Pajama Havdalah

Delicious Charoset!

I had the pleasure of spending a day in the Etzim class this week!  To celebrate Passover, we decided to make our own Charoset -- chopping apples, and adding and mixing lots of delicious ingredients.  We enjoyed the delicious mixture at snack.  Thanks for having me in your class, Etzim.  It was fun!

Passover Central

Hoping everybody has had a wonderful Passover so far. Here are some Passover highlights in the Etzim classroom. We heard a wonderful lego rendition of Passover with Rabbi Jay. We built pyramids using various building blocks. Children tasted matzah with jelly, cream cheese, and matzah on its own. Each child made a beautifully decorated Matzah covers for their own Passover celebration!

Haggadah

In class on Thursday, the children worked on making their own Passover Haggadah, which is the prayer book used special on this holiday. They selected the Hebrew letter stickers carefully and colored them to make them personalized and special to each. "Look at my Hagaddah, Nicolas!" says Samantha, while showing him her hard work, as he works on his. Now, they will have their own prayer books for the Seder table! Chag Sameach!

It's Seder Time!

Seder with the Haifa Class

Passover got off to a crunchy start as the Haifa class celebrated with a class seder. The table was set with seder plates and flowers and the children told the story of Moses and recited the blessings. Then it was time to eat! As you can see, they dove in to charoset, matzah ball soup, hard boiled eggs, parsley, and matzah. Ask your child which part he or she liked best.

Matzah Taste Test

A few weeks ago, the Kohavim children began thinking about what they liked about passover. Many children said they LOVED matzah, so the teachers made a morning message that read, "How do you prefer your matzah?" The children had many responses, including, "plain, cream cheese, butter, and jelly." After eating lots of matzah this week at the snack table, we decided to have our official matzah taste test today. The children tasted plain matzah, matzah with butter, matzah with cream cheese, and matzah with jelly. They recorded their preferences on the "How do you prefer your matzah?" chart. Next week, we will total the responses and determine which way children most prefer their matzah in the Kohavim class. You might want to have a matzah taste test of your own with your family at home to find out which way is most preferred by your family! 

Passover Snack Time

The Keshet class hosted the Levana children for a special Passover celebration.  Together we shared circle time, including the welcome songs of both classes and several Passover songs.  Not only did we have this shared time with the Levana children, but we also shared Mia's company.  We shared snack together and enjoyed matzoh brei, chocolate matzoh, apples, and raisins.   Thank you Levana, for sharing your tasty matzoh brei with us and joining us in our classroom for a wonderful Passover visit.

Thank You Mia!

If Mia was not a student herself I would ask Ellen to hire her! Mia is so positive with Adam and his friends!

  Mia volenteered today in the Tel Aviv classroom!  She was so helpful...Mia planned an art activity, read us a few books, helped support the teachers and children as we practiced our Passover Play! 

Mia thank you for coming in and spending time with us!  Come back soon!

Searching for the afikomen!

We all gathered together and searched the Tel Aviv classroom for the afikomen!  We worked as a team and we found it!  Charlotte was the first to find the piece of matzah wrapped in white paper towel.  The whole class enjoyed the prize...a yummy piece of matzah!   Great team work!

What kind of matzah do you like?

The Tel Aviv children had the opportunity to try matzah with honey, butter, jelly, cream cheese or just plain old matzah.  Everyone had a great time tasting, chatting, and spreading the toppings on to the matzah.

When the children were finished eating they signed their name on the  "What kind of matzah do you like?"  graph.  The two most favorite toppings are jelly and cream cheese!

Our school Seder

Today we had 16 people at the Haifa Class Seder. Our Seder was very fancy. We had 4 Seder plates, flowers, real glasses for our grape juice, a tablecloth and paper plates. Drew led the class in saying the blessing over the wine. The entire class said the blessing over the matzo. We told a very brief version of the Passover story and then we ate lots and lots. We had matzo with cream cheese or butter, parsley with salt water, hard cooked eggs charoseth which we made earlier in the morning and matzo ball soup. It was really fun to sit down at a very long table and have our own Seder.

Playing in Pairs

Outdoor play is always a highlight of the day for the children of the Levana class. Whether it is sunny, cloudy, cold or mild outside, the children are always eager to gear up and head out to play. On the playground we often see children play individually, but sometimes we witness children connecting and playing together. Many friends share same interests but don't always engage in them as a pair, these photos below capture some of the moments when they do.

What's on a Seder Plate?

To culminate our study of the seder plate, the Haifa class hosted a seder for themselves today! We pushed all of the tables together, set out tablecloths, plates, bowls, cups, and seder plates, and got to spend some quality time with one another at our seder. We got to try the pieces of the seder plate, as well as have some homemade matzah ball soup (courtesy of Sauci) and matzah with cream cheese.

What a wonderful way for the children to enjoy the holiday together that they have been working so diligently on over the last few weeks.

-Alison and Sauci

At the Water Table

chag sameach

Levana and Shamayim shared a special seder on Monday morning.  We met for Havdalah, as usual, and said good-bye to Shabbat and hello to a brand new week.  We wished for all sorts of things for the coming week:  birthdays, mommies and daddies, kitties, thunderstorms and lots of sunshine.

Afterward, Tina showed us a special book called the Passover Haggadah.  We saw pictures of a seder plate and 4 cups of wine and even talked about the four questions.  Many of the kids already knew that we eat matzah on Passover to remind us how quickly the Jews had to leave Egypt.  They couldn't wait to let their bread rise.

We finished our morning by making charoset together and having a little mini feast.  It was fun to share this special day with good friends!!

Hayley's Birthday

 

Another of our Levana children turned three. Hayley's mom and dad came in and read a favorite Passover book, The Matzah Man. It's a Passover version of the Gingerbread Man. The children listened intently and chimed in "I'm the matzah man" at the appropriate moments. Happy Birthday, Hayley.

Preparing Charoset

Piper, Ellen and Avi mix the ingredients

Ellen joined us as we sampled our charoset

Chopping, mixing and enjoying one's cooking is something we do in the Levana class. For Passover we chopped apples, mixed in some cinnamon, raisins and grape juice to make a delicious charoset. Every child in the class ate our snack and some children even asked for seconds. Cooking is a form of preschool science with measuring and combining ingredients. There is always lots of socializing conversation  among friends about what's being prepared as well as when we sit together to eat snack.

Happy Pig Day!

Thank you to the Stone family for this performance of Happy Pig Day by Mo Willems.

Slaves in Egypt

Coming Back to Read

Mia Markley, who was in the Kohavim class last year, came back to read us a story. We can't wait until some of this year's Kohavim children come back to read to us next year.

Lego Passover with Rabbi Todd

You probably heard all about how Rabbi Todd and Rabbi Jay visited the classes to tell the story of Passover with legos. Take a peek!

old shoes, new shoes

The Shamayim children are wearing.....

Do you know who's feet you see?

my turn, your turn

Learning to wait is a difficult, but important skill that we all need help with from time to time.  In the Shamayim classroom, we practice this when we want a toy that someone else is still using.  We use our words to ask "Can I have that when you are done?"  Then, we have to wait.  We also practice when we are playing a game with a friend.  We take turns and wait until the next person (or people) have his/her turn.

On Friday, we played "my turn, your turn" at circle.  We each started with two magnatiles.  We took turns placing one magnatile at a time onto a base.  Our goals was to work slowly and use patience to create a building without knocking any pieces off.  

The children did a wonderful job following the circle to tell us who "was next".  It was hard to wait for our turn but we did it!!

We search for Chametz!

Before Passover, we empty our cupboards of bread, cereal, crackers, cookies, pasta, and pretzels.  Before Passover starts, we search for chametz, and put it away out of our kitchen until the holiday is over.
Last week the Tel Aviv children went on a chametz search in our classroom kitchen (Dramatic Play Center).  We collected all the chametz-foods that need to rise as yeast breads and other baked goods.  Then we put it away in the TBSCC closet to make sure no chametz gets into the food we cook for Passover.