GRADE 1-- KITAH ALEF PURIM

March 6, 2016

Dear families:

Today, we started learning about Purim, that jolly holiday! During breakfast, we brainstormed what we know about the holiday:  Esther, Mordecai, Haman, Ahasuerus. We celebrate by listening to the megillah, eating hamantaschen and special meals, wearing costumes, sending mishloah manot (baskets of goodies) to friends, and giving tzedakah.

  After tefillah (the children are getting so used to the new siddur), we learned the letter tsadee,  צ the first   letter in tzedakah, “tzfarde’a” (frog), and “tzipoor” (bird).  Besides taking turns reading from our text, the children review the letter packs in pairs.

After snack, we read The Story of Esther retold by Maida Silverman.  With colorful pictures, we discovered how foolish King Ahasuerus.was: banishing Queen Vashti, choosing a new queen in a contest, and letting Haman have so much power.  Learning that Haman planned to exterminate the Jews, Esther went to the King and invited him and Haman to two banquets.  The second time, she asked the King to spare her life, as she would perish with her fellow Jews.  The King punished Haman and made Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, his chief adviser.

As a project, the children created drawings to make their own picture megillah.  During free time, students could do a puzzle on “How Many Esthers?,” read books, or play Purim games.

Our last activity was singing some Purim melodies:  “When You Hear the Name of Haman,” (to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It”), “My Hat, it has Three Corners,” and “For Purim Day,” (a song I wrote to the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”)

Finally, after “Shalom Haverim,” I shook hands with the children, reinforcing the mnemonic “Tsadee’s cats eat pizza.”

Judy and Cheryl (Esther and Tzipporah)