Reviving an Ancient Practice

Maria and I just returned from a conference on Jewish nature education. One of the most exciting sessions at the conference was making flour from wheat. The wheat had been harvested on the Kayam farm and our first task was to thresh the wheat(remove the  wheat berries the stalks.) Then, we were taught  various ways to winnow(separate the wheat grains from the  husks) the wheat.  The final step was to grind the wheat. We could use a mortar and pestle, a special grinder or for those who preferred modern conveniences we used an electric coffee bean grinder.  After 10 adults worked for 40 minutes, there was probably enough  flour  to make a very,very,mini challah! The hands on experience was a powerful lesson and it will be used in our classroom!

Our tour of the Negev Desert!

Today the Negev is the gateway to the desert.  It offers charming nature corners, historical and archaeological sites, springs and the remains of agricultural compounds.  Tourism in the desert is a developing industry and many tourist explore its expanses on foot on bicycle and in all- terrain vehicles.

The Tel Aviv children toured the Negev desert on foot with their handy dandy tent... In their pajamas of no less!  We had plenty of water, as it was really hot especially in the tent!

In the tent we had a short circle, shared spooky stories, played with a few choice building toys and shared our home toys with classmates.

Guess who met us in in the Negev?  Okay, we will tell you...Our very own Josh!  He brought his guitar and led us in song!  What a fun day!

We created  lots of memories today!

Passover Puppetry

The Etzim classroom likes to begin the exploration of each holiday with puppets.  As the children decorate their puppets, it provides an opportunity for us to have some in-depth, small-group discussions about who these people were and the roles they played in the story.  The children then take their puppets home to use as prompts when retelling the story to their family.  Our exploration of Passover began on Monday when Steve told the story of Passover for the first time using his many fantastic puppets.

The Lego Passover Story

Rabbi Todd came in to share The Lego Passover Story with the Unicorns. We had not heard or seen this book before and friends were very curious about the 'faces.' Pharaoh was smiling in one picture and they thought it couldn't be Pharaoh because Pharaoh is MEAN, and it is not possible for someone mean to be smiling. Mean = frown. Moses could only be smiling.

Then friends with their inquiring minds wanted to know if the Lego basket holding Baby Moses could really float. Rabbi Todd said we should find out through experimenting and we should get back to him.

Thank you Rabbi Todd for the Mitzvah of sharing your time with us.

Where is Baby Moses???

In the sensory table, we had to look for baby Moses! It was quite the sensory experience swishing thru to find baby Moses. Much to our surprise there was more than one baby Moses hidden in the river Nile. You may want to ask how many we found?

Pharaoh wants new buildings

Scientist lunch bunch friends created pyramids and a stories.

Jake created two pyramids` one with a sitting place for Pharaoh accompanied by an illustration of a laughing Pharaoh~ isn't he mean laughing at the Jews. and a sad Jew.

Alex created a big big pyramid that has lots of floors and red water is leaking into the pyramid.

They work so hard all day!!!

The challenge~ Pharoah wants new buildings? What kind of buildings will you design for him?

Avery designed a tall building and Lily K. designed buildings spread out low.

"I want to be Hamen!"

Some friends wanted to be their superhero, king "A", Mordecai, or Esther, and then there was the ever popular Haman. He looked bad and mean which sparked a certain interest. When we told the story at morning meeting, the children were emphatic when asked what they thought about Haman: Yelling "boo" and he should be in jail. As they played with the puppets it was easy for them to banish Haman put into jail or throw him about~thus banishing from his initial dwelling place. A certain joy was noticed as they banished him. Despite this joy, children seem to "desire" to be Haman in their role playing.
It was interesting to notice as well, that when a friend actually put on the mask excited to assume the role of Haman, and being "mean"he could not bring himself to tell the Jewish people to "get out and go away". HE could NOT be mean despite his desire assume that role. Perhaps it was his pride of being Jewish that would not allow him to really bring those "unkind" words toward his Unicorn friends. What do you think???

Zack and Flat Stanley in Israel

Zack was excited to bring his pictures from Israel to share with his Unicorn friends. He had many exciting moments ... He took out each picture and explained what he was doing..

"I am petting a turtle at the Moshav"

"I am petting a goat; we got milk out of him"

"I'm planting a tree at the Moshav too."

"This one I am taking a picture w/ Ellen."

" Me and Alex are near an Israeli Flag in Western Wall" Kotel.

"I am holding Stanley."

"Taking a picture with army"

"I am shooting an army gun, not a real one."

"I'm holding onto an army tank"

"I am with Safta."

"I am sitting on a BIG chair."

Zack said mommy wrote some words on the back of the pictures in case he didn't know the words, but he remembered all the exciting adventures!!!

Thank you Zack and mommy for sharing those pictures. Zack wants to bring them to school every day for sharing.

What a wonderful way to start our New Year !!!