Dear Parents,
It has certainly been a busy week in room 21. We have been hard at work creating art projects, exploring sensory activities, listening to stories, cooking and learning new songs. We are also learning about Passover, which is the theme for all of our work. In First Steps, the story of Passover is broken down to an age appropriate version that our two year olds understand and learn the important lessons we wish to impart, in particular, kindness or chesed. Learning the importance of kindness, with our classmates, family members and teachers is part of the spiritual foundation we are building as part of our Jewish faith. Was King Pharaoh kind when he made the Jewish people work so hard day and night? Shaking their heads, the class answered in unison, “Noooo!” We believe value based learning stays with the children throughout adulthood. We also touched on the plagues, describing the crowd of frogs God sent to Egypt to teach Pharaoh a lesson. For every part of the story, there is a song or an activity to accompany it, which really brings the story to life. By telling the story through more concrete means, we make a deeper impression, often times trying to put them in characters’ shoes by relating the situations to situations we face each day in our classroom. We also use hand motions and act out the story, for example, raising our hands making the motion of hammering up and down repeatedly to build pyramids. We feel the sand in our desert sensory tray and talk about what life in the hot, dry climate was like. We dress up in robes and head covers to look like Moses and wear the clothes the Jewish people wore many, many years ago. All of this is an example of how and what we learn through play. On Wednesday we created Seder plates and tasted everything on the plate. Some of the children liked the radish and parsley dipped in salt water. We discussed what each item represented, how special the Seder is and why we do it each year. For snack, we made matzah pizza, a treat everyone enjoyed. We ended the week as always, with our Shabbat celebration. There was singing and dancing to Ditza's music and everyone enjoyed the fun, community and familiarity of the services. We want to thank the Koss family and our very special Shabbat boy, Mason. You should be so proud of yourself. **Reminder- Next Wednesday 4/13 are the First Step’s classroom Seders. Our will be held in the classroom beginning promptly at 11:15am. Please remember to bring the items you signed up for. Thank you in advance. *Also, please remember Daditude is this Sunday, April 10 at 9:15 A.M.. Shabat Shalom & have a wonderful weekend, Sue & Anita
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First StepsMichelle Targon Archives
May 2017
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