Purim Celebration
Purim is a fun, joyous holiday that we have been excitingly preparing for in class together. As we learn the story of the holiday we learn what it is we are celebrating today. The story introduces us to the people that lived a long time ago. We listen to the way the characters talk to each other, the way they treat each other and the way each of the characters act. We learn from others what are the right things to do and how we could try to be just like them, or maybe things we should stay away from doing. In the Purim story we are introduced to:
Queen Esther




Rabbi Mordechai





King Achashverosh



Haman




Giving the children the tools to be storytellers.
The children learnt the historical story of Purim through watching a puppet show. At the end of the story we learn that Rabbi Mordechai wrote the story on a long paper scroll (megillah) so that the story would remain and the lessons from the story not be forgotten. Every year as part of the celebration we read the Purim story to remind us of the holiday's message. In school over the past few days the children have been making their own scroll so they too could retell the story along with their
puppets. Please take the time to notice the delicate wording of the story and the different fine motor and spatial orientation skills the children used to create the megillah scroll.









Along with the scroll the children have puppets similar to the ones used to tell the story so they too could use them and act out the story together with the backdrop of the scroll. Another way to share in the story telling is that mom and dad could read the wording of the story and the children could act it out with the puppets.






Personalizing the story of Purim into our actions for today.
Rabbi Mordechai, a caring man wants the best for all the people and does kind things for the community. We learn about Queen Esther, a lady who was brave and did what she could to help others.
We have been highlighting the things that we do that show care for others. There are times when our friends might need help, or we notice that there is something that we could do for others we too try to do the right thing.
"Elisheva helped me open my cheesestick because I couldn't open it it was too tight." - Carly

We use Queen Esther and Rabbi Mordechai as role models.
Purim is a time when we realize those people in our lives that we are grateful for and acknowledge them. We think about the things our friends do for us and thank them for caring and being close to us. We respond to our friends by giving food baskets - mishloach manot, as a gratitude for the relationship. Here are some of the responses from the children as to who they are thankful for. (Because of the snow days not all the children had a chance to share with the class someone they are thankful for, yet when we return to school we will continue these lessons.)

“My mommy does nice things, she gives me hugs. She let’s me play with the Lego and she makes me happy. I could say thank you mommy for giving me food to eat. I want to give you mishloach manot.”- Shalom
“Delia does nice things for me, she opens up my applesauce because I can not do it. I say thank you to Delia.” – Jasmin
“Jasmin shares the blocks with me and we build together. Jasmine shares with me and I like it. She is my friend.” – Delia
“Delia and Jasmin play with me nicely in the kitchen. We make food and play in the house. I want to say thank you for playing with me.” - Olivia

Gaining an understanding of math in a tangible way.
We have been practicing our number recognition and placing our finger on the object to count one-to-one correspondence. Since it the Purim holiday we have been using one of the symbols of the holiday, hamentashen cookies, to count and group according to number.







How do you take a circle and turn it into a triangle? We discovered this as we were making yummy hamentashen cookies. We will be eating them on Monday at our school Purim party.









We have been having a lot of fun dressing up as the characters of the Purim story. Hope to see you at the community Purim party on Sunday at 11:00 am. Come dressed up and be ready for fun!









Shabbat Shalom and Happy Purim,
Morah Batsheva

We care for our friends even when they are far away and we can not see them.
Our friend Kristina has been away from school for a few weeks now. She is on a trip visiting her family in Russia. In class we were talking about Kristina wondering what she might be doing. We acknowledged that it has been a long time since we were with her. When we are away from someone we could start to get the feelings that we miss them. We were missing Kristina. We decided to write Kristina a letter telling her how we feel and let her know what we have been doing in school. We will use the avenue of this blog to communicate with Kristina. Please read along to hear how the children care for each other and feel like a community.

We brought our 'puppet friend Kristina' to join us at circle time.
This is where we decided to communicate with her and write her a letter.
This is our letter.

Dear Kristina

We have not seen you in a very long time and we are wondering about you.

We have been thinking about you and wondering what you are doing all the way in Russia?

Are you playing? Did you fly on an airplane in the air?

In class we have been thinking about some of the fun things we had done together.

This is what I remember that I like to do with you.

Moussia: "I like to play in the kitchen and do cooking and make cookies with you."

Olivia: "I like to play in the water and splash with you."

Carly: "I want to tell you that I love you."

David: "Hello Kristina, I want to make soup together."

Elisheva: "I like to help you with your sheet and your blanket at rest time."

Shalom: "I like dancing with you on the stage and looking out the window with you in school."

Delia: "I like to paint with you, remember when we painted the big picture in our classroom?"

Elana: "We play in the kitchen together."

Jasmin: "I like when I build blocks together with Kristina."

Now we would like to share with you some of the things we have been doing in school.

Today we were playing puzzles and look what we found...

"It's a 'K', It's Kristina's letter for her name."

"Here is another 'K' for Kristina!"

Kristina, here in New Jersey it is snowing! It is all white. The slide outside our classroom window is all white, you can’t really even see it. The trees look like there is snow-flowers, they are all covered in snow. You can’t even see the grass because it is covered in snow. The snowplows come and dig the snow away. In school we even had a chance to build a snowman.

When we were outside we tried to catch snowflakes on our tongue.

The snowflakes were so tiny and cold!

Today we decorated our classroom to get ready for the upcoming holiday, Purim. We made a palace, a place where a king and queen live. We put on beautiful dresses, jewels and crowns to dress up like King Achashverosh and Queen Esther.

This is a picture of us using the computer to write a letter to you. Then we chose which pictures we wanted to send you.

Kristina we have never been to Russia before, maybe you can tell us something about Russia. What does it look like and what you can do there?

Hope to see you soon Kristina.
We miss you.
Love, Elisheva, Moussia, Carly, Jasmin, Elana, Olivia, Shalom, David, Delia and Morah Batsheva

Before change happens we prepare the children to help them know what they can expect.

By taking the child's emotions into consideration we can create a safe

environment where the child knows what s/he can expect and is not met with surprises. This helps the child transition easier and smoother from the norm to the change and creates some sense to this world they are trying to figure out.

The change that was about to happen was that our friend Shalom was about to turn three years old and will therefore be receiving his first haircut. Shalom knows this since his family has been preparing him for this special time in his life. Yet, we his friends that see and play with him each day, our needs must also be met.

To us, our friend Shalom has long flowy, curly hair.

Projecting into the future if we did not take the children into consideration the children might be wondering, what suddenly happened? We might be surprised, confused and possibly not recognize our friend. Is this boy the same boy that we know and play with? Something about him makes him looks so different than just yesterday.

Shalom and the whole class was going to experience change. We therefore need to discuss this with the children. Malkie, Shalom’s mother, brought pictures of Shalom’s older siblings when they were this age of three right before and after their first haircut. We saw a young boy with long hair, just like Shalom, and then the boy with a short boy haircut. It was not until the next day that we saw our friend Shalom that we saw the difference.

Malkie relayed to me that when she was cutting Sholom's hair, as he was watching himself - he says, "I look like David!" I ask him how, and he says, "cuz I have cheeks!"

The children were definetly surprised and even excited for their friend when the saw him. However, their reactions came from an excited place for their friend as apposed to a confused or unsure sense of ‘what happened, this is strange’ sense.

We take real life expereinces and turn them into teachable moments that can enhance our social skills and help us create good social habits.

As young children we are learning social skills and how to be empethetic to others. We learn that there are others and they too have feelings and needs. We learn how to care for others and that we can demonstrate this through our actions and words. Our friend Jasmin has been sick and away from school for over a week. We first took notice of this and wondered where she was. After phone caller her house and messages from Morah Linda we soon found out that she was not feeling well and was resting and recouperating at home. We thought of times that we too were sick and how it made us feel and tried to sympathize with her situation. We then thought of what we could do for our friend when they are not feeling well and are not able to have fun and be in school with thier friends. The children decided to bring something from our class that Jasmin can do and play with to help her feel a little happier. We thought of what would make Jasmin happy? What does she enjoy doing? What would she like to do? After we thought we filled up a bag of goodies for Jasmin.

Here are some of the things that were found in the bag.

"Here are two books to help you feel better, you could read these books in your house. Jasmin these books you like to read in the classroom, so you can now have them at home. I made a picture of a circle and square for you.” Shalom

I want to tell you that I like you and I made you a picture because I am thinking about you. I made you a picture that has grass and a big sun. I hope that you feel better.” Carly

Jasmin I want to make you feel so happy. I want you to come back so I can play with you. I want to give you something special. It is a picture I made for you. Jasmin I want to give you this puppet to play with because I think you like it. You can put your hand inside and use the puppet. You can make it move around and talk.” Elisheva

Jasmin mother responded to the class with a note and pictures from Jasmin. The students were thrilled to know that Jasmin enjoyed thier gifts and were able to see Jasmin interacting with the gifts they gave her. Jasmin mother said that she will be back in school soon.

Preparing for the upcoming Shabbat Preschool Family Dinner

When the children are involved in the process they become connected with the information and it becomes personal to them. Therefore the children are involved in many steps along the way in preparing for this event. The children are engaged in the learning of the Shabbat unit with songs, stories, dramatic play and games. Soon we will be making decorative Shabbat candle holders that we could each use in our homes for Shabbat. Each class will aslo be preparing food for the Shabbat dinner and so far on the menu we will be making the chicken soup and challah.

In planning for Shabbat Dinner we posed the question: How are we going to let everyone know?

When we want to invite others to come somewhere there are different ways we could let the person know. We tho

ught of different ways we could transmit the message. We could talk to the person when we see them. However, if we do not see the person then we could call them on the telephone and speak to them. We also discussed a third option, we could invite the person with an invitation, an invitation lets the person know all the necessary information and what we are inviting them to. So that is what we did, we made invitations to let you know about the Shabbat Preschool Family Dinner that will be taking place on Friday, February 12, at 5 pm.

We hope everyone can make it. Please RSVP to Linda either by email or phone.

To decorate the invitation and to practice different skills, the children cut, glued and grouped shabbat images together.

• We are gaining more control over scissors and learning what scissors do and how to cut through a complete peice of paper.
  
• We learn what side of the decoation we put the glue on when we want it to stick to our paper.
  
• We are becoming more spatialy aware when we set the table with the shabbat images and group like images together; two challahs go next to each other, the cup and grape juice go next to each other and the two candles go next to each other with a candle placed on the top.
  
• We are putting into practice vocabulary words such as beside, next to, under, on top.

If you would like to join your son or daughter and the class to help us prepare for the Shabbat Dinner please speak to me so we can make a plan.






We have been playing letter recognition games and learning the first letter of our names and our friends names. You can play along with us and point out different alphabet letters you see around.

Shabbat Shalom.
Morah Batsheva