Let's make something for Rosie's Place

On Friday, the Kindergartners were excited to explore the flour in the sensory table. As they started to feel the flour they shared their observations with each other.

Dylan: It’s so soft.

Brett E.: But dirty.

Zack: Not dirty, but messy.

They continued feeling the flour and experimented with the mixing spoons, measuring cups, and sifters. As they were playing, Brett S. developed a dramatic play scenario. He said, “We’re making this for Rosie’s place. For people who don’t have food.”  Zack, Dylan, and Brett continued preparing food for Rosie’s Place and asked that the teacher pretend to be the person from Rosie’s Place that comes to pick up the food.

Jesse: Hi. I am from Rosie’s Place. I heard you have something for me to pick up.

Brett Stone: We made eggs!
Dylan: Scrambled.

Zack: And here’s extra.

Brett Stone: We also have little sandwiches.

Rosie’s Place is a soup kitchen for homeless women. The Children’s Center at Temple Beth Shalom prepares Tuna casseroles for Rosie’s place once a month. This is an experience that Dylan, Zack, and Brett had when they attended the children’s center. When children engage in dramatic play, they demonstrate their understanding of the world around them. In this scenario, the children are revealing their experience with Rosie’s Place, their understanding of people who do not have as much food as we do, and the idea of tzedakah.  Together, we will continue exploring the idea of tzedakah and think about how we can help Rosie’s Place. 

Rosie's Place

 Today the Etzim class made their first tuna casserole for Rosie's Place.  We found the basket where families donate the ingredients and gathered what we need. We enjoyed this so much we agreed to make another tomorrow!  The children enjoyed the cooking and were very curious about how the food gets from our freezer to Rosie's Place!

Tuna Noodle Casserole

Everyone enthusiastically participated in preparing the tuna-noodle casserole for Rosie's Place. When asked "why do you think we make this dish", several of the girls replied, "for people who don't have enough food." It's wonderful to watch young children embody the Jewish value of Tikkun Olam. 

Tuesday is Tuna Noodle Day!

Tuna Noodle Tuesday! It was our last casserole of the year for Rosie's Place. Elias and Micah Rosin could not have been more excited to start chopping the butter and cheese.  They used their expert fine motor chopping skills to dice the cheese and butter into tiny cubes so that it would easily melt over the hot pasta. Later Zach and Micah Gladstone came and helped out. They were eager to use the can opener. Such strong kiddos! The casserole was made with care and love and they should be very proud of the cooking skills going to such an important organization!

Etzim loves to recycle, but what's the bigger picture?

Over the past two weeks in the Etzim classroom, we have transformed our dramatic play area into a recycling center.  As a class, we have researched on the internet Needham's recycling policies, and learned how to locate recycling numbers on the bottom plastics to find out if they are acceptable for our bins.

During our circle time, we have had open discussion on what is recycling, how can we recycle at school, and how are we effecting the environment around us when we recycle.  The Etzim class has learned that they are helping to take care of the world around them through the simple practice of being mindful to reuse and recycle. 

Today, we took a deep exploration in talking about what else do we do at school that helps us to take care of, and repair the world around us.

At our school, we help women who don't have enough to eat, by making our casseroles for Rosie's place.  We are planting, and taking care of trees for our upcoming celebration of the holiday Tu b'shevat.  We recycle at home, and at school to reduce the waste we put out into the world.

Tikkun Olam, is the hebrew phrase meaning, "to repair" or "to heal" the world, and this practice is something that the Etzim children are thoroughly excited to expand on in our upcoming weeks!

Today during circle we read the book, Tikkun Olam Ted and many children noticed, they do a lot of similar activities at home, and at school that were mentioned in this book!

 We are looking forward to talking in circle tomorrow, our next Etzim endeavor into repairing our world!  Make sure to pop in to the Etzim classroom to find out what our next project for Tikkun Olam is!

We take care of each other

We made tuna noodle casserole for the women who are living at Rosie's Place.  It was amazing to see the difference in the children's understanding of this since the last time we made a casserole in the fall.  We talk extensively about taking care of ourselves and taking care of each other.  Kindness, being helpful, being a friend, smiling, and sharing are all ways that we take care of each other.

Sometimes we take care of people that we don't know because we know that they need our help and we know what we can do to help them.

We Help Others

The Keshet class started out the day making casseroles that will be donated to Rosie's Place.  Mary Ann printed out a recipe which we followed.  The kids helped by slicing cheese, cutting up butter, stirring all the ingredients together and putting it all in a baking pan ready to be transported to Rosie's Place.  This is a monthly activity that we will participate in.  Having fun, learning and helping others at the same time!

Look at that!

In the Keshet classroom, there are moments when we can see focus and determination in our young students.  The children are able to choose an activity, work hard at it, and persevere in the face of challenges.  Whether they are constructing a special train track or slicing cheese to add to our tuna noodle casserole for Rosie's Place, they are involved and very capable.

Tuna, Tuna Everywhere!

Today Team Bet worked so hard to make a delicious tuna noodle casserole for Rosie's Place.  We added lots of tuna because the group really enjoyed learning how to use the can opener. Lizzie said she couldn't use it because she didn't know how. Then I reminded her that teaching kids how to do something they don't know how to do is something that teachers do best. Together we twisted the can opener until the can was all the way open! Great work Lizzie! After Lizzie opened the can both Noah and Zach Bern wanted a try so we had lots of tuna in our meal. Zach Glazer was doing a fantastic job cutting playdough into lots of pieces so I invited him to the tuna table to cut the cheese into little cubes. He was such a big help! It was great to see how everyone worked together to make some delicious food and help others. 

Great job Team Bet!

Cooking For Rosie's Place

The children were very excited to help with the cooking of our tuna casserole. They carefully cut the two ingredients into small pieces, making sure that every last part was used.  Some of the children even decided that they wanted to taste the cheese and butter! Mmmmm, delicious!

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!"

Cooking at TBSCC

Once again it's time for the children to prepare our famous mac and cheese tuna casserole for Rosie's Place. It's a real life lesson in doing for others, fulfilling the mitzvah of tzedakah.
The children love to measure, cut and mix. Elias, Jaedyn and Sydni take turns stirring the ingredients. Max and Olive are cutting the block of velvetta into smaller pieces before adding it to the bowl.

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?"