WE CAN HELP EACH OTHER - the Holiday messages continue...

When learning the stories and practices of each holiday there are also important values we extract from the holiday and delve into in an age appropriate way.
Purim is a fun joyous holiday that can seem like just a great story of a king and an heroic queen and a holiday with really fun practices like having a holiday meal, dressing up and giving food gifts to our friends. But there is so much more we want our children to experience with the holidays.
Of course when teaching the holidays the children are involved in the joyous practices of holiday since happiness and celebration of the holiday is an important feeling the children should associate with holidays.

Personalizing the holidays message:
After completing the Purim story, we wanted to highlight one of the holiday’s messages: caring and helping one another. The children related to this messages as they were talking about how “Hashem help all the people. Queen Esther help the people and Rabbi Mordechai help the people.”

We know that it is important to teach children appropriate behavior from a young start to get them into good habits and practices. We want the children to know how important it is to care for others and want to help each other. So, we think, what is appropriate for a two year old in the area of relating to others? Toddlers are always and watching what others are doing and ready to mimic that behavior. When toddlers see how others treat each other or how others care for each other through their actions, they can be encouraged to do the same. While toddlers are not yet ready to emotionally relate to others, with guidance, good modeling and reinforcement they can be sensitive to see the needs of others and respond in an empathetic way.

In our classroom this plays out as,
1. We are encouraged to help others,
2. When someone helps us we acknowledge with an appropriate behavior- hug, smile or words of thank you!

TAKE A LOOK AT HOW WE ACT IN EMPATHETIC WAYS


Meir needed help opening his pretzels at snack time.
Dylan helped Meir to open his bag of pretzels.
Thank you Dylan - that was so helpful!


Miriam Sara was looking for her shoes.
Maggie found them and brought them to Miriam Sarah.
Thank you Maggie - that was so helpful!


Shayna noticed that her friend Mika was sad.
Shayna rubbed Mika's back to help her feel better.
Thank you Shayna - that was so caring!

To see more photos of times when we help each other, take a look on the wall outside our classroom.