Holidays

From JewishMontessori

Rosh HaShannah

ראש השנה

Rosh Hashanah

• Concept: Birthday of the world
• Making cards with sponge stamps in shape of shofar and apple

Shofar

• 100 Shofar blows *100 board
• Shofar sanding
• Let the child hear the sound of the shofar and other instruments, comparing their differences.

Round Challah

• Cycle of life: looking back at last year, looking towards a new year.

Apples

• Parts of a fruit (Apple) *Three part cards
• Apple picking
• Types of apples, taste different apples
• Let the child cut his own apples with an apple cutter (place only pre cut half apples so that the child is able to do it himself)

Why apples?

• Tapuach has the same gematria as Seh’ akeida
• Some apple trees in Egypt and Middle East do not produce leafs until after it produces fruit. Also a Jew, even if we have no leafs (parnasa) we depend only in Hashem for our well being.
• Apple trees produce a lot of fruit, we should have the same merit

Honey

• With a blindfold isolate the senses by letting the child experience different tastes from salty to sweet, let the child discover the sweetness of honey.
• Where does honey come from? the process of honey making.
• Visit a honey farm
• Bring a honeycomb

Fish (apply also for tashlich)

• Introduce a fish bowl with fish in school; study the fish and its habits, assign children to feed the fish daily.
• Parts of a fish*Nomenclature cards
• bring a fish to school let children touch and identify it’s parts

Why Fish?

• We should multiply like fish.
• The head of the fish: We eat part of the head of the fish and ask Hashem “May it be Your will that we should be a head (leader) not a tail (follower).
• Fish always have their eyes open, like Tzaddikim.

Seder

• Seder of Rosh Hashanah*Three part cards

Pomegranate

• Set a pomegranate on the nature table
• 613 seeds -counting seeds
• Our merits should increase like the seeds of a “rimon”.

Tzimmes

• Making Tzimmes
• Let the children peel and cut the carrots
• “Our merits should increase, we should multiply” …. In Yiddish the word carrot is “merren” we want to be able to do “more” good deeds.

Chanukah

חנוכה

Chanukah

• Circle time: The story of Chanukah with puppets or visuals

• Circle time: Menorah presentation with a real Menorah
  • Point with your finger silently that the candles are in a row having the same lengh except for the Shamash.
  • Take the shamash and act as if it was lighting each of the corresponding candles, first day starting from the far right of the menorah, second day starting from the new candle.. and so on for the rest of the days. let the children observe.
  • Place the candles and Menorah in a tray. Set them in the Montessori shelve close to a window or the door, say very briefly “we set the Menorah by a window or the door to give light to others”

• Learning about light, sources of light

• sorting or matching draidels

• Pressing olives for oil

• The meaning of oil

• Working with seals, lids, and tops

• The Greeks are coming draidel game

• Make latkes or doughnoughs, cooking with olive oil

• Chanukah play

• Making Menorah’s out of clay