This week we celebrated Purim! We made groggers, crowns, and masks! The children wore their crowns while acting out our new song:
“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 is something nice inside.”
We also learned the story of Queen Esther and watched a puppet show at circle time!

 

We talked a lot about Purim this week.  We told the children that on this Holiday people remember the story of Esther and how she helped to save her people. She was a beautiful Jewish girl who lived a long time ago in the country of Persia.  Esther was so beautiful and so kind that the King chose her to be his queen. The king's most important helper was a wicked man named Haman.  Haman did not know that Esther was Jewish and neither did the king. Haman wanted to hurt all Jews. Esther told the king she was Jewish and about Haman's plot to get rid of her people.  She wanted to save all the Jewish people and asked the King to spare them.  The king loved his brave Queen and so he punished Haman and saved the Jews.  We role played this in class. The boys were given special Majestic Crowns and the girls were given beautiful Crowns to act out our version of Purim. We read numerous stories regarding Purim with many fun variations. Our children were very busy making groggers from cups and paper plates in the shape of "Haman's hat", decorating a variety of masks using gemstones and feathers and coloring their mishloach manot basket for that personal touch.  The children enjoyed filling their own baskets and were very excited to bring them home.  The children practiced and worked hard learning the words to a special Purim song.  

 

This week was all PURIM, PURIM, PURIM! Puppet show, stories, songs in English and Hebrew, and practicing (just a little) for our Purim schpiel.