KDH Matzah Baking

KDH turned their room into a matzah bakery last Thursday. We lined up the tables and the children covered them with paper.

Shaya held up a stalk of wheat to show everyone. The children remembered that it is one of the Seven Species of Israel. The kernels need to be taken out and then are ground into flour.

Flour and water is mixed together to make the dough.

Each child had their own dough to roll out. They shared the special roller used to poke the holes.

Into a very hot oven went the rolled out dough and then we waited.

After the matzot baked and cooled off, we packed them up to be taken home.

The next day we watched a video of a matzah factory. Who works faster? The bakers at the factory or us!!

KDH Prepares for the Pesach Seder

KDH Prepares for the Pesach Seder

Preparations for Pesach started soon after we returned from Winter Break. Planting our parsley had to happen right away for it to grow in time.

Next step was discussing the hagaddah and having our pictures taken.

 

With the hagaddah completed and Purim behind us we were ready to fully delve into everything Pesach. The children started by taking down all the Purim decorations and costumes and creating their new Pesach pictures. Around the room hung pictures of a hagaddah, 4 cups of wine, Matzot and Pesach Seder plates. The dramatic area was set with a Pesach table. Songs could be heard while the children played and worked.

Next step, baking matzah. We learned the difference between Matzah and Challah. Why is one crunchy and flat and the other soft and fluffy. The class worked fast to make the matzah insuring it would not be chometz.

Wednesday morning the children came in and went to work. Dessert is important. Passover brownies made with potato starch were the first thing we made. The children peeled and grated apples for charoset. Horseradish was also peeled and grated for maror. They removed shells from the hard boiled eggs. Lettuce was washed and checked. The table was set.

 

With all this done, we were ready to start. We did Bedikat Chametz, looking for Chametz around the room, took an Erev Yom Tov nap and then went through the entire Hagaddah!!

 

Wishing you and your family a happy Pesach!

Let's Talk About Illuminated Hagadot, and More . . .

Passover Prep . . .

      We headed outside on a bright and sunny day.  We're ready to paint with flowers.  It's springtime!  It was time to prepare our special Passover boxes.

(Above, Becker and Yinon, with flowers dipped in pastel colors, get ready to paint their boxes.)

 Above, Lily tries the mint green.  No paint-brushes are necessary--we use our flowers!

 Yannai works with deep pink.

Anslee and Annika stretch to pick out their flower-brushes.

     And what were we planning to put in our boxes?  We created attractive real glass Elijah cups.  We checked out the bunches of green and purple grapes on our table.  Then, we painted our glasses with acrylic paint.  We were careful!  This paint is permanent, and the glass is delicate.  (Maddy paints clusters of grapes on her glass. She was smiling, anticipating bringing the cup home! "I'm giving this to Mommy," she told us.)

During Morning Arrival, we had some hands-on experience with Passover items.  We took turns pouring "grape juice" with our silver kiddush set.  A little messy, a lot of fun!  (Sammy chooses the kiddush cups during Morning Arrival time.)

Annika prepares her Mah Nishtana book.

      We took our time preparing our Mah Nishtana books, the 4 Questions.  We used gold and silver paints. The Morah asked the class, "Who has heard about illuminated Hagadot?"  Yes, several hands actually went up.
     The Morah showed us a few Medieval Hagadot on our class iPad.  Want to see some for yourself? Google Bird's Head Haggadah (Germany 1300), Golden Haggadah (Spain, 1330), Washington Haggadah (Germany/Italy 1478).
     We used a sponge to paint some our pages.  We used romaine lettuce, too--because it's one of the foods on our Seder plate.  Then we used a feather, much like a sofer, Hebrew scribe, would use. Rabbi Sollish introduced us to this concept when he showed us a Megillah and a quill several weeks ago.
     There's a lot of history and tradition in our Mah Nishtana books!  Morah Susan told us she had seen several old Hagadot in a New York City library.  Some of them were several hundred years' old! They were kept in a locked safe until the safran, the Hebrew librarian, took them out to display for her tour group.  We will take home our own illuminated Mah Nishtana books next week.  We will keep them handy, ready to use at our Seder tables.

Evan paints his page.  We're making our own illuminated book!

     And there's always room for some fun.  We get down with it!  Morah India leads the way to Rabbi Joe Black's Afikomen Mambo.  What a catchy tune, and what a fun way to experience Passover learning.

Chag Samayach, Everyone!

Morah Susan, Morah India and all the boys and girls in Kitah Gimmel