbi Akiva

We learned all about Rabbi Akiva and his Talmidim (students). We acted out the story with little playmobile people, it was very exciting.  

Rabbi Akiva was a shepherd before he started to learn Torah. He started to learn the Alef Bais and how to read when he was 40 years old. The children were shocked because they already know how to read at age 5 or 6!

Here we our counting to 40. The children saw how 40 is an old age to start learning the Alef Bais.

Morah Malka explained to the children that its never to late to start learning anything!

 The children took home a special bracelet to help them recall and tell the story in order.

One of the main lessons we learn from the story of Rabbi Akiva is to have Ahavas Yisrael (love for every person.)

The lesson of the story  

We enjoyed several activities this week that helped the children experience the power of unity, friendship and staying together vs  being pushed aside and staying alone.

Devorah Leah is showing us how its so easy to break the stick when its alone.  

Menucha and Max are showing us how hard it is to break a bunch of sticks together. 

When we are together (as friends) nothing could break us, we are much stronger!!

Activities for Lag BaOmer 

On the day of Lag BaOmer we went to the park. We played a special game to practice Ahavas Yisroel. Each child was given 8 puzzle pieces. Each piece belonged to another child's puzzle. The children had to exchange pieces to create their own puzzle. The children worked together with lots of Ahavas Yisroel and they help each other create their puzzle. 

Each puzzle had a letter on it. Together they spelled out Ahavas Yisroel.

Every morning we recite the "pasuk" (verse from the Torah)  "I take upon myself to fulfill the Mitzvah to love a fellow Jew just as I love myself". 

Elizabeth is working so beautifully on her Lag BaOmer project. 

Each child was given an odd looking picture to color in. At first the children didn't know why they were drawing a strange picture. But when the children put all their pictures together they saw how beautiful the full picture was. We spoke about how beautiful it is when the puzzle is complete and how we need each and every one of our class mates in our class. If one piece of the puzzle went missing it wouldn't be the same!     

Practicing Vowels

This week we had a vowel hunt. The children were so excited to go around the class and look for words and count vowels in them. 

Syllables and Music class

This week Morah Malka came to the class and asked us to clap our hands to the amount of syllables in each of our names. We had a lot of fun discovering how many syllables each child has in their name. 

Morah Malka read us our favorite book, Dr. Seuss.