Purim is coming up (March 10 this year) and we are all into it!  The children love listening and play acting out the story.  We take turns being the various Purim players - exploring King Achashverosh, and his prime minister, Haman (who carries out much of the rulership in Shushan, Persia, while the king tends to his personal interests, including holding many lavish parties), Queen Vashti, the first queen who is later 'banished' after refusing to do exactly what the king requests of her, including performing too often at his parties, Queen Esther, who is selected by the king as his new queen (she is Jewish but is quiet about that at first until her people are threatened with their lives when the mean Haman becomes infuriated with her uncle, Mordecai when he refuses to bow down to Haman). We are singing 'I need a queen, a nice new queen, to sit beside me on the thrown.  And if she's very good to me, I'll give her half the things I own...'  

Other songs include 'Chag Purim, Chag Purim, chag gadol l' yeladim...' (Purim is a happy holiday for children, we wear masks, sing and dance and shake noise makers whenever we hear the name Haman.) And, our favorite, 'L'kova sheli, shalosh pinot, shalosh pinot l'kova sheli... ' (My hat has three corners, three corners has my hat.  If it doesn't have three corners, it is not my hat!) Ask your child to sing 'l'kova sheli shalosh pinot.' The hand movements are fun too.  Collage purim groggers, water color paintings, stitching, ... It's just some of what we do.  

 

On March 10the children should all come to school dressed in costume - Purim characters or any other dress up.  We will join the rest of the school in the chapel to hear part of the Megilat Ester, and shake our groggers (noise makers) at the sound of Haman's name.  Be sure to send in a change of clothes for the rest of the day.

 

We are still collecting for the Smile Train, (cleft lip and palette organization) if you'd like to add to our tzedakah box, there is still time. One more week and then we'll send in our collection.  Today we sorted all the notes and coins, with everyone taking part.  Some were separating the pennies into shiny ones and those that needed cleaning, which went onto the 'Penny Polishing' tray.  Coin counting activity (and adding) will follow next week.

 

This week (and for next week), we will be discussing the upcoming Purim holiday and also touch on dental health! Quite fitting as the children will be indulging in sweets to celebrate the Purim holiday! We began learning the story of Queen Vashti, Queen Esther, King Ahasuerus, Haman, and Mordecai. We created groggers out of recycled apple sauce cups, beads and beans, and very colorful tape. The children would shake their grogger as hard as they could when they heard the name, Haman! We also had a fun activity in class—sorting Haman’s hats! The children were given a tray with three bowls that held multiple colored triangular hats.  Their job was to sort the hats by color into the three bowls. We will continue talking about this story as we work up to Purim, on March 10th.

The children enjoyed creating festive colored marble paintings, which are now hung on our bulletin board. The children were given an opportunity to cover ping pong balls (these served as our “marbles”) with different colored paints. We then transported the balls into a shoebox that housed our paper. The children were then encouraged to shake the box as hard as they could (as if they heard Haman’s name!) to get the paint covered balls to roll around onto their paper. We made some very beautiful creations! 

We did talk about how we will be making our very own hamantaschen in the upcoming weeks and how important it is to brush our teeth after having something sweet. We will have more in depth discussions next week, as Dr. Opin (from Opin Orthodontics in Milford), will be visiting us on Friday March 6th with his therapy dog, Cooper! He will talk to us about the importance of taking care of our teeth. 

With all of the rain this week, we thought it would be fitting to make a rain cloud in our classroom! 

We took a clear jar and filled it about 3/4 of the way full with water. Then (with help from a teacher) we sprayed shaving cream on top of the water in the jar. The shaving cream stayed on top of the water— our “cloud”! We then used an eye dropper to take turns squirting pre mixed blue colored water (made with water color paint), on top of the white shaving cream (cloud). The blue water eventually made its way through the shaving cream to make “rain”! It was a very cool science experiment. We have the recipe for this out on our bulletin board if you would like to try at home!

Songs we learned:
Pretty Little Esther:
Pretty little Esther went to town
She bought a little Hamantaschen
Nice and Brown 
She bit a little corner and then she cried
Goody, goody, goody, there’s something nice inside

When I Wake up in the Morning:
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to one, and I’m looking to have a little fun;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brush sound) 
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to two, and I just don’t know what I should do; 
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to three, and I’m sitting, fidgeting, doodle dee dee;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to four, and I hear someone knocking at my door;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to five, and I’m just starting to feel alive;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to six, and I want to go outside and pick up sticks;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)
When I wake up in the morning at quarter to seven, but I really think it’s quarter to eleven;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to eight, and I’m really running late;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to nine, and I just can’t find my lucky dime;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)
When I wake up in the morning and it’s quarter to ten, and I look outside to see the big, fat hen;
I brush my teeth! (Make tooth brushing sound)

Garinim and Anafim met to hear about Terumah. The parsha in which the Israelites give gifts that are used to build the mishkan and all its furnishings. Morah Marisol asked for volunteers to assemble the mishkan. She reviewed the significance of each piece as it was placed on the board. For a more sensorial experience, incense was burned, safely away, from the children to help them understand what it does and how it makes a space fragrant. Ask the children what was most significant to them about the parsha.