Week of April 8-12, 2019
Room 8 continued to learn and prepare for Passover all week long! We wanted the children to obtain a strong grasp on the story of Passover just like they did with Purim. In order to do this, we tried to include a theme of the upcoming holiday in most activities throughout the week. First, the art center focused on creating Elijah and Miriam cups. We continued to connect our classroom art projects and made the Passover project an extension of what we have been learning. The last art project focused on the use of acrylic paint so we incorporated this technique into decorating our cups. We also integrated the use of tape, which is another past medium we worked with. We can’t wait for you all to see their final creations. Each cup is unique in its design, techniques, and mediums, as well as, beautiful and functional artwork for each of your family Seders. After listening to Teacher Aaliyah retell the Passover story a couple of times, the children had the opportunity to portray the characters and put on their own performance. We noticed that all of the children expressed great excitement for this activity, especially after acting out the story of Purim. We cast each child in a role and provided them with props and a set to take them back to old Egypt. The story began with Jordan as Baby Moses, Kate as Miriam (Moses’ sister), and Evie as Yocheved (Pharaoh’s daughter). Ask your children how the plot unfolds. Brayden took on the role of Pharaoh and ordered his slaves, Luca, to dig with their hammers and build those pyramids. Blake, grown-up Moses, paraded around with his ruler staff trying to save the Jewish people. Since Pharaoh chose to not listen, plagues came upon the Egyptians. Grayson portrayed the first plague of bloody water, and then came Cameron, who hopped around to show how the frogs attacked as he threw rubber frogs around the palace. Each child used their imagination to fully embrace their part in the story, which allowed them to give a stellar performance. Playing a character provides numerous benefits to young children. It allows them to develop a strong sense of self-esteem. Through encouraging each child to project their voice and fully embody the nature of whichever role they are playing, the children can develop a strong sense of self-confidence. Role playing helps to expand their imagination and vocabulary, as well as, their physical movement. There is nothing better than seeing the children take pride in their own performances and in the work of their peers. In light of emergent curriculum and the joy we see in all of the friends in Room 8, we will continue to incorporate role playing and theatrical performances in future topics through the rest of this year. We have noticed that the friends in Room 8 continue to show a love of coloring. In keeping with the theme of Passover, we incorporated their interest in drawing in another activity. After acting out the story of Passover, the children chose one of the 10 plagues to illustrate on a blank index card. While some of the plagues are more straightforward, like lice or frogs, others were more complicated. We encouraged the children to draw a picture of their chosen plague in whichever way they imagined it to take place. Giving the child free reign to draw their own interpretation helps to reinforce their individuality and creativity. Avital chose to draw a frog, and Kate illustrated her idea of the bloody water. Luca, on the other hand, drew many small little bugs to represent the lice. We want to tell you all how thankful we are for taking part in our Room 8 class Seder. Thank you for providing the delicious food, participating in the reading and the singing of the Haggadah, and spending time in our classroom. We are forever grateful of all the support you give to our class! We hope you all have a wonderful, fun and restful Spring Break, and we can’t wait to begin our last month of school when we return. Shabbat Shalom! Mari & Aaliyah Reminders:
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Pre-K Room 8Mari Greifer Archives
March 2020
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