Yum Yum Cream Cheese Maztah!

The Etzim kids were rocking some cream chesse mustashes
Thursday afternoon after our Matzah filled snack! They sure do love Passover- what 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!

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.

Matzah, Matzah, Matzah

Time to set the table for a family Seder. Seder means "order". There is a specific order to the Seder to ensure that we tell the whole story.  Samantha puts a piece of matzah on each plate while Nicolas reads the Haggadah and leads the seder.  Haggadah comes from the Hebrew root "to tell". Our Rabbis have always known that the future of the Jewish people lies with our children and we can clearly see it demonstrated each day in our classrooms at TBSCC 

Matzoh Brei

As we observe Passover, the Levana children love to talk about the different foods that we eat during this time. They know the story of the hurried departure from Egypt, and that we eat matzah to remember this. Today we tried matzah in a new way, crushing it, soaking in water, mixing in eggs, and frying it in an electric skillet. While the children enjoyed the process, no one was interested in eating this new dish! Instead, we snacked on fresh oranges and matzah, plain and with jelly. We're sure to try other new ways of enjoying matzah this week.

Matzah Monday

Today in the Unicorn class, many of the students rolled up their sleeves to make matzah.  First the students measured the ingredients, took turns pouring and stirring, kneading the dough, and lastly poking the dough with a fork.  The children really enjoyed and got into the experience of making the matzah.  At circle, we also continued our exploration in reading stories about Passover.  During our conversation at circle, the children lead a great discussion about why and how matzah is different from bread that we eat during the rest of the year.  After our circle discussion, we finally were able to taste our creations!  During our matzah snack, we also got to sample other chametz snacks and compared it our matzah, non-chametz.  All the students were excited to say, they LOVED their matzah

Chocolate Matzah

Nathan, Sam and Jacob demonstrate the serious business of spreading chocolate on matzah. Jared breaks the matzah in preparation for the addition of the chocolate. Lizzy eats her matzah with glee! Chocolate lovers worldwide share her enthusiasm.

Matzah Making

Here's how to make matzah...combine the following ingredients: flour, water, oil and salt. Roll out the dough, prick it with the tongs of a fork and put it in a very, very hot oven for about 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on the matzah because it can get too crispy and burn. Eat it straight out of the oven, all toasty and warm or enjoy it with cream cheese and jelly. Delicious. So-o-o much better than matzah from the grocery store.

Matzah making~ The tools

We made Matzah today! We entered Simon Hall and our Matzah bakers had everything set up for us. Before we baked we needed to know the ingredients we needed and the process involved. We were eager and excited to start our baking. There were lots of tools needed. We also learned that when we make our Matzah by hand versus a machine, it is NOT square shaped. You may want to ask your children what shape our Matzah is.

The Rainbows Make Matzah

The Mobil Matzah Maker visited TBSCC today, and the Rainbows were first to try their hands at making matzah. We learned that matzah has only two ingredients, flour and water. After the two were mixed together, we worked quickly to knead, shape, roll and prick the dough before it could begin to rise. The sheets then went into a hot oven, and we were soon able to sample our matzah, warm and crunchy! This was our first experience with matzah this year, and a fitting introduction to the approaching Passover celebration.