B”H

Dear Kindergarten Parents of the Purple Room,

Kriyah + PuRiM

In addition to reading the names of the PuRiM story characters:    אסתר - Esther, מרדכי - Mordechai, אחשורוש - Achashverosh, ושתי  - Vashti, המן - Haman, Kindergarten also practiced reading the 4 Mitzvos of Purim:  מגילה – Megila (story of Purim), משלוח מנות - Mishloach Manos (food gifts to a friend),  מתנות לאביונים - Matonos Lo’evyonim (Monetary gifts to the poor), and משתה – Mishteh (feast). They recognized that each of the 4 Mitzvos begin with the letter  מ (Mem). They know that מ (Mem) has the Gematria (numerical value) of 40. When they added the digits of the מ, 4 + 0 it equaled 4 – the hint to the amount of Mitzvos for PuRiM!

Kindergarten wishes to give a big thank you to Rabbi Deitsch for loaning them his authentic Megila. Utilizing the light table, the Kindergarten were able to search the Megila for names of the Purim characters and recorded the incidences of each name mentioned. They marveled over how many times they saw the ‘code name’ for Hashem: ‘HaMelech’ (‘the King’).

Kindergarten knows how many times each Mitzva of Purim is observed and the details, too. Mishloach Manos Brachos sorter was a fun game that reinforced their knowledge of brachos (blessings) for many foods as well as how to fulfill the Mitzva of Mishloach Manos.

Purim Faces

Kindergarten has been surprising the other classes this week with fun PuRiM faces. On one day they wore colorful hats, on another day they wore exciting sunglasses and on yet another, masks (see CJP Facebook).

Art

Kindergarten continued working on their Megila for Purim. They added the Purim characters, with sequins, felt, feathers, tulle and more. Shimmy felt that Vashti was so mean (she was ☹) that he had to cover her face. They labeled the characters, carefully spelling the names.

Kindergarten created Hairy Graggers for the reading of the Megila on PuRiM. To ensure it makes noise, they filled them with rocks from their very own playground.

Parsha

Kindergarten learned how Hashem called to Moshe from inside the Mishkan and even though Hashem’s voice was so loud and powerful, Hashem made it so that only Moshe would hear it. Moshe was very dear to Hashem. Even though Moshe was the leader of all the Jewish People,  he was still the most humble of all.

Happy Birthday! We celebrated Moshe (aka Moses) birthday this week. In honor of this momentous occasion Kindergarten visited the Shul where Rabbi Deitsch kindly showed the children the inside of a Sefer Torah where Hashem called lovingly to Moshe from inside the Mishkan (Tabernacle). They saw a remarkable thing: the entire Sefer Torah is written most carefully and precisely by a Sofer with every letter sized precisely and equally yet there is one letter that is different in size from all the rest. In this week’s Parsha, Vayikra, the letter Alef from the word ‘Vayikra’ which means ‘and He called’, has a small Alef! This is because Hashem called to His beloved Moshe and Moshe was the humblest of men. This is represented by the small Alef. Thank you, Rabbi Deitsch.

Conversation Overheard
Nosson: I’m not going to marry you.

Batya: Why?

Nosson: Because it’s in a long time. But I’m going to get married in 20 years. My Tatty will be 65.

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline