Kitah Bet: Bread from Scratch!

"Ma Nishtanah Halayla ha ze…"

The first verse of the famous “Four Questions” song sung at the Pesach Seder each year states, “On all other nights, we eat chametz (i.e. bread) or matzah.   On this night, only matzah.”  

Mixing the sticky dough

Watching the yeast rise

In providing children with an opportunity to explore matzah, we decided to contrast it first with chametz, i.e. regular bread.  Not only did we investigate the properties of the finished products, we started from scratch and children experienced making both types of bread.

First—chametz.  Beginning with yeast in the sensory bin, we studied its physical properties.   “It feels like a Cheerios mess!” said Yael.  “We need to add water!  Then it will swim!” said Leo.  We added water and some sugar then we waited and waited.

After some time, we opened up the lid to the sensory bin and discovered that the yeast mixture was now foamy!  “It pops like in the ocean!” observed Raleigh.   So we added flour—lots and lots of flour.  In fact, we used a whole bag!

Since we’d made so much dough, there was enough for everyone to have a roll and we got to help Morah Devora do the mitzvah of “taking challah.”  What was initially intended as a sensory project got an added element of spirituality! 

Finally, we let the dough sit in a warm place and rise.  Then the morahs baked it.  Finally, at the end of the day, we each got our own made from scratch roll!  

Matzah!

The next day, we made matzah.  This time it was in the context of the Pesach story; we learned that finally Pharaoh let the Jews go free!  “Quick, quick!” Morah Leah called us, “Quickly, we need to make some food to take with us leaving Mitzrayim!”  We thought together; do we have time to make bread?  The children remembered the previous day’s project, “No, it takes a long time to make bread!” they replied. 

So quickly, quickly, we added just simple flour and water to the bowl and we mixed it by hand as fast as we could.  Each of us got a piece and we pressed it down as flat as we could.  Morah showed us real matzah and we tried to imitate its shape.  Since real matzah has holes, we took forks and poked holes in our matzah too.  “Quickly! Quickly!” Morah reminded us, “We don’t want Pharaoh to change his mind!”  We put our flat mazahs on a sheet and baked them in a hot oven.  Before we knew it, they were finished!  Just in time for morning snack. 

In circle time now when we sing, “Ma Nishtanah,” Kitah Bet children have a vivid, tangible experience of both types of bread.   And associated with the matzah is it's experiential connection to the Pesach story.