Here are some highlights of our busy week in the Blue room. We continued to learn and explore the next Holiday coming up, Chanukah!
Each morning before we daven Morah Kayla shares a part of the Chanukah story with all of us. She tells us long long ago during the the time of the second temple, the holy land was ruled by a mean Greek king named Antiochus and his people. The Greeks treated the Jewish people poorly. They took land from the Jewish people, destroyed the Beit Hamikdash, and made it illegal to study Torah and keep mitzvot, like Shabbat. The Jewish people would learn Torah while hiding away in caves but when Greek soldiers came by they would quickly take out dreidels to play so they would not get in trouble. No one could stand up to them until the brave Maccabees came. They finally drove the Greeks off the land and took back what was theirs. Being brave means doing something that may not be easy and we may feel a little afraid because it's new or different but we do it anyway. We can all be brave like the Maccabees. On Tuesday Morah Kayla told us about the mircale of oil. First, the Maccabees thought the Greeks ruined all of the oil so they searched and found a jar with just enough oil to burn for one night. Because of Hashem's great miracle, the oil burned for eight nights! The Jews cleaned the Beit Hamikdash and began to serve Hashem again. On Chanukah we celebrate the joy that light brings when overcoming darkness by playing fun games like dreidels, singing songs, and eating yummy food.
Mina and her friend Hammond pretended to be Maccabees and played dreidels and sang Chanukah songs in our classroom cave.
Art
For Chanukah all the students here at CJP wanted to wish each of their Grandparents a very special Chanukah. So this week we worked on making Holiday cards to send. On Tuesday our friends finger painted for the first time in the class. In recent weeks I've observed many of our friends express interest in this technique and thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take handprints from each child for a great keepsake. We set out some blue tempura paint with butcher paper covering the table. When our friends first sat down and saw the paint on the table they appeared to be unsure of what they should do with material. One friend even asked, "What do we do, Morah?" Morah Felicia replied, "What would you like to do?" They answered by smearing their hands across a puddle of paint and squeezed it between their fingers.
As our friends indulged themselves in a sea of blue Jemma extends her hands up towards Morah Felicia and excitedly repeats, "It's so sticky, Morah!" Morah Felicia asked Jemma, "What else can you tell me about the paint?" "It's Blue." she says. Our friend Hana appeared to be in deep concentration as she covered both hands and forearms front to back in paint. With this being our first classroom experience with fingerpaing everyone showed an immense amount of self confindence trying something new for some and stepping out of their comfort zones by geting a little messy. They were brave like the Maccabees. Once our hands were nice and blue Morah Felicia stamped each friends hands onto a paper for our cards.
Menorahs
This week we also started making our own Menorahs to take home and light for Chanukah We began by sanding pieces of wood that would be the base of our Menorah. We sanded any rough patches along with the edges. This took some patience and a few attempts to hold the sand paper in one hand and wood in the other as they applied some force to smooth the surface. Next we glued pennies and nuts to the top for candles. Our friends counted each spot as they glued their pennies and nuts down to the wood. Lastly our friends will decorate to add their own personal touch.
Olives to Olive Oil.
Our friends explore olives and try to turn olives into olive oil. We used a small mallet to pound the olives turned into a liquid! This was a great gross motor activity. Some friends were brave and tasted the olives. Zoe said, "This tastes like watermelon" as she ate a few handfuls of olives. Tzipi said the olives tasted salty when Morah Felicia asked her if they were sweet or salty. Saya scrunched her face and said, "Yuck, disgusting!" She didn't care for the taste of the olives. We discussed how we use oil to light our menorahs. We also discovered where olive oil comes from.
Thank you for a great week.
Shabbat Shalom, Morah Felicia and Morah Kayla
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