GRADE 1—tambourines, Tu B’Shevat, thank you –January 24, 2016
Posted on January 24, 2016
Dear parents and students,
What a wonderful session we had today! Thank you all for so much—for being flexible about our shortened session and working well together.
First we discussed the redemption of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, to go along with the parasha of the week. We discussed slavery, the plagues, crossing the Red Sea (or Sea of Reeds), and G-d providing manna in the desert for the Hebrews to eat. Miriam and the women sang the Song of the Sea accompanied by timbrels. Every student decorated his/her own tambourine with an illustration of how G-d saved us. I collected them, to be used at the Synaplex Shabbat service on Saturday, January 30. The children can then bring them home.
Monday is Tu B’Shevat, the New Year for the trees. We talked about why trees are important, what they give us, and how we can take care of the trees. I showed pictures of recycling, including a dress created by my granddaughter of napkins, spoons, and cups. Then we had our class Tu B’Shevat Seder. I took a few pictures, which I will send to you directly.
Thank you to Samantha Goldenblatt for organizing the parents, and thank you to everyone who supplied plates, white and purple grape juice, and many fruits for us to enjoy—plums and nectarines with one big seed (to represent the great leaders like Abraham, Sarah, Moses, and Herzl); strawberries and bananas with many small seeds (to show how we can all do little things to improve the world); white grape juice to represent the winter, and purple grape juice which we added for spring, summer, and fall. We also had dates and figs, native to Israel. Then we symbolically planted seeds—raisins and chocolate chips in crushed graham cracker “dirt.” This was “watered” with chocolate syrup. The children enjoyed eating this mixture. This Seder was based on a Babaganewz Tu B’Shevat Seder which Robin found for us. It was a busy, fun-filled morning.
A big thank you to Cheryl and Ariel who cut up and distributed the foods while we conducted the Seder.
We closed with songs led by Cantor Ken and Robin.
Shavua tov—have a great week. See you on Saturday morning, for the Synaplex and our tambourine activity.
Judy and Cheryl (Esther and Tzipporah)
