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CROWN HEIGHTS [CHI] — Parshas Chaye Sarah came to life in the classrooms of Beis Rivkah. The children were engaged in various different creative and educational activities that captured their excitement of discovering new concepts.

Parsha Comes Alive in Beis Rivkah Head Start

CROWN HEIGHTS [CHI] — Parshas Chaye Sarah came to life in the classrooms of Beis Rivkah. The children were engaged in various different creative and educational activities that captured their excitement of discovering new concepts.

Many teachers re-created a working well out of household materials (garbage can with a turning broomstick) so that the children could actually have a hands-on feel of how difficult and back breaking it was to actually retrieve water out of the well. They realized what a true miracle it was that the Midrash says the water came up for Rivkah because she was so good and kind.

Children could be seen using their fine motor skills and patterning skills while stringing beads to create bracelets just as pretty as Avrohom sent with his trusted servant Eliezer, to give to Rivkah, Yitzchak’s kallah. The children also got to eat some of their bracelets by using cheerios as beads, as well.

The preschool teachers learned at a professional development workshop give by Shternie Ginsburg, how to stress and incorporate the midah of a parsha into our every day lives. For Parshas Chaye Sarah, the children learned “I see, I think, I do.” Therefore the teachers stressed the idea of Rivkah, a small child who saw that Eliezer was thirsty, thought about what she could do to help him and ran to give him a drink. This midah is a practical life lesson for children to practice.

Thanks to Smadar Ben Chayoun, the head chef in Beis Rivkah, all the children were given challah dough to pound, roll and knead just in time for shabbos, like Sara Imainu and then Rivkah Imainu’s, special Challah that stayed soft from Shabbos to Shabbos.

Some of the children engaged in science experiments to see what really happens to challah and bread when it stays out for a week? Will it stay fresh till next week or will it spoil? Tune in next week Iy”h to see what the children will discover!

The theme of the desert also came to life in each classroom. The children learned about the unique characteristics of a desert. Then the children stuck on props to depict the desert – ie. A hot sun in the sky, sand on the ground, a picture of a camel and a cactus plant. The children were very excited to recreate a cactus plant by shaping clay dough into a cactus plant and sticking toothpicks in to resemble the prickly thorns.

These are just a few of the topics that came to life in our classroom. Read aloud books, music and movement, art, writing, dramatic play, sensory play and discovery tables are all on-going centers that are constantly enhanced and changed with each weekly parsha and thematic goals.

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