December 5, 2024 |

GRADE 1–PASSOVER INTRODUCTION 3-27-16

Posted on March 27, 2016

Dear families:                                                                                              March 27, 2016
I enjoyed being at the 25th anniversary celebration for Rabbi Liben yesterday. Two of the best parts were seeing all the children taking part in the service and assisting Margie Matross in her Purim or Pesach workshop. Eleven of our students were with us. You can be proud of how much the children remember.
Today we began with breakfast and a brainstorming session on what we know about Pesach. After our delicious Cocoa Puffs, we took part in tefillah. The challenge today was to find words with the vowel . “ee.”. Canto Ken led us in some Hebrew songs, including the Four Questions.
Our Hebrew letter this week was ח “het”–the first letter of Hanukkah and hallah. After doing the lesson in our two groups, the children partnered to find some Hebrew letters. Then brachot and snack!
We continued our study of Pesach with the story of the Seder and the Exodus. Each year, we relive the slavery of our ancestors with the services on the first two nights of Pesach. We eat the special foods, ask questions, and tell the story because “WE were slaves unto Pharaoh in Egypt.” We looked at one of my Seder plates, afikomen bag, and a haggadah.
STORY: We read The Story of Passover on the Seder and how Moses helped free the Hebrews from slavery. Pharaoh was afraid that a Hebrew baby would grow up to lead the Jews from slavery, so he ordered all the baby boys to be killed. Moses’ family saved him by putting him in a basket to float on the Nile. The princess found him and brought him up as her own son, with the help of Moses’s own mother as his “nanny.” Moses learned that he was Jewish, saw the vision of the burning bush, and told Pharaoh to let the slaves go free. Ten plagues struck Egypt until Pharaoh agreed. At the Red Sea, the Hebrews crossed on dry land, but the Egyptian army drowned. 
We discussed what it was like to be a slave and follow someone else’s orders and schedule.
We saw how a family prepares, explains the symbols and “order” of the Seder, and celebrates.
CRAFT: Each child worked on a Seder clock, which shows highlights of the Seder in pictures to help the children keep track of the order of the events. Move the clock hand as the Seder progresses. I hope you will use it at your family table. Lois, our secretary, will laminate them so that they will last for years.
As time permits, we also did puzzle papers and played my learning games. Among the favorites are my Uh Oh! books and my game Find the Afikomen. We worked together to put simple puzzles together for the cup of Elijah, three matzot, etc.
We closed with Dayenu and one of my favorite songs, the silly Don’t Sit on the Afikomen!
More on Pesach next week! Shavua tov! (Have a good week.)

Judy and Cheryl (Esther and Tzipporah)