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Pesach is only 3 days away.  The Sunflowers have been so busy getting ready.   They enjoyed a picnic on the carpet to eat the last of the CHAMETZ.   It was so much fun.  After our picnic, the Sunflowers enjoyed a school wide Model Seder.   Everyone was eager to share all the wonderful Pesach facts that they learned.  The 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s gathered around the tables and went through the entire Seder.

Kadeish קדש – recital of Kiddush blessing and drinking of the first cup of wine
Urchatz ורחץ – the washing of the hands
Karpas כרפס – dipping of the karpas in salt water
Yachatz יחץ – breaking the middle matzo; the larger piece becomes the afikoman
Maggid מגיד – retelling the Passover story, including the recital of “the four questions” and drinking of the second cup of wine
Rachtzah רחצה – second washing of the hands
Motzi מוציא, Matzo מצה – blessing before eating matzo
Maror מרור – eating of the maror
Koreich כורך – eating of a sandwich made of matzo and maror
Shulchan oreich שלחן עורך – lit. “set table” – the serving of the holiday meal
Tzafun צפון – eating of the afikoman
Bareich ברך – blessing after the meal and drinking of the third cup of wine
Hallel הלל – recital of the Hallel, traditionally recited on festivals; drinking of the fourth cup of wine
Nirtzah נירצה – say “Next Year in Jerusalem!”

Morah Pam hid the AFIKOMIN. All the children went to look for it and it was Maggie who  found it.

Morah Aimee and Morah Debra were so brave and ate MAROR, real horseradish,  and they LIKED IT!!!  The children opted to eat the romaine lettuce.

The children eating their way through the Seder was the best part.  It was incredible […]

Our last few days before the Pesach break have been very  busy.
We finished the pillows we’ll use at the Seder. Stuffing them was a great exercise in eye-hand coordination. We also transformed shopping bags into works of art fitting to hold all of the materials the children will use during Pesach.

We peeled the eggs that all our IBECC friends ate at the model Seder. This fun activity was a wonderful way to practice our fine motor skills.

It was also time to clean our classroom. The emptied sand table made a great “bathtub” in which to wash our favorite playthings.

We sang lots of Pesach songs with Morah Jill and even played “bounce the giant matza ball!”

Once our classroom was clean, it was time to put together our feather, spoon, and candle so we learn how to search for chametz at home. The children took turns sweeping the Corn Chex chametz with a feather onto the spoon.

The highlight of the week was the school-wide model Seder.

Wishing you a Zissen Pesach – a healthy and happy Pesach filled with family, love, and laughter. We look forward to seeing how much the children have grown and hearing all about their Pesach adventures when we return to school.
Morah Sherry and Morah Blimie

The Butterflies (the Twos) invited The Sunflowers to experience the Exodus from Mitzrayim. By using blue tarps to represent water, the children crossed through the Red Sea as if they were B’nai Yisrael leaving Mitzrayim.  Everyone had a wonderful time.  Playing musical instruments, singing Pesach songs, and just being happy to be free were just a few things the children enjoyed  best.

Everyone one has spring on the mind.  The hint of warmer weather has been a great ray of sunshine for everyone; especially the Sunflowers. The children took out the Play-Dough and were making caterpillars and flower among other fun things.

With four school days left before the Passover holiday, the children continue to review the Passover story, the order of the Seder, and of course, sing all the wonderful Passover songs. We are sure that the children are looking forward to participating in the Seder this year.

Wishing everyone a Shabbat Shalom.

Morah Pam, Morah Aimee, Morah Debra

Another five-year-old has joined our class – Ezra turned five this week!  So, of course, we knew we would have fun baking for his party.  Ezra chose vanilla cake.  He measured and poured, checked eggs for blood spots, and mixed it all together.  Then everyone lent a hand to mix up the batter thoroughly. There were yummy smells wafting through our hallways.  Next, we wanted to prepare a lovely gift for Ezra.  The children glued cut-up pieces of colorful napkins to a wooden box.  There were several pretty designs which created a decoupage treatment to the box.  It was modge podged to protect its surface and a picture of Ezra was the finishing touch.  The cupcakes and box were presented to Ezra at our class party.  Then, his mother Amy read a Pesach story and the party culminated with a happy game of Bluebird, Bluebird Through My Window.   The children have really learned this game well and barely needed any directions.

Hebrew this week introduced the letter Lamed.  The children practiced forming this letter, and several others they’d already learned, using their bodies in yoga-type positions. They cut out pictures and words with the lamed sound and learned the vocabulary – heart- lev, clown – leytzan, and lulav.

Dara Dinur, kindly lent her time and expertise to us, to help us make challah.  Since the children experienced making matzah with the visit of the Model Matzah Factory, we thought it a good idea to contrast that with the much longer process of baking challah.  Again, they were able to measure the ingredients including flour, sugar, yeast, warm water, oil, eggs, salt.  The dough rose and we punched it down and let it rise again.  We decided […]

We reached Maror and Korech in the order of the Seder. We described Maror as spicy and bitter, to help the children understand. Before we could eat the maror, however, we had to make the charoset. We began by explaining that the heavy bricks Bnei Yisroel carried while slaves in Mitzrayim were made of mud. So we made our own “mud” by adding some water to the sand table. The children loved making “bricks” (and mud pies).

Then we talked about how the charoset we eat on Pesach is like the bricks the Jewish people made. What goes into our charoset? Apples, grape juice (to make it red), and raisins. How do we chop the apples? With the food processor of course. Our charoset was so delicious we couldn’t wait to eat it. After enjoying our snack, we took the “spicy/bitter” romaine lettuce, dipped it in the charoset, and shook it off. Then we said the bracha for Korech and ate it.

And since there can never be too much matzo, we had so much fun making our own as the Matzo Factory visited IBECC. We learned we only have 18 minutes to make the matzo. We rubbed stalks of wheat between our hands — it became easier when we suggested that the children pretend they were washing their hands. We rolled out our own dough very quickly so Rabbi Rosenblum could put it into the oven. When he took it out the dough had become matzo. It smelled delicious!