Shal-ooooooooooommmmmmmmmm

Although the skies were dark and gloomy, Havurah was filled with sunshine! Today we continued our partnership with the Havurah second graders as we also continued to learn about PESACH (Passover). 

Jen, Dustin, Ani and Brigitte began by reading THE MIRACLES OF PASSOVER by Josh Hanft, a beautifully illustrated children's book which tells the story of passover along with introducing the traditions of the SEDAR. 

After reading the story, second graders and pre-k* paired up to create an incredible collaborative mural. 

Classes working together to illustrate the story of Passover.

Blake and Charlie creating the beginning of the story, illustrating the Pharaoh's palace. 

Working to illustrate the Plagues. Yuck!

The pyramids of ancient Egypt, and bringing in what we know about deserts....the cactus of the desert!

 After this creative and exciting arts workshop, we headed over to meet Victoria, for our first YOGA session with her! 

Our pose of the day was חתול (KAHTOOL) or in English CAT Pose! We also became snakes and warriors and rode a magic Yoga elevator. It felt great to move our bodies and center ourselves after an exciting start with our new second grade friends. Victoria gave everyone take home sheets with poses, please feel free to color them in and practice at home!

Surfin' the USA in Warrior pose!

SSSSSS! We're Snakes

We ended our Yoga with some relaxation and a collective SHAL-OOOMMMMM! We are looking forward to seeing our bodies and practice grow over the next few weeks with Victoria. 

Finally we ended our busy day with Ty and the second graders in a beautiful sing-along. Be sure to join us next week, grown-ups and children, for our community Passover sing-along! Have a great week! 

*Please note that Ani and Brigitte's Pre-k class has since firmly established that some of us are in Kindergarden, not pre-k, so from here on out this class will be referred to as CLASSROOM 4*

 

Preparing with New Friends for Passover

This week at Havurah we had a very special change of weather! After our regular practices of singing Welcome and Snack with Blessings, we met a new group of friends! The 2nd Grade class who learns just across the hall from us at Havurah. We joined forces in Classroom 4 and made a humongous circle as we went around and introduced ourselves to each other. We said our name, shared individual art creations with one another, and talked about who we are through what we love to do.

After introductions, we began to speak about the Passover story and the upcoming Seder. The 2nd Graders took the lead as they shared with Pre-K what they could remember about the Passover story. We even passed around the Seder plate and discussed the significance of the various spots on the plate (shank bone, egg, parsley & salt water, charoset, maror...) and the symbolism and emotions that we attribute to these foods from the Passover story.  We will continue to review the story, songs, and significance of all the components of Passover next week.

Following our amazing collaboration we parted ways with the 2nd grade and had our first day of our new specialty--YOGA! We removed our shoes and met on the rug where we first asked one another WHAT IS YOGA? We discussed that yoga is an activity for our minds & bodies--it helps with concentration, balance, and can even help us find ways to calm our bodies down and relax.

We warmed up with some jumping jacks, and learned our first new pose: in hebrew, KELEV -- downward facing dog. After KELEV we learned four other poses to begin learning our yoga aleph-bet. We can now make Aleph, Bet, Gimel, and Daled with our bodies!!

We had a round of freeze dance yoga with our aleph-bet letters and then played an exciting yogi-game called Kelev, Kelev, where's your bone?! Finally, we had a cool down with a guided relaxing meditation.


And to top it all off, Paul came in and worked with us on singing the four questions which we have almost learned all the way through!

Can't wait for next week

Boom Pow!

 Today was a day of powerful forces! We began with a special visit from James to teach us KRAV MAGA a self defense martial arts developed in Israel. We began by warming up our bodies with our imaginary snowboards building up our powerful legs. As James said "always love your snowboard!" Squats can be a great way to build up muscle in your legs and stomach. We then went on to flex our fists and then got to the real fun part!

  

We talked about the meaning of SELF DEFENSE and the power of protection. Learning how to use our legs and arms was fun but also an important way to remember how strong we can be. Remember to talk with your child about when and where it is appropriate to use their bodies in this way! 

                                                  

We then took a break from flexing our muscles to wish Ani a very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! 

יום הולדת שמח

Ani has brought so much to the Havurah community and taught us so much that this year would not be nearly as full and meaningful without her. We celebrated her birthday by making her wear a powerful viking hat (because it is fun) and singing a joyous Happy Birthday. We hope your next year is happy and healthy and filled with love Ani!  

In preparation for our next two weeks in which we will be pairing with Havurah's second graders, classroom 4 prepared "Getting to Know" you letters in which we shared something about ourselves. After a creative workshop period, we gathered around to share. We were surprised to learn more about each other! We shared our love of ice cream and our families, and more ice cream!

We will spend our time with the second graders learning about Jewish traditions, such as WEDDINGS or in Hebrew חתונה 

Make sure to check in and see all of the different traditions we will be learning about!

Our last part of class was spent moving and shaking! We had a great time with Paul learning songs in preparation for PASSOVER and had a wild freeze dance session. We then wrapped up our day by telling the story of PURIM for the younger Havurah students. 

We also hope you noticed all of the amazing and wonderful costumes featured in these photos! Enjoy the below video of us dancing away and celebrating in our imaginative costumes. Have a great week! 

A Day of Discovery

Today was a day of reunion, celebration and discovery! We began by returning to our Aleph-bet books with a new addition VAV. With excitement we are slowly seeing our aleph-bet books grow as well as our understanding and appreciation of the Hebrew alphabet and language. 

As the day continued we came together for a beautiful snack with blessings, and as we ate, discussed the ideas of maps or in Hebrew, MAPPAH. In the recent weeks we have talked a lot about our world, OLAM and the land around us, ERETZ. Today, we focused on how we see the world around us and started by mapping out our classroom. We worked collaboratively to build our understanding of  a space which we meet in every week to grow and learn. 

We were surprised to discover parts of our classroom we hadn't quite noticed before, including a prominent tissue box! We then had a short but sweet field trip to the other pre-k classroom and then talked about how our rooms were different. We also got a sneak peak of how to make HAMENTASHEN a sweet Purim treat. 

Speaking of the upcoming holiday PURIM, we had quite an exciting last half of class! After our regular visit from Paul for a jam session, we had a dramatic retelling of the story of Purim. For those of us who were not in class last week, our friends who had heard the story from last week's storytelling, reenacted the story for us!

The performance was riveting. It definitely got us all excited for next week's festivities, while also giving us a chance to exercise our acting chops and continue our theme of storytelling for the year. 

Please enjoy the below video clip from the performance by Simone and Harry. 

Have a great week! We are looking to seeing you all at Havurah next Saturday, March 15th!

FAMILIES: PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SEND YOUR CHILD TO HAVURAH NEXT WEEK IN PURIM COSTUMES!  

                                            

Preparing for Purim!

This week in Havurah we began our preparations for the upcoming joyous holiday of Purim! Since we had not seen each other in a few weeks, we began our session with some backtracking. We played a game in which we reviewed the five Hebrew letters that we are beginning to know exceptionally well. The teacher would call out the letter and the students would run to that letter that lay on the floor made from blocks. We are near experts at Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Daled, and Hay! Next we sang our welcome song, and although we introduced ourselves to our substitute teacher, Mersiha, many of the students knew her already and were excited to be reunited!

We said our blessings for the Challah and Juice and reviewed our vocab words -- BRACHAH for blessing and ERETZ -- land!

Joyce came in for storytelling and with costumes galore she told the wonderful tale of Purim that took place a long, long time ago in the town of Shushan in Persia. It is the story we read from a book called the Megillah, and it is sung in Hebrew with a special melody. Purim occurs in the Hebrew month of Adar -- a time for goofiness, laughter and metamorphosis! We learned about the characters Esther, Mordechai, king Achashverosh, Queen Vashti, and the evil Haman! If you need a parent-friendly review, you can find one at the link below:

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/purim/article_cdo/aid/645995/jewish/The-Basic-Purim-Story.htm

After, Joyce told a second story about a young girl who chooses to spend her Purim dressed up as Queen Esther doing Mitzvot (acts of loving kindness) for others. She gives out Mishloach Manot (which literally means, the sending of Portions/Gifts) to people who are less fortunate. We discussed the idea that Purim is in someways similar to Halloween because we wear masks and costumes but instead of RECEIVING gifts and candy, we are meant to GIVE.

In our next part of the day, we created and decorated our own GROGGERS, made with paper plates, beans (for shaking), and colorful tape. As one of the students mentioned, we use these groggers when we read the Megillah, and we hear the name HAMAN, at which point we shake them like crazy to insist that his name be blotted our from history for the meanness he felt toward the Jews and his incapacity to accept people of difference!

Next Paul came in and we had an extremely special treat because we got to sing a classroom favorite tune from the movie FROZEN.

Finally, in the last part of our art-filled day, we first had a conversation about masks and costumes. We asked each other -- When have you worn a mask? What was the point? How did you feel when you were in costume? And then moved to the tables to decorate our own crazy and vibrant masks. Each child used their own creative capacities to make beautiful circular masks, with holes for their eyes and lots and lots of colors!


Can't wait to see everyone next week!