A Purim Mitzvah

Today Jacob entered our classroom and proudly told announced "I have a donation in my  backpack."  Children have been bringing in small items to fill our Shalach Manot baskets, which we decorated today.  Later this week we'll be bringing baskets to Rosie's Place and the MSPCA of Boston.  While we have had many discussions about what we will wear for our Purim Parade tomorrow, we are also spending time thinking about how we can help take care of the needs of the less fortunate around us.

The Etzim and Tel Aviv children join together to have snack in the Sukkah!

The Etzim teachers and children invited the Tel Aviv classroom to join them for a snack in the sukkah.  It is a mitzvah to gather and invite friends and family to share in activities and meals in the sukkah.

Just before the Etzim children arrived the Tel Aviv children put their sukkah up and when our guests arrived, we welcomed them with open arms and enjoyed a delicious snack all together!

Visiting Nana Barbie

A visit to Newbridge wouldn't be complete without seeing Jesse Barnet's Nana Barbie. Nana Barbie is Jody's mother's mother. Jesse was so happy to visit her and to introduce her to the rest of the Kohavim children. It made our visit especially meaningful to have this personal connection. We wish Nana Barbie a happy Purim and good health in the future. Thank you Jody Skolnick, Jesse's mother, and the staff at Newbridge for bringing us all together.

Our Mitzvah "Giving" Tree!

Today in the Tel Aviv class read the book, "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. We discussed all the wonderful things trees give us and the wonderful things we can give each other. Not only can we give friends art or share with them but we can also smile or give a friend a hug when he or she is sad. Helping each other are everyday mitzvahs. This week we are going to be working on creating a mitzvah tree so that we can record and announce the mitzvahs that happen in our classroom all the time. Today we focused on paining the tree but soon we will make handprint-leaves where we can record our mitzvahs. Hopefully by spring/summer our mitzvah tree will be in full-bloom!

Our Class Mitzvah!

Today the Tel Aviv class talked about mitzvahs and made a tuna noodle casserole for Rosie's Place. Making tuna noodle casseroles is always a popular activity in the Tel Aviv class because it involves many children's favorite food: Noodles! We cooked the noodles, watched for bubbles, added ingredients and stirred. In the end we had a lovely casserole that I was able to deliver this afternoon and we even had a few noodles to snack on! On Friday we will be able to add this mitzvah to our new "Mitzvah Tree!"

What do we need to build a Sukkah?

The mitzvah of hazan et hakol

This week the Tel Aviv children fulfilled the mitzvah of hazan et hakol, feeding everyone, by making a noodle casserole for Rosie's Place, a shelter for poor and homeless women.

Wednesday morning each child participated in preparing the noodle casserole. They unwrapped the butter, stirred the noodles in the hot pot, cut the cheese, opened the tuna fish with a manual can opener and then used their strong muscles to mix all the ingredients up, in a large bowl.

Parent and grandparents you are welcome to come into the classroom to participate in the mitzvah of hazan et haklo. Every month we will be making noodle casserole for Rosie's Place.

Feeding the Hungry

Once again our Sunshine Chefs have made a tuna-noodle casserole for Rosie's Place.

As a special bonus, they prepared a second box of elbow pasta with cheese to enjoy for snack. The children ate every last noodle with exclamations of this is "delicious", "yummy" and "can I have more?"

Hiddur Mitzvah: Beautifying a Mitzvah

It is a Jewish principle that when an object is required to fulfill a mitzvah (commandment) the object should be made as beautiful as possible. This attention to detail elevates the fulfillment of the mitzvah itself. This is known as hiddur mitzvah, beautifying a mitzvah. When the Sunshine class created these matzah covers yesterday, they worked to add color with an eye for beauty in order to uphold this value. You can see from the photo how Eliza focused on choosing just the right dabs of color for her creation.  Eating matzah is a mitzvah of Passover, but with these matzah covers it is a more beautiful mitzvah for sure.

Unicorns Send Get Well Soon Wishes

One of the Unicorns was not feeling well last week and could not join us in class. All his Unicorn friends wish that he will feel better soon! They wanted to let their friend know how much they care, so together we thought about ways to let our friend know that we care. The class all made wonderful and thoughtful “get well soon” cards to send to their Unicorn friend. We sent those beautiful cards by mail to cheer him up. We also all called him on the phone and everyone sang the Unicorn Song to help him feel better. As he was not in class on Friday either, a Unicorn had a great idea of making and sending him a special challah as well. Get well soon brave Unicorn!

Unicorns Send Get Well Soon Wishes

One of the Unicorns was not feeling well last week and could not join us in class. All his Unicorn friends wish that he will feel better soon! They wanted to let their friend know how much they care, so together we thought about ways to let our friend know that we care. The class all made wonderful and thoughtful “get well soon” cards to send to their Unicorn friend. We sent those beautiful cards by mail to cheer him up. We also all called him on the phone and everyone sang the Unicorn Song to help him feel better. As he was not in class on Friday either, a Unicorn had a great idea of making and sending him a special challah as well. Get well soon brave Unicorn!

Our Visit to the Newbridge Center

Our visit to the Newbridge on the Charles facility was very successful, so successful that we are considering doing it again sometime before the school year ends.

We managed to raise many smiles on the faces of the local members.
Special thanks to our helpers who helped us fulfill our biggest Mitzvah ever.

Thanks also to the parents who contributed all the goodies in those baskets and thanks to our children who worked so hard to bake, sing and deliver.
THANK YOU!
Check out more photos from a wonderful day

Our Visit to the Newbridge Center

Our visit to the Newbridge on the Charles facility was very successful, so successful that we are considering doing it again sometime before the school year ends.

We managed to raise many smiles on the faces of the local members.
Special thanks to our helpers who helped us fulfill our biggest Mitzvah ever.

Thanks also to the parents who contributed all the goodies in those baskets and thanks to our children who worked so hard to bake, sing and deliver.
THANK YOU!
Check out more photos from a wonderful day

Shalach Manot Baskets

Shalach Manot baskets are baskets or bags filled with food and given to family, friends and the community during Purim. Jewish law mandates that these baskets contain at least two different kinds of "ready to eat" foods given to at least one person.

The Sunshine children selected items donated by our TBS families to fill Shalach Manot bags. They thoughtfully selected tea, chocolates, cookies and oranges filling the bags with enthusiasm. It was heart-warming to see these youngsters fulfilling a traditional and beloved Jewish mitzvah.

Mom hard at work

The Scientist class has had many parent volunteers this week come into our classroom. The teachers and children really appreciate the parents taking time out of their busy mornings to help us with reading, baking, singing and whatever else that they would like to do.

Noah's mom, Mara, and Jonathan's mom, Amy came in to our class today to help us fill our Shalach Manot baskets for the elderly and for our Scientist families. The children were very generous filling up the baskets, especially for their friends. As you can imagine they are very excited to share their Shalach Manot goodies with their families, so enjoy and Hag Sameach!

Judi

The Sweetest Mitzvah

The Unicorns all had great fun celebrating purim by doing a special mitzvah! We decorated baskets of hamantuchens and gave them out to our friends at the temple. Passing out Purim treats is a mitzvah called "Mishloach Manot". All the Unicorns sang Purim songs as we visited Dancing Nancy. Rachel and Ellen and gave them our gifts.

We sang these Purim Songs

Purim Day
(This is the English version to a Hebrew song called Chag Purim)

Purim day, Purim day. What a happy holiday.
Wear a mask, wear a crown. Dancing all around.
Round go the groggers, rash, rash, rash! (3x)
On Purim day!

P-U-R-I-M
(to the tune of Bingo)

I know a happy holiday
Purim is its name –O
P-U-R-I-M ( three times)
And purim is its name-O

If You Hear...
(to the tune 'If you're happy and you know it)

If you hear the name of Haman stomp your feet. (stomp feet twice) repeat
If you hear the name of Haman, if you hear the name of Haman,
if you hear the name of Haman stomp your feet (stomp feet twice)

If you hear the name of Esther clap your hands...

If you hear the name of Ahasuerus turn around...

If you hear the name of Mordecai shout hooray...

Check out our Purim photos

To Care And Think of Others!

As children mature and function at higher levels of cognitive development, they are able to gain more and more pro-social skills. But how are they to learn them? Modeling by adults and peers is a very effective way for children to learn these skills.

Today at circle time we discussed with the children that a few TBSCC families really needed some help with cooking and baking. We talked briefly about their unfortunate accidents and at this point in time, they do not have the use of their arm/hand as it needs to heal first. The children decided to bake brownies for both families. The Tel Aviv class baked for the Steinberg Family and the All Star Lunch Bunch group baked for the Hart Family.

In both the morning and afternoon programs a few of the children asked if they could have a brownie or two? A very age appropriate question! I explained once again to the children how these families really needed our help, and we baked today to give them a special treat, as they can not bake for themselves right now. It was amazing to me how the children really grasped the concept. A few of them responded by saying, "Yeah we are giving the brownies to Isaiah's family." This is a mitzvah to give, to care and think of others!

Special Delivery!

We want to thank Lindsey Goldfine for making sure the Tel Aviv All Stars had a fresh challah for their special Shabbat snack. As you can see from the photos this challah was hand delivered with the utmost care!

Scientists Lead the Way!

On Friday afternoon helping our friends and teachers was what happened in Lunch Bunch from start to finish! Jayden and Rebecca led the way! First a bag of lima beans fell off the table, and onto the floor! Then, a small cup of fresh soil spilled all over the stove and refrigerator(in the dramatic play area). Finally, clean up time was a total team effort! Everyone was so willing and eager to lend a helping hand! What a great way to end the week!

Rebecca and Jayden please come back and visit with us real soon!

Mitzvah Tree!

Tomorrow we will sing "Happy Birthday" to our new mitzvah tree. During the course of the week the children have enjoyed painting the trunk, leaves and fruit of the tree. The final steps will be to hang the tree in the classroom, cut out the fruit/leaves and place them on the tree. We can't wait!