Dear Purple Room Families,

    It’s almost Pesach! The Purple Room is enjoying learning about this holiday in so many ways. For this week’s newsletter, we’d like to focus on some of the play the children have developed to explore the holiday.

The children were very interested in the mud bricks which the Jewish people had to make for Pharaoh in Egypt. We learned about how bricks are made, and the children played at making their own bricks in the outdoor learning space. They asked if we could also make bricks in the classroom, so we had a class meeting about bringing mud work inside. How could we play with mud and also keep our room clean? Make sure everyone has a turn? We decided on rules about mud, and wrote them up near the sensory table.

We brought in dirt and tools, and the children began to experiment with precisely how to make mud bricks. How much sand? How much water? How much dirt? Several of our trials didn’t work and crumbled. But some held! We built buildings and cities with these bricks in our sensory table.

We had also been watching videos and reading about how matzah is made. Some of the children began to pretend that their mud mixtures were matzah dough, not bricks. They talked to the Morahs about what kinds of tools and materials we would need to make “mudzah.”

The children found weeds that look like wheat. They gathered them and “ground” them with rocks. (Also, lots of mud was required for this process!)

They sifted dirt to get the “softest flour dirt” for the matzah, and discarded the rocks.

They cooperated with each other, taking turns to get water and discussing how much to add. Is the dough to thin? Too thick? Just right?

They asked the Morahs for flour, which we added to the batter. 

Quick! Get it rolled out so we can finish in 18 minutes!

We poked holes in the matzah before “baking” it.

Matzah, baking in our "oven."

Next week, we get to make real matzah with Rabbi Deitsch! The Purple Room will be ready!

Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Shoshi and Morah Athena

 

 

Dear Purple Room Families,

    We are deeply involved in our Pesach (Passover) learning. We are experiencing the Pesach story through songs, games, math, and art. The children are hard at work on their own haggadahs, which we will send home before the holiday.

Pesach Learning: Spring

Passover is also known as Chag Ha’aviv, the holiday of spring. To explore spring, we harvested greens from our school garden. We compared the lettuce, spinach, and arugula leaves’ shape, color, and texture.

We chopped fruits and vegetables and combined them with the greens to make a delicious salad for our Shabbat party!

Pesach Learning: Math

The children are fascinated by the pyramids they see depicted in images of the Pesach story. We have been comparing 2D and 3D shapes, and discussing their attributes. We are building our own pyramids from blocks, cups, and rocks. This exploration helps children understand the attributes of shapes as they compare images and try to construct their own. 

We have also learned about the 10 plagues that befell Egypt, and the 15 steps of the seder. We are playing games and singing songs that help us learn combinations of numbers that make 10 and 15.

The children learned how the Jewish people had to make bricks for Pharaoh in Egypt. We have read books and watched videos about how this might have been done in ancient times. The children have been experimenting with different mixtures of sand and soil to make our own bricks, and have created a brick-making center in our classroom.

Pesach Learning: Full Body Play

The children are particularly interested in how Hashem split the Red Sea for the Jewish people. We have been playing and pretending the splitting of the sea, and created a balance game to pretend that we too are crossing the Red Sea.

Pesach Learning: The Seder

We are learning about the steps of the seder, the songs, and the special items on the seder plate. We have Pesach items in our Dramatic Play center where the children enjoy creating play seders. 

Everyone loves the Afikomen! As we learn the steps of the seder, we have been playing “find the afikomen” inside and outside the classroom.

Pesach Learning: The Haggadah

The children are hard at work creating the pages of their haggadahs. As we learn each step of the seder, we use art and multisensory materials to make a new page in our haggadahs.

Have a wonderful Shabbat!

Morah Shoshi and Morah Athena