Arts and Crafts

Hi Fellow Teachers,

As we continue to read Bible Stories to our preschool students, I think we need to collaborate together to think of science activities, and arts and crafts activities which will enhance our students learning. As I think about the story of Noah and his Ark, I think we can educate the children about the properties of water- specifically about floating.

Here is a sample idea of an activity you can do with your students to make the story of Noah and his ark more meaningful.

Materials:
1. water table or water in a large enough container so children can place objects into it.
2. different objects: wooden block, ping pong ball, feather, spoon, paper clip etc....
3. chart : Float vs Does Not Float

Procedure:

There are various ways to do this activity as you can do a whole group activity, or peer groups. Essentially, you would like to inquire to see what the children will think will sink or float. Make sure to try different objects to show them that some things float and some things don't float/sink.

you can tie this into the story about Noah and his ark, because his ark floats on the water. Given the developmental age of these students, the focus should be more on which objects float and sink as opposed to the science behind it ( i.e. displacement of water).

Please let me know your thoughts about this activity. If you try it with your students, please let me know what work and didn't work. This way we can work together to create effective lesson plans.

Please feel free to post your own arts and crafts ideas!

Toldot

Parsha: Toldot

A. Story:

In last week’s parsha, we learned about Rivka and Yitzhak, who got married. In this week’s parsha, parsha Toldot, Rivka and Yitzhak gave birth to TWO boys- Esav and Yaacov. They were twin brothers. This week’s parsha tells the story about these two brothers, who don’t always get along (if you want, can add: they fight sometimes and they don’t share their toys etc.)

( The story line about Yaakov deceiving Yitzchak is a little confusing so I did not want to focus on that aspect. However, you could talk about the differences between Yaakov and Eisav’s appearance: Eisav had red hair and his arms were very hairy. Yaakov’s arms were very smooth. I know that some groups have twins so feel free to use them as examples: how are they the same or different etc?)

Bottom line: the brothers were not nice to each other and we are going to practice how to be nice to our friends, family and siblings etc….

B. Activity:

1. Kindergarten:
1. First get their minds thinking: I want everyone to think of one way you can help out at home? Go around and listen to what the children have to say. If they seem as though they are getting bored allow for one or two to give an example.
2. Scenario: pick two kids (try and get the kids who probably need to be active at this point) and give them a dinosaur- or any toy that you have noticed the kids fight over to play with. Have them stand in front of your small group and tell them that we are going to play “Freeze Drama”. YOU MAY WANT TO HAVE SOME LEADERS DEMONSTRATE INSTEAD AND HAVE THE CHILDREN TELL YOU WHAT YOU ARE DOING WRONG AND THEN ASK THEM HOW TO RECTIFY THE SITUATION.
3. Rules of Freeze Drama: the children are going to have to pretend to fight for the toy. Space them a few feet away- enforce the no touching rule as we don’t want kids to get hurt. They are not allowed to hit each other, hurt the other person etc… When the leader says Freeze the children must stop where they are- freeze in motion. We just want the children to have a chance to do some role playing and be a part of the program.

At this point, ask the rest of the group: who knows something that one could do to make this a nice situation; what can X or Y do to change their positions etc. Then, pick that person and have him/her replace one of the original two performers. Have them take the exact same position as the original performer and allow them to have a chance to fix the problem- just by changing the position. (OR have them tell one of the actors how to move his body).

Then, call freeze. Ask the group, who can think of something they can say to fix the problem. Make sure they don’t tell you what it is- allow them to say the nice thing when they replace one of the “actors”.

Then discuss. There are many times –at home, at school- when we want to play with something and we cannot because someone else is already playing with that.

Ask them if this happens to them, at home with siblings, at school with friends? How does it make you feel? When these things happen, it can make us very angry, frustrated etc.

Sometimes we scream and sometimes we hit but we know that that is not always the best thing to do because it can really hurt our friends/siblings. And when we scream, we aren’t speaking nicely so sibling/parents/friends cannot understand you. So what can we do to make the situation better: don’t hit and scream and speak nicely and say “ can I have a turn when you are done” or “that really made me mad when you took that toy away from me” ( bc there are times when kids hit bc someone took something from them etc..)

2. Nursery and Pre-K:
1. can you think of something nice you did this week- at school or home?
2. Scenario: Molly and Jenny loved going to school. One day, during play time, Jenny was playing with a baby doll. Suddenly, Molly came over and grabbed the doll from Jenny and Jenny started to cry.

- questions:

a. did Molly do a nice thing?

b. Why is Jenny crying?

c. What could Molly do the next time? ( “When you are done playing with that doll, can I have a turn”- or something to that effect)

- Continue to make as many scenarios as necessary. Maybe use a scenario that happened during groups etc.

- If you want, feel free to modify the Kindergarten activity by having the parents/older siblings act out scenarios and having the children tell you if what you are doing is a good choice or a bad choice. Feel free to do activities where the leaders are making good choices too!!

Noach

Parshat Noach

Synopsis:

In this week’s parsha, we learn about Noach. Noach was a man who did very good things. Unfortunately, the other people did bad things and Hashem was very upset that these people would do mean things to each other. So Hashem said to Noach, take your wife and 3 sons and I want you to build a tevah because I will bring a big flood that will get rid of all the people who do only mean things ( Have the children “build” the Tevah with you- either with their bodies or you can use blocks so that it’s interactive). And so that’s what happen. Noach built the Tevah which had three floors. The first floor had the people: Noach, wife, and sons; the 2^nd floor had the animals: non-kosher came in pairs and 7 of each Kosher animal; 3^rd floor was for the garbage. The rain fell for 40 days and then Noach saw that it stopped raining and so he sent out a raven to go and check to see if it was safe to come out of the Tevah. Then he sent out a dove 7 days later and the dove came back with an olive branch. Noach knew that it was safe to leave the tevah because the dove found a tree from a branch. Hashem promised Noach that he will never bring a flood that will destroy the entire world and the rainbow in the sky was a sign of that promise.

Extra activities:

1. empty a bucket and see if you can use a toy/animal to simulate the story
2. have the children show you a pair of animals
3. have the kids make a rainbow with different color blocks
4. songs:

The monkeys go marching two by two harrah harrah

The monkeys go marching two by two harrah harrah

The monkeys go marching two by two

With an elephant and a kangaroo

And they all go marching in

Get out of the rain

( have the children say different animals/can act it out)

Parshat Noach

Synopsis:

In this week’s parsha, we learn about Noach. Noach was a man who did very good things. Unfortunately, the other people did bad things and Hashem was very upset that these people would do mean things to each other. So Hashem said to Noach, take your wife and 3 sons and I want you to build a tevah because I will bring a big flood that will get rid of all the people who do only mean things ( Have the children “build” the Tevah with you- either with their bodies or you can use blocks so that it’s interactive). And so that’s what happen. Noach built the Tevah which had three floors. The first floor had the people: Noach, wife, and sons; the 2^nd floor had the animals: non-kosher came in pairs and 7 of each Kosher animal; 3^rd floor was for the garbage. The rain fell for 40 days and then Noach saw that it stopped raining and so he sent out a raven to go and check to see if it was safe to come out of the Tevah. Then he sent out a dove 7 days later and the dove came back with an olive branch. Noach knew that it was safe to leave the tevah because the dove found a tree from a branch. Hashem promised Noach that he will never bring a flood that will destroy the entire world and the rainbow in the sky was a sign of that promise.

Extra activities:

1. empty a bucket and see if you can use a toy/animal to simulate the story
2. have the children show you a pair of animals
3. have the kids make a rainbow with different color blocks
4. songs:

The monkeys go marching two by two harrah harrah

The monkeys go marching two by two harrah harrah

The monkeys go marching two by two

With an elephant and a kangaroo

And they all go marching in

Get out of the rain

( have the children say different animals/can act it out)

Introduction

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my blog. I realized that sometimes it's very challenging to tell young learners the Parsha, (the weekly Bible portion) straight from the text. Usually, the themes are delicate and overwhelming, leaving most families to omit numerous details from the story. As such, I decided I would start a blog that includes the Parsha story as well as activities you can do with your children at the dinner table to include your youngest family member!

I encourage families to comment on the posts to let me know if you liked certain activities or if you have further questions about certain key concepts in the storyline.