Lech Lecha and Vayera: Sand and Stars

These two parshiot include Hashem's promise that the descendants of Avraham and Sarah will be as numerous as the stars in the heaven and the sand on the ground.

These two images are deep, meaningful, and relatable.

 First we sat with chumashim and reviewed the relevant pesukim.  Some of the girls were more engaged in the textual learning than others. There was a lot of, 'but what's the project???'

Key points:

• Neither stars nor sand can ever be effectively counted.  There is a mind boggling amount of each. 
• Both of these objects are significant and we, as Jewish people, should try to emulate their unique traits.

Star Traits (this list is not exhaustive)

• Beautiful
• Admired, looked up to.
• Fill the darkness with light
• People use them for guidance
• Symbol of the Jewish people (Star of David)
• Timeless

Sand traits

• Grains must work together- unity
• Unassuming and powerful! The power of sand to stop water and fire.

Stars are incredible but they must be separate from each other.  Sand is walked all over.

We need to harness the positive traits and work on ourselves to minimize the negatives. 

I told the girls we would need to sleep on these significant ideas.

"But what about a project!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!"

Then I showed them how they would sleep on it.

Step 1: Coloring sandpaper

I gave each girl a sheet of sandpaper. They enjoyed gently rubbing it. Gabi pointed out that sandpaper was another special thing only sand can do.

 With fabric crayons, the girls decorated their page. Stars were encouraged.

 Step 2: White pillowcases and the iron.
I placed an unloved towel down, placed the sandpaper face up, pillowcase on that, iron on medium setting on top.

After the sandpaper image was transferred onto the pillowcase, the girls drew more images for transferring. 

 (When I explained the image would be a mirror image, Cohava cut off where she wrote the date. Ruti didn't because she is still in the backwards writing stage!)

 Using the sandpaper as a transfer creates a unique texture to the print.

Now they can sleep on it!

Yesterday Tova said, "Dinner is special for the perasha!" I stared at her, confused. "Because they are Morningstars! And stars are in the Torah this week!"

Tova has been reinforcing this lesson at school where she glued sand to one side of a paper and glitter to the other.

Sand play is always a popular option. We worked on 'star' play with the lite-bright.

 Ruti really made it a star!

Tetzave- Kohen clothes are sweet

Parashat Tetzaveh provides an in-depth look at the special clothing worn by the Kohanim. Last year we learned about their clothes and made Kohen paper dolls [see here]. I thought about further pursuing our organization theme and working to organize the clothes in their closet and drawers with an improved system. 


Instead I rewarded their good behavior with something entirely fun.

"What is your favorite piece of Kohen clothes?" I asked.
"The me'il. I like the rimon and bells, which make music whenever you walk," Gabi replied. [Gabi loved the paper dolls last year and thought about the clothes a lot. Once she told me, 'I dreamed I married a Kohen and he was very good as his job. He liked being a Kohen so much that he even slept in his special clothes. Except his migbat hat kept falling off in bed."] 
Cohava said, "The choshen with the pretty stones."
I explained to the girls that they weren't just pretty stones, and began to explain the Urim V'tumim but it is a deeply profound concept which either went over their heads or just seemed like an ipad. Either way they weren't overly impressed. 

What impressed them was the project. Edible Choshen!
I put up the image of the Choshen for them to see the colors. They each got a plate, knife, and graham cracker.

Tova started on her graham cracker right away, while the girls and I discussed the color of each stone on the Choshen.  Then I took out the massive container of Jelly Bellys that are on sale at Costco this month.


We carefully sorted to make sure the color of each jelly bean was as close as possible to the color of each stone. And we counted to twelve, over and over. Ruti practiced her colors. Cohava did some addition and subtraction. 

Gabi tried to stick the jelly beans on the plain graham cracker but Cohava knew to wait. I gave each girl a plastic knife with white icing on and then they diligently got to work.

I thought these special treats would be gone in a second but the girls (the bigger two) were too enthusiastic to eat their art.

They put the edible Choshen in their lunchboxes to show off at school. 

 If we were home this week for Shabbat meals, we would make a bunch of these for dessert.

Shabbat Shalom!

Manna!

 This morning I successfully laid hot cinnamon buns on the floor, without the children seeing.

"Ema, breakfast is on the floor," Cohava announced.
"Yup!"
"Because...?" she was confused but by now she knows it must be Torah related. "Umm, because Moshe, umm. I don't know the reason. But these taste incredible!" 

"You found incredible tasting food on the ground and..." 
"It is man! But, you actually put it on the floor. So really, you are like Datan and Aviram," Cohava concluded and returned to her pastry.

A few minutes later Gabi entered the kitchen and screamed, "Why did Ruti throw my breakfast on the floor?" 

Eventually she was placated and the girls were eating happily. I realized that although called 'manna' in English, the Hebrew is 'man' or 'mon', coming from the phrase "mon hu?" "what is this?" 

More importantly, it is 'Nom' backwards. As in Cookie Monster is yelling mon backwards whenever he eats.

Shabbat Shalom! Nom nom nom
mon mon mon

Beshalach- Split over it!

Parashat Beshalach is another action packed Torah portion. Last year we lived it up, acting out the story of the crossing of Yam Suf and tried foods which may have tastes like maan.


This year we discussed the the sea in more depth (pun intended).

After learning the parasha, we read Nachshon Who Was Afraid to Swim. This is a lovely retelling of the midrash which recounts Nachshon ben Aminadav's faith and action of stepping into the water, when everyone else stood still. This tale adds its own idea, that Nachshon is aqua-phobic and overcomes his fears to do the right thing and be a great leader. Obviously this led to a lovely discussion. [I love the vast number of Jewish children's books available in America. It is high on my list of 'things I love about being back in the US'.]

Then the girls tried to see how water could be split.

Cohava attempted taping the water with a log, hoping for miraculous intervention. 
Needless to say, it didn't work. Gabi suggested if they got lots of sticks, maybe they could split the water in two. I thought it was a good plan, Cohava was skeptical, and Ruti was eager to assist in getting more logs.


Cohava was quite please with herself when the mission failed.

I was relieved that none of them thought that stepping into the water would make it split in two. 




After being used as prop and chew toy for a few weeks, the Pharoh toy was really dirty. When I bought him, the intent was Pesach, so he really needed a good clean before I put him in storage. And that is when I realized: drowning in the Yam Suf is just like going in the washing machine! 


Thank you, Judy, for letting us watch Pharoh spin around in your front loader.
The girls were captivated by his water plight, without it being too morbid.





As for manna, tomorrow, if I wake up early enough, I plan to make cinnamon buns and leave them on the floor (on a plate, in the kitchen) for the girls to find. Cinnamon buns taste like "cake fried in honey", right? 

In the world of food, someone once told me about a family which makes a special pasta dish for parashat beshalach. It required the wheel shapes pastas (for the chariot wheels) and bits of hot dog, but I can't remember anything else about it. I don't plan on making it, but does anyone have suggestions for special food for this parasha?

Shabbat Shalom!

H2O! Vaera

The plot keeps coming fast! Parashat Vaera has the four promises of redemption and the first seven of the ten plagues. Thanks to wonderful educators at Pesach time, my children can easily name and share a little about each plague.
"Which is your favorite plague?" Gabi asked me.
"Umm, I don't have a favorite. When something bad happens to someone else, even if we don't like the person, we can't be happy." I replied. I explained how when we recite the plagues at the seder, at the utterance of each one we remove a drop of wine. The drop is to lessen our happiness of seder night for their suffering.
"Okay, but which do you like the most?" Cohava was relentless.
"Frogs and darkness."
"Is that because no one got hurt during them?" she asked.
"Also in blood no one was hurt," Gabi piped up.
"Gabi, it is true that it didn't hurt the Egyptian's skin like lice or boils, and they didn't die suddenly like the last plague, but not having water is terrible," I explained.
"Cuz you could get duh-hydrated?" Gabi queried.

So in honor of this week's parasha we are learning about the importance of water. There are countless projects that one could do on this parasha, so if you are looking for something like frog puppets (super fun) keep searching.

We talked about our bodies needing water. Using a water bottle, we looked at how if the bottle were our bodies it would have to be 1/2 to 2/3 full for us to be alive. (The sticker on the top is a face).

We are going to work on drinking more water every day.

 Then we talked about how all life forms need water and that no food can be produced without water.{Gabi insists candy can}.
To show how plants need water and not blood, we did the old celery experiment. Two stalks, one in water, the other in water + red food dye. [Ruti also insisted on one AbbyCaddaby cup of celery]. Hopefully the experiment will produce results.

 Next I brought out a Pharoh doll and we enjoyed playing with him and water.

(Cohava has an angry face to match her Pharoh voice)

 The eleventh plague: being chewed on by a baby. Pharoh never gets a break!

 The girls are also doing some online learning about water at websites like:

http://www.watereducation.org/doc.asp?id=1022
http://www.discoverwater.org
http://www.epa.gov/students/games.html

Cohava also loves fun facts so here are some fun water facts:

Water is made up of two elements, hydrogen and oxygen. Its chemical formula is H2O. Water has three different states, liquid, solid and gas. The word water usually refers to water in its liquid state. The solid state of water is known as ice while the gas state of water is known as steam or water vapor. Water covers around 70% of the Earth’s surface. The three largest oceans on Earth are the Pacific Ocean (largest), the Atlantic Ocean (second largest) and the Indian Ocean (third largest). More ocean facts. The longest river in the world is the Nile River, it reaches 6650 kilometers in length (4132 miles). <-----Thats a LOT of blood!!! The second longest river in the world is the Amazon River, it reaches 6400 kilometres (4000 miles) in length. The longest river in the USA is the Missouri River. At around 2,340 miles (3,770 km) in length it is slightly longer than the Mississippi River (2,320 miles). The two combine to form the longest river system in North America. Pure water has no smell and no taste, it also has a pH level around 7. Water expands as it cools from 4 °C to 0 °C (above 4 °C it does the opposite). In freezing conditions, water has been known to burst water pipes as it freezes to ice. We will probably talk about water conservation and find ways to save water around the house and to fight water pollution.  Enjoy and appreciate your water! Shabbat Shalom!