Dear Parents,

 

WELCOME DAVIS!

The Purple Room is so excited to welcome Davis Hartman to the Purple Room!

 

Pesach

The Purple Room Whizzes have been practicing and practicing the Mah Nishtana. (Naveed: Oh, this again??)

 

The children were so excited to sing the Mah Nishtana to their grandparents on Zoom this week. They used their Mah Nishtana puppets (found in their Haggada behind Step 5 of the Seder) to illustrate each question.

 

They had a lot of fun singing the Afikoman song to their Grandparents.

 

Song

Afikoman

(TTTO: Macarena)

 

You take the middle Matzah and you break it in the middle

You take the bigger piece and put back the little

The kids try to take it from behind the Abba’s pillow

Ooooh Afikoman!

 

Afikoman etc. (with actions) (palms out down, palms out up, cross arms across chest to shoulde , then other arm, hand behind ear or on head, then other hand, hand crossed over lap, then other hand, hand on hip, then other hand, then hands up in question)

 

Where’s the afikoman?!

 

The children are very proud of the Haggada they made and worked so hard on for the last few weeks.

 

The Purple Room Artists created stunning K’ora Seder Plates using copper sheets. It was a very different art experience because they used a wooden stylus to etch out the design into the copper with a stencil and weren’t able to see the result until the stencil was removed.

 

The children played all sorts of matching, math and literacy games this week based on Pesach.

 

Wishing you and your family a Happy and Kosher Pesach!

Morah Perline

B”H 

Dear Parents,

Pesach Science

The Purple Room children explored the difference between Chometz and Matza. They experimented with two bottles: both had flour and water with a balloon attached to the tops.  But one bottle had the addition of yeast and sugar. After 18 minutes, they observed that the bottle with the yeast rose and blew up the balloon while the bottle that simply had only flour and water didn’t rise at all. They learned that for to make Matza the Matza must be completed with the mixing, kneading and baking process by 18 minutes. Chometz (bread, Challah, bagels, etc.) rises higher and higher the longer it takes for the process.

 

Hebrew Literacy

The Purple Room also discovered that both words in Hebrew, Chometz  חמץ  and Matza מצה  ,   have two common letters: the Mem מ  and the Tzaddik  צ . The only difference is Chametz has a Ches ח  and Matzah has a Hey  ה . If you look at the letters you can see that they look very similar too, only the Hey has a little space to let air (and people) in and the Ches does not. When a person is humble they don’t feel the need to show off and boast; they feel able to let the other person in and express their thoughts and feelings.

 

Sensory

The Purple Room Winemakers used their fine motor skills to remove the seeds from grapes. Then they strengthened their hand muscles as they squeezed the juice out and made grape juice. They thought the grape juice tasted quite fine. The Purple Room children used the seeds the next day to count and attach to the four cups of wine for the Haggada they are creating.

 

Art and Science

Another experiment which was incorporated into a page of the Haggada was to explore what would happen when they mixed paint with salt. What effect would the salt have on the paint? The result pleasantly surprised them and will delight you when your child shows you his/her Haggada.

 

Pesach Seder

The Purple Room Wise Ones know that the Pesach Seder is the l-o-n-g-e-s-t Yom Tov meal of the year! They know it has 15 steps:

 

Song:

Kadesh we take a sip of wine to our lip

Urchatz we wash our hands for the Karpas which we dip

Yachatz  we now divide and put a half aside

Of the middle Matza, the Afikomen which we’ll hide.

Maggid  tell the story and once more we tell our children the story we repeat

Wash your hands Rachtza demands

For Motzei Matza the Matza which we eat

 

Maror is bitter greens

Korech sandwich between

Shulchan Orech the Yom Tov meal. We lick our soup bowls clean …Mmmm

Tzafun’s not far behind

Afikomen we find?

Berach – We’re bentchin’

Hallel – mention Hashem who is kind

Nirtza – we sing to Hashem, our mighty King,

Thanking Him for taking us out of Mitzrayim

Now we have sung the Seder Simanim

L’shana Haba’ah B’Yerushalayim!

 

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Dear Parents,

 

Conscious Discipline

The Purple Room was introduced to a new Brain Break this week: Boom Snap Clap. Brain Breaks, a Conscious Discipline technique, are short mental breaks taken throughout a lesson or academic activity. They help children remain calm, focused and engaged, and they have been shown to reduce stress. Ask your child to show you Boom Snap Clap.

 

Pesach

The Purple Room is learning how the Jewish People got to live in Mitzrayim (Egypt) in the first place and how the Paroah that lived in Yosef’s time was a different Paroah who lived later. The later Paroah enslaved the Jewish People. Fortunately, the Jewish People were freed from Mitzrayim by Hashem who heard the cries of the suffering people.

 

What’s the difference between a worker and a slave? What do you think a slave does all day? How do you think a slave feels?

 

Bracha:

My dad works on a computer. My dad and mom have a lot of meetings.

 

A slave is when you work for someone to make sure you have a roof on your house. My mom says if you don’t work then the house on the roof would not be on.

 

Geffen:

My Mom does something different than a work. She makes cakes for people. My Dad works on a computer.

 

A slave does hard work you don’t like.

 

Jemma:

A slave has to work very hard for people. A worker does easy work.

 

Ronan:

My mom gives smart people bosses. My dad’s home job is a builder. He builds stuff only at home.

 

You don’t pay slaves and you pay workers.

 

Songs:

We Were Slaves

 עבדים היינו היינו                

לפרעה במצרים במצרים                

(Avadim hayinu, hayinu

L’Paroah b’Mitzrayim, b’Mitzrayim)

 

We were slaves

We were slaves

To Paraoh in Mitzrayim (Egypt)

In Mitzrayim

3X

 

Bang, Bang, Bang
Bang, bang, bang

Hold your hammers low.

Bang, bang, bang

Give a heavy blow.

 

For it’s work, work, work

Every day and every night

For it’s work, work, work

When it’s dark and when it’s light

 

Dig, dig, dig

Dig your shovels deep

Dig, dig, dig

There’s no time to sleep

 

For it’s work, work, work

Every day and every night

For it’s work, work, work

When it’s dark and when it’s light

 

 

A hand-eye coordination activity the Purple Room Friends really enjoyed this week was peeling back a layer of cardboard from a box to reveal the bumpy layer underneath. They used that as a base for a crayon rubbing of the cover page to their Haggada.

 

Another sensory activity the children enjoyed was creating their own play dough. The Purple Room Friends created their own matzahs!

 

The Purple Room Friends have begun learning the Mah Nishtana so they can be ready for the Pesach Seder.

 

The Purple Room Friends are continuing to utilize the Waseca Literacy program and Montessori Math, each at their own pace.

 

Shabbat Shalom!

Morah Perline