Family Activities for Passover

Involving your whole family in the preparations for Passover will help create memories and build Jewish life skills. Finding jobs and tasks that are age appropriate for family members will allow them to successfully participate in and contribute to the Seder and holiday preparations. Publicly acknowledging the contributions of each family member helps develop confidence and self-esteem.

10 Ways to Involve Your Family in Passover Preparations

1. Cleaning the house and getting rid of the chametz (leavened products)
2. Finding special Passover recipes
3. Writing the shopping list
4. Preparing the food for the Seder or the Seder plate
5. Setting the table
6. Making decorative place cards
7. Learning the Four Questions in Hebrew and/or English
8. Hiding the Afikoman
9. Finding the Afikoman
10. Sharing in the reading and discussion of the Haggadah before, during and after the Seder

From the Jewish Parent Page of the Union for Reform Judaism

Frogs here...Frogs there

The Sunshines have been learning a fun new song as we get ready to celebrate Passover. See if your child can sing along!!

One day King Pharoah awoke in his bed

There were frogs in his bed

And frogs on his head

There were frogs on his toes

And frogs on his nose

Frogs here

Frogs there

Frogs were jumping everywhere!

We've been having fun painting with frogs, playing hopping frog games and learning about the 9 other plagues that were sent to try to convince Pharoah to free the Jewish people.

Using Crayons to Draw

On Wednesday evening at Curriculum Night, our guest speaker Shana Krell, Occupational Therapist, strongly recommended that young children use crayons rather than markers when drawing and writing. Children use more pressure with crayons strengthening their developing hands thus getting them ready to use other writing implements with a proper grip. The Levana children decorated their Challah bags using brand new crayons.

Afikoman Bags

The Rainbows worked hard today to decorate Afikoman (the piece of Matzah that is hidden at the beginning of the Seder) bags to use during the Seder on Passover. The materials consisted of felt, glue, and very tiny colored sequins and jewels. There were some challenges with this activity: 1) Figuring out that a lot of glue, much more than normal, was needed to make the pieces stick, and 2) Determining how to pick up the pieces, especially when they fell on the floor or the table. Since this activity was not an easy task, several of the children started their project when they first arrived, took a break, and then came back to finish later on in the morning. Part two of this activity will involve sewing a second piece of felt onto the decorated piece to make the bag. Will it be sewn on by hand or machine? Stay tuned to find out!

Switcheroo Number Two

Today, we had our second switcheroo of Shabbat Helpers. A few weeks back, Ilan and Jack switched weeks when Jack was not feeling well. Today it was Ilan and Grayden's turn. Grayden stayed home because he was not feeling well, so Ilan took his place. Grayden also was not feeling well on Tuesday. We missed you Grayden and look forward to seeing you next week. Ilan, proudly wearing a Kippah (Yarmelke), recited the blessings over the candles, grape juice, and Challah. Earlier on in the morning before our real Shabbat Celebration, Ilan had a mini Shabbat Celebration in the kitchen area with Jack. He practiced the blessings and made sure that he remembered all the words. Thank you Ilan for helping us out today. Thank you also to Peter, Grayden's dad, for bringing us the Challah even though Grayden was not there. Shabbat Shalom!

Matzah Play Dough?

I am sure you have heard of pizza matzah, matzah with cream cheese, jelly matzah and chocolate covered matzah... But what about play dough matzah? Well see for yourself the Haifa and Tel Aviv children made play dough matzah today!

We also built interesting structures with the big wooden blocks and magnitiles. Oh yes,and some of us enjoyed a long friendly game of "Torah slides and ladders". What a day!!!!

Less IS More

After spending yesterday morning observing at the Early Childhood Learning Laboratory at Boston University, we decided to start our day by trying one of the many new ideas we observed. We liked how the ECLL offered limited choices during the 30 minutes drop off period, allowing for a calmer drop-off. We decided to start by closing the two most popular centers - dramatic play and blocks.

After explaining that all centers would be open after circle time, we were delighted to see that children happily spent extended periods of time in the choices that were available. Fewer choices also afforded teachers the opportunity to spend more focused learning time with children.

The writing center was very popular!A group of us listened to stories in the book corner, including The Matzah Man.

Everyone made playdough, with Drew proudly sharing his Matzah Man!

The Pincer grip

Last night's presentation about the physical development required before a child learns to write was so interesting! Just this week, the Rainbows have had a few opportunities to experiment with the pincer grip. They used shortened paintbrushes and water to create artwork on chalkboards. The chalkboards were mounted on the easel to achieve the proper angle to encourage proper hand position. The short handle on the paintbrush also made it difficult to utilize the palmar grip. The children also worked with eye droppers as they experimented with color mixing on some absorbent coffee filters. You can imagine those hand muscles getting stronger...

Wrap me up!

The Rainbows experimented with a whole body sensory experience. We took a long piece of fleece fabric, laid it out on the rug, and a teacher wrapped our bodies inside. The result was a kid-in-a-blanket! The sensation of a full body cuddle or squeeze seemed to please everyone who tried it. The deep touch pressure from the blanket, and the teacher's hands as she rolled the child up provides input to the tactile or somatosensory system. It can also have a calming effect. The rotary action of the rolling stimulates the child's vestibular system. We thought it was great fun...

My Visit to Kindergarten

As a teacher in the Haifa class, almost all of my students will be moving on to kindergarten next year. The teaching staff here at TBSCC try to foster a growing, educational, playful community in which the students will gain confidence in themselves and their abilities, learning from every experience along the way. That is all fine and dandy in preschool, but what about kindergarten? What happens there? Today, Melissa and I were lucky enough to find out!

With the help of one of the mothers at the preschool, we were able to set up a few observation times at the Broad Meadow kindergarten. We were welcomed into the class to observe and participate, as well as ask the teacher and the students any questions we wanted. We were able to observe a large class art project done in the way of Eric Carle books, as well as circle and choice time. Above is a small groups' work showing an interpretation of A House for Hermit Crab. I saw the students listening to one another, sharing supplies, brainstorming on how they were going to create their picture, and work off the creations of others.

With the main wave of conferences over for the spring, it seems that the question on the minds of many parents is "Is my child ready for kindergarten?" When I asked the kindergarten teacher about her philosophy on teaching, she told me that she believes that kindergarten is an essential building block in how to work in social spaces and groups. There are academics included in the curriculum obviously, but that one of the largest takeaways should be how to be successful with others. While learning letters, math, and science are important as well, if a child does not know how to work with others respectfully, it's going to make things a lot harder down the line.

It put a smile on my face to know that the philosophy that we keep at the Temple Beth Shalom Childrens' Center rings true with what is being taught in the Needham school system kindergarten!

-Alison

Unicorn Journals

Today we introduced journals into the Unicorn classroom. Journals are a wonderful tool to utilize when exploring emerging literacy. Our Unicorn friends have an ever-growing interest in letter writing and storytelling. We look forward to their drawings and accompanying stories in the months ahead!

Game Day!

Lunch Bunch was spent playing board games, and working on our pyramid displayed in our classroom library. Check it out when you get a chance. At the end of the day we enjoyed a healthy juice pop and then we went outside to play! Thanks for a great day!

Preparing for Passover

The Levana class has been hard at work creating our very own seder plate match game. We're using different materials, cutting, gluing and tearing to make each of the 6 different seder plate items.


Samantha and Adam take turns using the glue sticks, and Sonia shows pride in her almost-finished project.

Challah Time

The Rainbows enjoyed making Challah with Rohan. Everyone had a turn to help pour, mix, and stir the ingredients into the big bowl. Even getting a little messy was fun too, as Sophie noted when she got some flour on her pants. "That's okay. My mommy can wash it!", she exclaimed. A great time was had by all. Thanks, Rohan!

Ten In The Bed

Ilan brought in a book to share with his classmates, There Were Ten In The Bed by Susan Chapman Calitri. The book is about ten puppies, each with different features, who fall out of the bed one by one, leaving one little pup and his bone at the end. As you can see, Nancy and Ilan attracted quite a crowd to this story which can be sung as well as read. After the story was read/sung, several of the children could be heard singing the catchy phrase, "There were ten in the bed and the little one said roll over, roll over. So they all rolled over and one fell out...." Thank you, Ilan, for sharing your book with us. It was definitely a big hit!

Thanking Our Visitors

The Haifa class has been very lucky with a plethora of visitors over the past few weeks. Whether it be a doctor stopping in on his way to a business trip, or a Rabbi who knows how to rock out, the Haifa class has been a gracious host to our guests.

After each of the visitors have left, the Haifa class talks about what they liked about the visit. Then, a thank you letter gets written! Above is an example of a dictated thank you card that was sent to Rabbi Todd.

Writing a thank you letter as a class can be tricky, because we have to wait our turn to share what we want to say, and having to be careful not to repeat what is already written. With practice, the Haifa class has gotten very good at collaboratively writing letters and stories!

-Alison and Sauci

What Are We Making?

The Haifa kids were busy today working on a mysterious project, using permanent markers, rubbing alcohol, and coins on white fabric...

Stay tuned to find out what it could be!

-Alison and Sauci

Happy School Birthday Jesse !!!

Jesse celebrated his school birthday. Jodi, aka "mommy, mommy, mommy" came into read to us. Jesse selected The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog by Mo Willems. As is our tradition in the Kohavim class, we make a card of good wishes for our birthday classmate and/or make a bracelet. Matty delivered his card to Jesse while he was having snack. We loved the illustrations and story. After story time, we made snow cones for the class. The flavors were passion fruit and lemonade. Some boys and girls tried mixing the two flavors. They were delicious. Thank you to Jodi for sharing time with us. Thanks to Jesse for sharing mommy with us. Jesse will be turning six years old!!!