Shabbat Shalom

It's Thursday which means it is Shabbat in the Keshet class.  Our special Shabbat Helper today was Colton.  He successfully "lit" the candles, blessed the wine and blessed the challah.  The whole class got to enjoy the delicious challah during snack along with some juicy cantaloupes from Maria in the Ruach class.  Thanks to Colton and his family for bringing in the challah!

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!

I made a Challah Man!

On Friday, the kindergartners participated in a Shabbat tradition: baking challah! Some children enjoyed squeezing and feeling the sticky challah dough, some braided the dough, but Jacob had another idea. He carefully separated his dough into small pieces which he used to construct a challah person! He discovered that challah dough was a unique art medium that he could use to sculpt a person. We will be baking challah every Friday in Kindergarten Enrichment. We hope you enjoyed the sweet challah the children made on Friday! 

Making Challah

 

Each week on Fridays, the Levana  children make challah. For some children it may be their very first time baking bread from dough. By the end of the preschool year, they are old hands at the process, rolling and braiding like experts. Today Smadar, a previous TBSCC teacher joined in the challah preparation.

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!

Shabbat Is Here

As Harrison entered school this morning, he promptly asked, "Who's bringing the challah today?"
Ethan replied, "Maybe it's Isabella." They went through the list of their classmates, naming each one; "Is Allison the Shabbat helper today?"
Minutes later, Ben arrived, carrying a large challah and wearing a smile. He (and the lovely challah) received a hero's welcome. Later on, Ben led us in the blessings, and all enjoyed a wonderful Shabbat snack. 

Challah-taschen!

At the end of last week, the Levana class decided to get creative with our Challah dough.  On Thursday and Friday, we took small amounts of the delicious challah dough and pressed it into circles.  We put some strawberry jelly in the middle, folded 3 corners, and made delicious Challah-taschen!  Some children decided to leave their hamentaschen plain, but most ate their delicious Shabbat bread with jelly.  What a delicious way to celebrate Purim and Shabbat!

Samantha rolls her dough her dough into a circle.

Abby and Hayley press their dough flat, and scoop in the jelly.

Sydney carefully folds 3 corners.

Yum!

A Shabbat Surprise

What can this be? When Joseph and his father arrived at school this morning, the Keshet children were very curious about the LARGE foil-wrapped package they delivered to our classroom.

We soon learned that this was our Shabbat challah, made with love by Joseph and his sisters, with parental support! When the children gathered around the circle for our Shabbat blessings, Joseph gently placed his hand on it, and we all said HaMotzi together.



The children were in awe of this lovely challah, admiring its size and golden brown sheen. It was every bit as delicious as it was beautiful, and we devoured it with our grape juice. We are grateful to the Zolotar family and to all the Keshet families for providing challah for our Thursday Shabbat celebrations; we are learning some of the traditions, songs and blessings with which we celebrate the holiest day of the week.

Shabbat Blessings

The Thursday Levana class celebrated Shabbat together today. Earlier, the children had made individual loaves of challah. Some contained raisins, and some were topped with cinnamon sugar or honey. As we enjoy these times together, we notice how fully the children participate in the preparations for Shabbat and in singing the blessings together. Eliana did a wonderful job leading us as Shabbat helper.

What shape will it be?

The Rainbows were very creative in all the different ways they decided to shape their Challah. The blobs of dough became everything from snakes, to squares, to braided, to round. From small pieces to big pieces, whichever way the dough turned out, we hope everyone enjoyed eating their Challah as much as the children enjoyed shaping it.

Making Challah

Rohan spent some time with the Rainbows today making Challah. Everyone was very eager to help and get a turn to pour, mix, and stir in all of the ingredients such as sugar, flour, salt, honey, and water. The best part besides helping to add the ingredients was tasting the honey. Yummy, it was so sweet!

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!

Yummy Challah!

Yesterday the Tel Aviv class made challah from scratch! Usually the Tel Aviv class spends part of Friday mornings braiding challah for Shabbat, but this week we decided to make our own challah to braid with our family and friends dung our Shabbat Shindig! The class was very excited to make our own dough and it was great that the recipe called four eight cups of flour and we had eight students! Everyone had a role and we are excited to share our cooking with you this Friday!

Making Challah

On Tuesday, Rohan helped the children make challah dough. Today each child had a chance to shape her own portion of dough to make individual challahs. We had a variety of shapes on the pan at the end. We hope that everyone enjoyed sharing their challah with their families. We missed having Jack and Rose with us and look forward to making challah another day when they are at school with us.

Follow the Recipe

The Rainbows were happy to welcome Rohan to our classroom today. She came to make challah dough with us. First, there was a trip to the kitchen to gather all of the ingredients. The kids helped Rohan bring them back to the classroom on this cart. Do you see there is flour, sugar, oil, salt, honey, and vanilla? There is some yeast there somewhere as well.

The recipe that Rohan is holding will help us to measure the correct amount of each ingredient and tell us which order to combine them to make a tasty challah.

The kids took turns stirring and measuring. They were quite excited!

Once all of the ingredients were combined, it was time to store the dough in the refrigerator for next time. We can't wait!

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.

Shabbat with the Rainbows

Each week, a different Rainbow family brings in a challah to share with the class. The child who brings it will be our special Shabbat helper. It was a delight to see how pleased Sam was on Thursday when it was his turn to share and to help. He "lit" the candles and helped with the blessings. Take a look at the video.

Shabbat with the Rainbows

Each week, a different Rainbow family brings in a challah to share with the class. The child who brings it will be our special Shabbat helper. It was a delight to see how pleased Sam was on Thursday when it was his turn to share and to help. He "lit" the candles and helped with the blessings. Take a look at the video.

A Special Shabbat Guest

On Friday, Rob Spiegel, Aaron's father, joined us to help make challah and celebrate Shabbat. I don't know if Rob was a challah maker novice or not but he looked like a pro. Together with the children he made 14 beautiful looking challahs which were sent home fully baked at the end of the morning. His services were also elicited as builder, reader, and overall helper. As you can tell from the picture to the right, Rob's presence was especially appreciated by Aaron who was glowing all morning.
Thank you again Rob for your help. We welcome any other special guest who would like to spend some time with us. Just talk to Lauri or me.