On the Seder Plate

During the course of the Seder, the items on the Seder plate are pointed out, lifted up and displayed, and explained.

On the Seder plate (use either a special one for this purpose or a regular dinner plate), include:

• Shank bone—zaro’ah, symbolizes the lamb that was sacrificed in ancient days

• Roasted Egg—beitzah, represents the Passover offering of ancient days as well as the wholeness and continuing cycle of life

• Bitter herbs—maror (horseradish or romaine lettuce), reminds us of the bitter lives of the Hebrew slaves

• Charoset (the mixture of apples, nuts, sweet wine, cinnamon and sugar in the Ashkenazic fashion or dates, nuts and sweet wine in the Sephardic tradition), reminds us of the bricks and mortar made by the Hebrew slaves

• Greens—karpas, symbolizes the springtime of the year when Passover takes place

From the Jewish Parent Page of the Union for Reform Judaism

Dealing with loss

We are sad to report that both our water frogs died early this last week. The reaction of the children was mixed as everyone deals with loss in a different way, and some of the children were more attached to the frogs than others. Most of the children wanted to look closely at the tank and observe what the frogs looked like. This generated discussion about the possible causes of the deaths. Since the frogs' stomachs appeared distended, some of the children thought that they had been fed too much. Others thought that they had eaten some of the gravel in the tank. Another idea was that they banged in to something in the tank and died as a result.

Ever since getting the frogs close to 2 years ago, one frog was a lot smaller than the other. A couple of the children thought that this was the baby frog, even though we explained that the frogs were the same age. They felt badly because the smaller frog died a little before the larger one, and they speculated that maybe the larger frog was eating the smaller frog's share of the food. One child felt responsible for the deaths since it was his job to feed the frogs the previous week.

We talked about what to do next with the frogs. Some of the children had lost pets before, so their answers ranged from: "burying them in a pet cemetery" to "flushing them down the toilet." Matthew Shusterman said that he had a pond in his back yard, and he could put them in the pond. "Maybe they would swim around again", he suggested hopefully. The children all voted, and the majority voted for Matt to take the frogs to his pond.

As it turned out, Matt took one of the frogs, and Teddy Friedman took the other. The children wondered about where the frogs would go now that they died. The idea of heaven was raised, and there were those who believed in heaven and those that didn't. The emotions in the classroom ranged from deep sadness to indifference, although since people show their feelings in such different ways, it's hard to know how some of the children were feeling who didn't on the surface show much of a reaction to the frogs' deaths. We expect to continue to explore their ideas of death and loss as the year goes on. This is a topic that is very much on the mind of children this age. We are also looking at some books which deal with this topic in an appropriate and helpful way. As soon as we find the best resources, we shall pass on this information. If any of you would like us to talk with your child further about his/her feelings, please let us know.

A special thanks to Chris Shusterman and Rebecca Friedman for putting the frogs in their ponds.

The Shabbat Table

Shabbat is an important part of our dramatic play in the housekeeping area on Friday. The Levana children notice that each week, our kitchen table is set for Shabbat. There are loaves of challah of different sizes, lots of kiddush cups, and several sets of candles. We have a special  table cover for Shabbat, and challah covers. The Levana children now say the blessings confidently, on their own and in groups, and we hear them many times throughout the morning. The children come and go from this area throughout the morning, while also spending time creating their challah bags and making the challah that they proudly carry home.

Getting Ready for Passover

Crafts for the whole family

Jewish Parent Page: Passover & Israel

Virtual seder plate

Passover potporri for parents of young children

I wonder what YOU would do??

How can we as teachers and parents make the history of our ancestors come alive for our children? As we strive to make a meaningful connection for our children, we can provide them with the 'history', the bravery exemplified by Jochebed, Moses' mother in putting him in the River Nile, Miriam, his sister, watching over him until he was rescued by the Princess, Moses bravery in standing up for his people, and leaving the life of luxury in the palace because he could not stand by and watch his people being beaten, then trusting in G-d at the burning bush and accepting the 'leadership' role, despite his stuttering tendencies and his belief that he could not be the best leader. We asked your children to reflect on what they would or could do if they lived in the time of Pharaoh? Their responses were enlightening and just reflective of true love and trust in the miracles possible when we trust in G-d. " I don't have to do what you say, I don't care if you chase me because G-d will help me." "Get Moses to do something about it." " If you chase me I will do nothing so he would stop chasing me." " I would punch him in the face." " Call G-d to make him frozen." For me it was such a reminder to trust in the power of G-d. G-d will help us always through all hardships and injustices. Thank you to all the children for this wonderful reminder.

The Exodus ~ No time to wait

Every Friday the children have been making Challah for Shabbat. They come in and the dough is already made. As we discuss the quick exodus of the Jewish people to Freedom, we decided to have the children experience the 'time' factor of how l o n g it takes for yeast to rise to make bread. Rohan and the children waited, waited, and waited, for the yeast to rise. The Jews could not wait this long. After all Pharaoh had changed his mind 10 times, and they did not want to risk him changing it again. Though we were reminded that it was really 11 times, because he did change his mind again and chased after them, but G-d helped them escape with the miracle at the Red Sea. After this experiment the children made Matzah.

It's Work, Work, Work

 For it's work, work, work, Every day and every night. for it's work, work, work, When it's dark and when it's light.

The slaves work hard building for Pharaoh using 'mortar' to make the bricks stick together, thus why we make and eat Haroset at Passover to remind of this. How can we make this a meaningful experience for our children? We made bricks from dirt and straw. First the childrend need to dig the dirt, move it to the sensory table, mix it w/ water and straw. It was messy work. As one can see from Jesse's face, it was not so pleasurable. It was mandatory!!! We dried them in the sun, for building later. There is much more to make!!!