Beginning our Pesach Exploration

Documentation for the week of March 20-24, 2017

Creating Hagaddahs

We have been breaking down the parts of the Pesach seder for the children by having them create their own hagaddahs. We started out by creating cover pages on Monday. The children copied English and Hebrew words as well as numbers onto their cover pages. This work requires a lot of skills: Hand-eye coordination is developed as they write on the paper in a straight line and form the letters.  Fine motor skills develop the muscle strength in their hands.  One-to-one correlation is a math skill which they use when they don't recognize a letter on the page. The children need to remember or count how many letters they have written already, and then count the letters on the page that they are copying from so that they know which letter to write next. This was especially challenging with the word, "Hagaddah" because so many letters were repeated.

During morning meeting each day this week, we discussed the next step in the Pesach seder and how we could create a symbol of that activity on our haggadah pages. When we spoke about Kadaish, we shared that it means we drink a cup of wine. The children shared that when we drink wine, we use a Kiddush cup. Kiddush cups are shiny silver. There's also wine in a Kiddush cup, and that's usually purple. This conversation led us to decide on using silver, shiny tinfoil and purple paint to create our Kadaish page on Tuesday.

First, the children wrote the word Kadaish (in Hebrew!) at the bottom of their page.

Next, we looked at pictures of Kiddush cups on the iPad. Some children chose to look at stemless Kiddush cups on plates while others chose to look at Kiddush cups with stems. They then manipulated the tinfoil to shape it like a Kiddush cup. This was challenging for them. Right away, Imie made a three-dimensional Kiddush cup with her tinfoil, but it wouldn't lay flat on the paper, so she tried again. Oree wanted to make the plate round, but wasn't sure how to make a circle with tinfoil. The children worked with the tinfoil until they were satisfied with their Kiddush cups, then Morah Tara taped the tinfoil to the paper.

Last, the children used paint to show that the Kiddush cup was full of wine. They also chose to decorate their paper with the paint.

The finished pages all turned out beautifully. It was fun to see how the children's interpretations showed on their different papers.

We discussed Orchatz at morning meeting on Tuesday. We had a discussion about how we wash with a washing cup, but we don't eat any food afterwards, so we don't say a bracha. Next, we spoke about how we could create our Orchatz hagaddah page. At first, Leah spoke about making a washing cup with something that was gold and shiny. Ariel S. thought that we could draw our hands. Eventually, we decided to trace our hands and add water flowing over them by using blue paint and glue.

We created our Orchatz pages on Wednesday. We went to the sink and filled the washing cup with water so that we could observe the water as it flowed out of the washing cup onto our hands. We saw that it flowed in a line.

We returned to our papers and wrote the word, Orchatz. Then the children traced their hands and painted a line of blue paint just like the water looked as it flowed out of the washing cup at the sink.

Dramatic Play: Cleaning for Pesach

The children enjoyed all of the cleaning supplies in the dramatic play area this week! Our classroom has never been cleaner! Hillel and Ariel F. began their work by taking the cleaning tools all together. Hillel had three cleaning tools and Ariel F. had two. Ariel F. said that it wasn't fair that Hillel had more than her. Hillel said that they couldn't have the same amount because if he gave her one then he would only have two and she would have three. For a while they both walked around the classroom holding their supplies, but then they realized that they couldn't use them when their hands were so full. They each chose which friends they wanted to share their tools with, and then began using them to clean. 

Eliya used the squeegee to clean the floor until Oree told him that it was for the windows. Then he, Oree, and Bayla brought chairs over to the window and started to clean it. The next day, Bayla and Ariel F. chose to bring chairs to the front door of the classroom and clean the window their. The cleaning work happening in the classroom brought about new conversations for the children. They spoke about what a duster is and why we use it. They also spoke about the differences between a mop and a broom. Hopefully, this will carry over into their cleaning help at home too!

Water Play Every Day!

We know it's more work having bathing suits at school every day, and we are so grateful to you for your willingness to take on this task. The children are truly flourishing from our new schedule! We chose to update our daily schedule for two reasons: to accommodate for the heat and because the children have shown us that they are ready for less transitions with more time for extended play. 

Going outside and playing in the water right away gives the children lots of time to get their energy out while exploring in new and meaningful ways. They have done a great job taking turns holding the hose and negotiating materials outside. While some children are playing in the water at the top of the hill with all of the water play loose parts, other children now have space to use the loose parts at the bottom of the hill with less competition from their peers.

On Tuesday, Ariel S. found a lizard! She picked it up gently and placed it in a bowl with a little bit of water in it. The children made sure that there wasn't too much water so that the lizard wouldn't drown. They had a lot of conversation about the lizard. Ariel S. said that it's name was, "Night Night." Then their conversation moved onto gender. Oree thought it was a girl lizard. Eliya thought it was a boy. Morah Tara asked why he thought that and he responded, "Because it's wearing a yamulke!" Everyone laughed! Hillel said, "Yeah, it has tzitzis too!" 

Literacy Trays focused on Higher Numbers and Aleph Bais

This week we had two literacy trays that focused on tracing, building, and writing Hebrew letters. Lucy started with a Pay and it was so hard! Then she tried a Lamed and it was easier for her. 

We also had a tray for children to recognize higher number symbols. There were cards with numbers on them and the children were asked to draw the number with a feather and then build that number with small rocks. At first this was very challenging, but after adding a helper paper with the letters written in order, the children started picking up the pattern that a 1 and a 7 means 17, which is followed by the number that is a 1 and an 8 which is 18.

We also had English letter activities out to explore. There was felt pieces and pipe cleaners out to create English letters. 

The last tray we had available had cards with pictures on them. The children matched the first letter sound in the picture with a letter block. Ariel F. enjoyed this tray a lot. At first she struggled to hear the first sound of each picture, but she continued trying and was able to identify the sound and the letter that matched the sound.

We will continue exploring Pesach next week!