Volume 31 Issue 9 01 Apr 2022 29 Adar II 5782

Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

Pesach explorations

This week we began our learning around the festival of Passover and all the wonderful traditions, stories, characters, songs, food, and creative experiences. We tell the story of Pesach using animation, song, music, props, and costumes and invite the children to take on roles in the story. Re-enacting the story in this way helps to bring it to life and allows the children time to process the details and make sense of it. We tell the story of baby Moses and how he grew up in Egypt, being cared for by King Pharaoh’s daughter. The children love dramatising the story, particularly the parts when Moses goes to ask King Pharaoh to let the Jewish people go.

The children have started learning a variety of wonderful songs, using the ‘hundred languages’: When Moses was, One morning when Pharaoh awoke in his bed, Bang bang bang, Dayeinu, Listen King Pharaoh, How did Moses cross the Red Sea, and Ma Nishtana, to name but a few.

The Dolphins and Starfish invited the children to represent baby Moses in his basket using the medium of clay to express their thinking and ideas. This technique consisted of first rolling a small ball out of clay and moulding it into the shape of a basket by pinching and smoothing it with the tips of the fingers. The children had to be careful to use small bits of clay to shape into a head, body, and arms. They learnt how to connect the pieces using slurry and their fingers to squeeze the two parts together. Some of the skills involved in this process included: eye-hand coordination, visual perceptual skills, fine motor skills, recalling the story of Pesach and understanding and following instructions. Their representations are just unique and delightful.

We created Egypt, the desert, and the pyramids in the classrooms by using sand, triangle shaped blocks and camels. The children love this type of imaginative play. 

They have participated in cooking experiences, from making matzah pizzas, to charoset, to dipping parsley in saltwater and learning about the tears of the Jewish slaves in Egypt. The children have loved these interactive experiences and enjoyed all the tasting too!

Through all these sensory and visual experiences, the festival of Passover comes alive for the children and has meaning for them.

Comments

Luca: My mum was hiding a Matzah, so me and my cousins could find it, and Ella found it and got a surprise.
Claudia: When it was Pesach, I went to my Nanny’s house at night and she had to hide a present, and we had to find mine and my sister found hers. 
Matteo: People are celebrating Pesach.
Tahlia: It’s my first time celebrating Pesach.
Ziggy: Pesach….it’s the next festival.
Noah S: Poppa is having Pesach with me. It’s where we light candles and eat yummy food.

Where is Egypt?

Ziggy: The desert is where the Jewish people were for 40 million hundred years. It’s really hot.
Charlie: It’s in the desert.
Ella: I haven’t been to the desert but maybe I’ll go when I’m bigger.
Jack: Egypt is where the Jewish people used to work and work and work.
Noah S: It’s fun because you get to see skeletons. It’s dark in Egypt. I saw a picture of Egypt.

All the children will be participating in a Pesach Seder in the Pre-school on Tuesday 5 April 2022. 

Open Night

The Pre-school looked fabulous on Tuesday for our Open Night. We had many families through the Pre-school, and they commented on how beautiful the rooms looked, and how child friendly, warm, and homely the feel was as they moved through the rooms.

Many thanks to Mrs Gail Mackenzie for all her hard work in co-ordinating this event. It is always a pleasure working together.

Thank you to the Maintenance and Security team for their help and expertise.

Thank you to the amazing Kornmehl team for always going above and beyond and for the incredible job they do each day. I am always so blown away by the depth and breadth of the work and the learning that occurs in each room.

Happy Birthday

We wish a very happy birthday to August Wheeler (3). We hope you had a beautiful birthday celebration.