What a Beautiful Week!

It was wonderful to see all of the children following our Spring Break and Passover holiday. We can finally officially say that “Spring has Sprung!” The dreary days of March and April have turned to the warmth we love. The children in the Bears’ class have loved being able to spend quality time in our outside play area. This week many have made the discovery that they are strong enough to hang from, or climb on the bar on our climbing structure. We have reinforced that this is an acceptable activity only when a teacher is standing right there. We remind the children that although they are strong enough to do this, it is not safe to try without adult supervision. This week we were happy to welcome our newest Bear friend, Ian, to our class. It was also great to have Ian’s mom, Ellie, spend some time in the classroom. We are already looking forward to next week, when we will welcome another new student, Tori. Both Ian and Tori will be attending school daily until 1:00PM.

The children have been practicing singing Bim Bam and Mah Yafeh Hayom for tonight’s Teacher Appreciation Shabbat service. Some of our practicing was done right in the chapel, where the children will be called to the Bimah to sing. We hope to see many of you there.

The teachers have been busy planning for next week’s Family Day Celebration Breakfast on Friday, May 6 from 9 – 10:30am. We hope that you are able to attend and that you also extend an invitation to a grandparent, or nanny. The children all enjoy having special guests and we love to share what is happening at our school.

It seems almost impossible that when you read the next newsletter, we will have turned the page on the calendar to May. The year just seems to be flying by, and the children have all grown so much! We look forward to seeing them continue to grow for a very long time!

Have a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom,

-Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

Passover is Finally Here!

Dear Families,

The children have had an extremely busy and exciting week getting ready for Friday’s Family Passover Program, and they were so excited to sing songs and share with you their vast Passover knowledge. The Bears have been learning about Passover over the last three weeks, including the story of Passover, the Ten Plagues and the seder. This week was all about the seder and the traditions and rituals that occur during the seder. The children learned about the seder plate, the symbolic meaning of the items and why each one is on the plate. It is important to understand these themes and through books, songs and projects each area was strengthened.

This week, the children prepared for their own seders. Each child made a seder plate using watercolors. The book, It’s Seder Time, was a favorite. The children also made afikomen covers; hopefully they are good look charms at your seder!Another exciting part of Passover are the blessings, songs and wonderful music that comes along with it. Maybe some of your children have been hopping like frogs at home, because in the Passover, one of the Ten Plagues was frogs. In dramatic play, children were able to embrace a whole new set of characters. Some children were Pharaoh telling the slaves to make bricks and build pyramids in Egypt. Sometimes, baby Moses would be floating down the river and the children would break out in song, “Where is baby Moses, Moses, Moses? Where is baby Moses? He’s on the River Nile.” The children practiced their songs on Monday with the Cantor and all week long.

Another important aspect of Passover is the food. The children learned about the significance of parsley and why we dip it in the salt water, the charoset that is supposed to remind us of the bricks that the Israelites were forced to make when they were slaves. The matzah reminds us how the Jewish people were in a rush to freedom, fearful that the Pharaoh would again change his mind, and their dough did not have time to rise. The children were able to sample their own creations as they made charoset on Wednesday and matzah on Thursday. Two popular books were, A Taste For Noah and A Mouse in the Matzah Factory. Throughout this unit, the children were able to explore a new area of Judaism and these experiences helped strengthen their Jewish identity. To top it all off, the wonderful Passover program on Friday was a big success! Thank you to all who were able to come, the children get so excited to share their school with you. We hope everyone has a wonderful vacation and a great holiday.

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Passover!

Morah Jessica and Morah Rhona

Spring is REALLY here this time...Go Sox!

Dear Parents,

The Bears have continued to prepare for the upcoming holiday of Passover. We have learned the words to many songs, which we will be sharing with you next week at our Family Passover Program and Lunch (Friday, April 15 at 11am). Our crafts have included painting the pyramids which the children built from sugar cubes, cutting and gluing paper pyramids, creating matzah men and matzah ladies, making two types of frogs, including frog puppets, and painting wooden frogs, Kiddush cups and Jewish stars.

When we think of how much we have already done in preparation for this holiday, we then take a deep breath, as next week will be another filled with crafts and cooking activities.

We hope that each of you will be joining us for our special program. If you are unable to be here on April 15, please extend the invitation to a grandparent, aunt, uncle or babysitter. The children have been told that some parents will have to work, and that is OK, as Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica will be here to help them.

On Friday, we were all very excited to “dress of Sox-cess” and wear our Red Sox gear. Hopefully the hometown team will be so excited to be back at Fenway, that they will begin their road to the 2011 World Series! In support of Rally Against Cancer and the Jimmy Fund, the children of TCEE and the Ansin Religious School are collecting money in their tzedakah boxes to donate to such a worthy cause.

Rumor has it that next week the temperature may hover around 70 degrees. Keeping this in mind, the warm weather is probably not here to stay, so please continue to dress your children in layers or with jackets that are appropriate for the weather.

This week, the children were happy to welcome our newest friend, Auren, to our class. Auren has enjoyed exploring the materials and centers, and the other children have invited him to join in play. We were also happy to welcome Orli and Zev back from their vacation in Arizona. It sounds like they had a fabulous time.

Have a wonderful week. Shabbat Shalom and GO SOX!

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica

Frogs Here, Frogs There, Frogs Were Jumping Everywhere!

This week brought the story of Passover to the Bears’ classroom. The children heard how the Jewish people were slaves in Egypt. As a class project, the children decorated people to represent the Israelites.

Each child’s photograph was attached to finish the person they decorated. They then worked collectively to create large pyramids!The symbols of the holiday are being introduced gradually. So far the children have heard about the mean King Pharoah, the 10 plagues, with jumping frogs heading the list of favorites, Baby Moses floating in a basket on the River Nile, the pyramids that the Jewish slaves helped to build, how the water in the sea turned red, and how matzah was created because as the Jewish people fled Egypt they did not have time to wait for the bread to rise. Over the next 2 weeks we will continue to hear more about this holiday. Our school celebration of this holiday will culminate with a Family Passover Program on Friday, April 15^th at 11:00 am. Watch your email, as invitations will be sent to you early next week. We hope that you will all be able to join us for this wonderful day.

On Wednesday of this week, we were fortunate to have a special reader from the synagogue Sisterhood, Doris Feldman, come to visit our classroom. She brought the book The Carp in the Bathtub, by Barbara Cohen, which she read and then donated to our class library. We can’t thank her enough for giving us her time. The children enjoyed the story.

We were very excited to receive a package in the mail from our friends in Haifa, Israel. In the box we found a book that the children made for us, a photo album, and some Purim treats for the children. We will be sending a package back to Haifa within a week or so. Believe it or not, we have also created a book for them!

Don’t forget Tot Shabbat is tonight at 5:45 pm. We hope you’ll be joining us! April Vacation will soon be upon us and there is still space for your child(ren) to join us from April 20 - 22. If you are interested, or have any questions, please contact Shari.

Next week we will be welcoming a new friend, Auren, to our class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We look forward to having him join the Bears!

Have a great week and Shabbat Shalom,

Morah Rhona and Morah Jessica