Volume 31 Issue 35 11 Nov 2022 17 Heshvan 5783

Kornmehl

Terry Aizen – Director of Kornmehl

National Recycling Week

National Recycling Week was established by Planet Ark in 1996. It is held every year during the second week of November (Monday 7 November 2022 – Sunday 13 of November 2022).

This year, National Recycling Week explores the idea that Waste isn’t Waste until it’s Wasted. We have been thinking about how to give resources a second life, how to reduce the need for newly produced resources, and of course, recycling. This year is not about recycling more but recycling better. Reducing our waste not only keeps valuable materials out of landfill, but it also benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Thinking that waste isn’t waste until it’s wasted also provides some valuable insight into how the recycling and resource management industry works in conjunction to your efforts.

In the Pre-school, we invited parents to plan with their children to make a Chanukiah using recycled materials. The parents will be coming into the Pre-school to complete their Chanukiot with their children. We are excited to see what they will make. 

We have also been sorting our huge collection of recycled lids into boxes, ready to be taken to Lids4kids Australia, a collective group of volunteers that advocates and facilitates the recycling of small plastic bottle lids into sustainable products.

Our thanks to Mrs Cara Franks (mum of James) who is our volunteer representative for Lids4Kids and who is helping us with this project.

Bug Hotels

Since the establishment of our Native Garden in Term 3, the children are now involved in looking after the garden, observing, and looking for creatures and other wildlife that have taken up residence in our native garden space, as well as making bug hotels for the creatures to live in. This week the children were involved in using an assortment of natural materials to create their beautiful and functional bug hotels. 

It was wonderful to watch them carefully and thoughtfully select natural materials to build their bug hotels. We are excited to learn about the eco-habitats that develop from this project.

Jim Kornmehl visits Kornmehl for Shabbat

On Friday we were lucky to have Jim and Jeany Kornmehl visit for Shabbat. We always love welcoming visitors into the Pre-school, but especially the Kornmehl family, as our wonderful Pre-school is named after the late Paul Kornmehl – Jim’s father. We are forever grateful to the Kornmehl family for their generosity over the last 23 years, since the Pre-school was established in 1999. 

Shabbat Project – One Shabbat Together

“This is the moment to recreate, reconnect and celebrate together as one community through the power of unity on Shabbat”

On Friday morning, Kornmehl was a hive and buzz of activity as children and parents engaged in a shared Challah bake as part of the Shabbat project weekend. The Pre-school smelt delicious as the challot baked in the oven, ready to go home with the children to enjoy at their Shabbat tables. Thank you to Jesse’s bakery for donating the challah dough for us to use for our Kornmehl challah bake.

In the lead up to the Shabbat project, we invited families to bring in one special Judaica object, for example, Kiddush cup, candlesticks, challah cover and chanukiah from the start of the week for the children to discuss and share with their group and to draw their special family Shabbat object from close observation. We have also noted the children’s special comments about the objects and what they mean in their family.

It has been wonderful so far to learn about each family’s Jewish history through the lens of your child:

Joseph: I brought a Chanukiah. I light the candles on Chanukah. I keep it on the sideboard.
Tamar: I brought in my kiddush cup. I use it on Shabbat. Wine gets poured in it.
Gigi: I brought in my challah cover, it’s a mat and we put it over the challah. We all say the blessing for the challah together when it’s Shabbat. We do Shabbat sometimes at home and sometimes at my grandma’s house.
Sam: My great great grandmother, Hadassah made this kippah. She knitted it. She lived in Israel.
Dean: This kippah is my dad’s. It’s special because it’s when my mum and dad got married. My dad wore it at his wedding.
Cleo: My great gramps used to make wine on Pesach. At my mum and dad’s wedding he made little bottles to give to every guest. Next year we are going to make some wine because he has passed away. It’s been in our house already more than 10 years.
Xander: This has been in my family for generations. It’s in my grandpa’s family. It’s a kiddush cup. It’s special because it’s in my family for years and years.
James: This is a kiddush cup. It’s from my daddy’s Barmitzvah. It has Hebrew writing also.

Burger Centre Visit

This week it was the Starfish groups turn to visit the Burger Centre. We eagerly walked out of the Pre-school gate and all the way to Kings Street in Randwick. The Starfish were so excited and not quite sure what to expect. The room was filled with lots of elderly people and smiling faces. Such an appreciative audience. The children all participated beautifully, singing songs, playing instruments, and delighting their appreciative audience, who sang along with us for many of the songs. Afterwards the children spent time introducing themselves to their new friends, swapping names and chatting. So many special moments and the dialogue shared by the elderly people was heart-warming. For many, it brought back memories of their own childhood, others shared with us that they used to be Pre-school teachers too and one beautiful Hungarian lady who was 101 years old spoke in Hungarian to Benjamin whose family are from Hungary.

Everyone’s bucket was filled to the top!! So much love and happiness in the room. And huge appreciation all round on both sides, a real win win for us all.

The presence of a young person can brighten up anyone’s day. Teaching the children to have empathy and an emotional connection to elderly members of our community builds their confidence, resilience, as well as feelings of worth and positivity. 

Jack: I loved singing the people songs because it made them happy.
Oscar: I felt good, and I loved everyone.
Ziggy: I was a bit nervous to meet the old people, but I tried my best. They felt happy with our singing. They were pretty nice.
Ella: I was a little bit afraid at the start, but I got better at being brave.
Sam: All of the people I went to told me their names and I told mine. They like seeing us. I felt good, the old people felt happy.
Harriet: I think they felt happy and proud. And I felt happy because we were singing and seeing the old people’s faces.
Talia: I felt happy because it was a mitzvah, because we did something good for someone.
Xander: We sang for the Burgers at the Burger Centre, and we introduced ourselves. I felt happy because singing to the old people makes me feel special.