A Joyous Shabbat Celebration

Cody led us as our Shabbat helper this morning.  We shared the blessings together during circle, then enjoyed the delicious challah and grape juice.  The children are getting used to the idea of taking turns with the role of Shabbat helper.  Several of them are very interested.  We set up a table before the children arrive on Thursday with the candles, kiddush cup, and a plastic challah and its cover. There are kippot available should anyone choose to wear one.  Together we welcome the joy of shabbat into our bodies, our hearts, and our souls.  Shabbat shalom to everyone!

Shabbat is Here

"Who wants to make challah?" I asked this morning.
"I do! I do!" came the response from the children. 

First you light the candles. Sophie G lights the Sabbath lights and the girls join her in  gathering the light, covering their eyes and saying the blessing.

Then we bless the wine.

Then we bless the challah. The girls placed their hands on the challah and sang the blessing.
How beautiful!

Our last Shabbat celebration for the year

Today the Keshet class celebrated shabbat together for the last time this year.  Isabella did a fine job as shabbat helper.  Just look at the concentration and serious expression on her face as she blesses the challah.  Thank you very much for your help, Isabella.

Shabbat shalom to everyone...!

Lighting the First Candle

Many of the children in the Levana class wanted to help light the first candle on our menorah. Sydney, Abby and Lindsey jumped right in to assist Gabi as she lit the candle and we sang the blessings together. Then we placed the menorah in the window just like in the song we sang with Rabbi Jay earlier this week.

Sydni's Super Shabbat

Sydni was our Shabbat helper this week.  She did a beautiful job doing the blessings over the candles, wine and challah.  Shabbat Shalom Sunshines!!

Got Shabbat?

The answer is most definitely YES in the Rainbow classroom. Since it is Passover, we did not bless the challah, but we did bless the matzoh! Thanks go to Grayden for serving as the shabbat helper. As you can see, he did a fabulous job. We all could feel the spirit of shabbat as we joined together.

Shabbat with Rohan

Shabbat is always so much sweeter when we have a friend join us. Rohan came into the Levana class to lead the blessings. Samantha blessed and lit the candles. Elias blessed the juice and Lucy blessed the challah. We then sang some of our favorite Shabbat songs together.

Audrey blesses the challah

Audrey helped out today as the Rainbows celebrated shabbat. She has had this responsibility before, and as you can see, she calmly carried out the series of blessings and led us as we welcomed the feeling of shabbat into our hearts and our bodies. Shabbat Shalom, everyone.

Getting ready for shabbat together

Today it was Rose's turn to be the shabbat helper. She was very excited and took joy in her role. We all found the challah to be particularly delicious. With the addition of some apple slices, it made for a lovely snack.

The shabbat candles were part of dramatic play in the kitchen today. The children also used them as they sang Happy Birthday together. They enjoyed practicing their slicing skills with our velcro-enhanced wooden challah.

Audrey is the Shabbat Helper

Audrey brought a beautiful challah to share with the class today. She took her responsibilities seriously as our shabbat helper and enjoyed the special moments with her Rainbow classmates. We also had fun singing the shabbat song about a certain visiting dinosaur...

Shabbat in the great outdoors!

Nathan brought in the last challah for today's Rainbow shabbat celebration. We took advantage of the sunny, warm morning weather to enjoy shabbat outside. Nathan did a wonderful job in leading us through the blessings and thoroughly enjoyed his responsibilities.

Getting ready to light the candles

With a variety of menorahs to choose from, Teddy selected the one with soft, spongy foam candles.  He got them set up and was ready to light.  Arranging the candles has been a favorite activity in all the classes.  I remember the fun of selecting which colors to use from my own childhood.  So grab and extra box of candles and set out your family's menorah collection.  What a great Chanukah activity!

Lighting the menorah

Avery squeezed the tiny birthday candles into the menorah. Once they were all lined up he was ready to recite the blessings. He lit the shamash and then we sang together as he list the rest of the candles. What a pleasure to see how well the children know the blessings and how much they truly enjoy playing Chanukah at school.

Blessing the Chanukah Candles

It is a TBSCC tradition for the Scientist class to have the honor of lighting the Chanukah candles at the school wide Shabbat celebration which falls during Chanukah. The children thought about their wishes for the whole world and how they wanted to spread their light.  This Chanukah, the children would like to wish you and all the world:

love

happiness

fast trucks

a good, happy Chanukah

family

thanks

loving each other

friends

kindness

peace

presents

being nice

being healthy

a clean world

From the Scientist children, may you be blessed with all these this Chanukah.

Using our New Aron Kodesh for the First Time

We had a ceremony in the classroom to celebrate the first use of our new Aron Kodesh and having a community gathering with our families.
The "Shehecheyanu" blessing (Hebrew: שהחינו‎, "Who has given us life") is a common Jewish prayer said to celebrate special occasions. It is said to be thankful for new and unusual experiences.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְיָ
אֶלוֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הַעוֹלָם
שֵהֵחְיָנוּ וְקִיְמָנוּ
וְהִגִיעָנוּ לַזְמַן הַזֶה" Praised are you, Lord, our G-d, King
of the Universe, who has kept us,
watched over us, and helped us to
reach this special time."

"Ba-ruh a-tha, A-do-nai, E-lo-hey-nu,
Me-leh-ha-o-lam, sheh-heh-he-yanu
v'kee-ma-nu v'hee-gee-a-nu lazman
ha-zeh."

We said the shema blessing: Sh-ma
Sh’-ma yis-ra-eil a-do-nai e-lo-heinu,
a-do-nai e-chad.
Ba-ruch shem k’-vod mal-chu-to l’-
o-lam va-ed.

We sang Shabbat songs, learned a new dance and ate our Challah together. It was great to have you all with us. Thank you everyone for making our new Aron Kodesh possible!
~More Photos~

A Good Week

Each Monday, we welcome the new week with a havdalah ceremony and today was the first of the new school year. All of the children and teachers gathered together in a big circle and Ali started the music. The Community Room was dark and we lit the tall braided candle. It really glowed in the dark room! Jeffrey held the kiddush cup up in the air and we all sang the blessing over the grape juice. We continued with the sweet smelling spices, as Sam walked around the entire circle of children and teachers, stopping to let each of us inhale the sweet scent. Then Aden held the candle up high, the rest of us held our hands up as we said the blessing over the fire. We tried to catch the reflection of the flames in our fingernails. When we were done singing, Avery and Aden entinguished the flame in the juice and we wished each other a shavuah tov, a good, sweet week.

Havdalah is traditionally done on Saturday night, to mark the end of Shabbat. If you'd like to try it at home the full ceremony (takes just a few minutes) can be found here:
Havdalah Blessings- Words
Havdalah Blessings- Music (play a clip or download the whole thing for 99 cents)

Shaking the Lulav

Ready to shake the lulav? First, hold it together with the etrog, so they are touching. Stand facing east and point it in front of you. Shake 3 times. Continue shaking in all directions.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu al n'tilat lulav.
Our praise to You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of all: whose mitzvot teaches us holiness and who instructs us to take up the lulav.

Thank you God for letting us shake the lulav.

Sitting in the sukkah

Dwelling in the sukkah is a mitzvah, commandment, of Sukkot. The children weren't about to let that mitzvah pass them by! The first days of Sukkot have been full of sukkah dwelling. On Friday, the Haifa and Tel Aviv classes joined together for Shabbat in the sukkah.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu leisheiv basukkah.

Our praise to You, Eternal our God, Sovereign of all: You hallow us with Your mitzvot and command us to dwell in the sukkah.

Thank you God for the chance to sit in the sukkah.

Appreciating the beauty around us

I love the chance to see the world through the eyes of a child. Mia and Lucas provided that opportunity at Lunch Bunch today when they decided to use the camera to capture images on the playground. As I loaded them onto the computer, I loved this shot of the trees above. Thanks Mia and Lucas for capturing the beauty of today. This blessing is traditionally recited on seeing trees blossoming for the first time in the year, but I think looking up into the trees on a perfectly sunny day is a worthy occasion as well.
Baruch atah Adonai eloheinu melech ha’olam shelo chisar b’olamo davar uvara vo briyot tovot
v’ilanot tovim l’hanot bahem b’nai adam.

Praised are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the Universe, who has withheld nothing from
the world, and has created lovely creatures and beautiful trees for people to enjoy.

I've Got that Shabbat Feeling!!!

"Shabbat Shalom to Mia, " Shabbat Shalom to Drew, Shabbat Shalom to all of our friends".

We celebrated Shabbat outdoors greeting each other and extending blessings and joy.

There were many songs on our CD but this was one of our favorites:

"I've got that Shabbat feeling down in my toes, down in my toes, down in my toes, I've got that Shabbat feeling down in my toes, and it feels soooo good!!!

"I've got that Shabbat feeling up in my fingers, up in my fingers, up in my fingers, and it feels soooo good!!!:

"I've got that Shabbat feeling down in my belly, down in my belly, down in my belly, and it feels soooo good!!!"

"I've got that Shabbat feeling up in my head, up in my head, up in my head, and it feels soooo good!!!"

"I've got that Shabbat feeling deep in my heart, deep in my heart, deep in my heart, and it feels soooo good!!!"

"Shabbat Shalom!!!"