Garinim 

We had quite a busy week.  We spent all week preparing for and then celebrating Purim!  On Monday we rolled up our sleeves and whipped up some Hamantaschen dough.  Everyone had a chance to measure and dump in an ingredient and then mix everything together.  We then took a walk down the hall to put the dough in the kitchen fridge so it could chill before we rolled it out.  Tuesday morning we spent rolling out the dough and cutting it into circles and adding a dollop of filling before folding them up into their triangular shape.  All the practicing the children did with play dough last week made it so familiar, and they were expert Hamantaschen folders. We packed up those yummy hamantaschen for our mishloach manot “characters” that came home, but made sure to keep some at school so we could enjoy one on Purim day as well. Wednesday we were busy assembling our mishloach manot.  We had fun gluing our hand and foot prints onto the strips of paper we had cut and then watched as our teachers stapled everything together.  Later in the day we went through a little assembly line as we stuffed everything into our bags.  Thursday was Purim and whew were we ready.  Upon arrival we quickly finished getting into our costumes.  The whole school had such a level of excitement about it being Purim day and our children just joined right in.  We grabbed our groggers and paraded down to the main sanctuary of B’nai Jacob for the megillah reading (the telling of the Purim story).  The children were so enamored with watching all the older children and seeing them all in costume.  They happily sat and listened to the megillah reading especially paying attention for Haman’s name and shaking their groggers and booing loudly.  Once back from the megillah reading we had our own fun in the classroom.  We took a turn tossing a triangular bean bag into a cardboard hamantaschen, we went bowling for Haman and tried to knock all 6 over, used our fine motor skills to thread beads onto elastic,and colored and added stickers to a purim page.  We also joined the Keshet class for a sing along with Tani and Morah Dawn. It was a short day but man was it fun and busy!  Before we left for the day we had a chance to sample our delicious hamantaschen.  It was a great thing that Friday was PJ day because we were all exhausted from the excitement on Purim.  We came in and settled back into our normal day and got ready for Shabbat. Have a wonderful restful Shabbat.

 

Alim

We finished up our Space Unit this week.  This was definitely a popular unit with all the children. The Planets were a big hit.  Now I will be transforming the classroom Springtime colors and themes.   There will be new Springtime Art work and new Practical life activities put out for the children to enjoy. Purim was a fantastic day that was full of fun and the children had a wonderful time.  Have a great weekend.

 

Alim Judaics   -  We enjoyed lots of Purim Fun this week!  Singing songs:  ‘Pretty Little Esther went to town….’,  Chag Purim in english and hebrew,  and the P-U-R-I-M (Bingo) song.  We finished making our Purim character Graggers, decorated and filled our Mishloach Manot bags to bring home to our families and baked our own Hamantaschen! - What a treat!!   Thursday morning was filled with lots of excitement as we came to school in our costumes, and joined the whole school in the Sanctuary to hear the 7th & 8th Grade students read the Megillah Esther Scroll - and we loved shaking our homemade groggers every time we heard ‘Haman’ to drown out his name. Back in the classroom, Tani treated us by playing some special Purim songs such as: Chag Purim, My little Sweet Clown (Leitzan) & the PURIM Bingo song on his Ukulele! Then we played ‘Purim Freeze Dance’ and then read the book, Purim - where we learned more about Queen Esther’s bravery to save her Jewish people.  

•  Shabbat was celebrated with our  two helpers: Emily Tova and Addie.  Our Shabbat theme was ‘friendship’ this week - as we danced to ‘Shalom Chaverim’, Heenay MahTov (how good it is to all be together) & Ki Eshmera Shabbat.  We read a beautiful book called, Hannah’s Way. another PJ Library Fan FAV - exploring what it feels like to be the only Jewish child in her New School and how she handles the dilemma of a field trip on ‘Shabbat’.

 

Keshet

We knew there was a lot to get through this week, and we needed to get through all our work to make time for some specials.  The dry erase board went up, filled with a list of activities for the day to be checked off. Most days started with: journal writing, snack, read a book to a teacher or to a friend, math activity (choice of the addition snake game, ‘take away’ snake game, clock booklet, 100 board, short bead squares, counting by twos), green language boxes, sewing or other activity of choice. And then followed by Purim activities - all week long! We made Hamantaschen dough together, rolled out, shaped and baked LOTS of Hamantaschen, which went towards the mishloach manot bags - hope you enjoyed them as much as we enjoyed making them! Instead of daily journal writing, the Keshet kids chose to write and illustrate a page of the Purim story and at the end of the week, we compiled an awesome Purim story book with a copy for each child. Wednesday the Keshet Purim players performed the story for their families (via Zoom), including some costume changes, singing and acting like all great actors do! So proud of these kids! Purim day was fun, fun, fun! We started in the B’nai Jacob sanctuary along with all the Ezra grades and watched and enjoyed the older students acting and reading the Megillat Esther, the story of Esther and how she saved the Jewish people. The Purim character groggers joined the din as we drowned out the name of Haman each time he was mentioned in the story. Purim day festivities continued on Thursday with an obstacle course in the gym, including climbing the rock wall! Purim dance party, music with Morah Dawn and Tani, egg and spoon races, cookie decorating and Hamantaschen eating! 

Friday was a quieter and calmer day, well, sort of (!) we were all exhausted and over excited at the same time, and wearing P.J's to close out Spirit week.

Shabbat helpers this week were Maya and Jakob - they led the Shalom Aleichem classroom march, 'lit' the candles, recited the blessings over challah and grape juice and we all sang together.

A beautiful day to close out a beautiful week.

 

Keshet Yoga Yeladim -  Be STILL/ Shema themed class -  After all of the Purim excitement this week, we enjoyed a beautiful Yoga class on embracing stillness after SHAKING IT UP - we learned how to reset our Nervous system and find ‘stillness’ and Shalom/Peace by sitting and observing how we feel afterwards.  We danced and acted out ‘Mashugana Monkey’ to learn the difference between a crazy silly monkey and a more peaceful, mindful monkey- after breathing and meditating. We learned hand motions to the Irish chant ‘ May the Long Time Sun Shine’ and closed with Shalom Begins With Me.

 

See this week’s photos here https://photos.app.goo.gl/pRANEge6RVftG3V76