PASSOVER -- Kindergarten and First Grade

PASSOVER -- Kindergarten and First Grade

Materials: Haggadah (or more than one kind of Haggadah, including children's coloring book Haggadahs), matzo (one box), napkins, paper bowls or cups, plastic spoons, chunky apple sauce, honey in squeeze bottle, chopped walnuts, bottle of white grape juice, jar of grated horseradish, horseradish root. WHEN MAKING A COUNT, DON'T FORGET THE TEACHERS AND TEACHERS' AIDES.

Timing: If you omit the charoset and horseradish, the talk takes 7 to 10 minutes. With the charoset and horseradish, the talk lasts 10 to 15 minutes.

Food Preparation: If you want to make charoset from scratch, G-d bless you. I use chunky apple sauce and pre-chopped nuts(or crushed nuts) and allow the kids to make it themselves. White grape juice is less likely to stain if kids spill it.

At this age, the horseradish is only for the kids to smell, so just buy a small jar of grated horseradish. Instead of the kids sniffing (and sniffling) the top of the jar you can put several heaping spoonfuls in a small tupperware cup with a tight lid.

Haggadahs: If you do not have one (maybe because you always have Seder at relatives), buy one, or borrow one from your synagogue. Now is a good time to think about starting a Haggadah collection. There are many beautiful reproductions of contemporary and historic Haggadahs that can be purchased from Jewish catalogue companies.

START OF PRESENTATION

Hello, I am Jacob's dad. (Please insert your child's name and your relationship to the child, such as "John's mom" or "Rifka's grandpa.")

I'm here today to talk with you about a Jewish holiday that we will celebrate next Monday. (Please insert the actual weekday on which the holiday occurred or will occur, such as "last Thursday" or "two weeks from now.")

Passover is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days each spring. It celebrates freedom, especially freedom from slavery.

At Hanukkah, I told you about a bad king who did not like the Jewish people and would not let them hold prayer services at their Temple and synagogues. The story of Passover is about a different bad king who was even worse.

STORY OF PASSOVER

Once, over three thousand years ago, long before Jesus was born, there was a bad king in the land of Egypt. His name was Pharaoh. He did not like the Jewish people. He had a big army and made all the Jewish people his slaves.

Do any of you know what a slave is? (Let several children answer.)

Yes. A person who is a slave is not free to do what he or she wants. A slave works very hard, and is not paid for working. Sometimes slaves are not fed well either. In our country, slavery is not allowed, and is against the law.

Well Pharaoh had many slaves including the Jewish people. He made them work very hard building huge pyramids for him and did not pay them.

Then a man named Moses became the leader of the Jewish people. He asked Pharaoh to let the Jewish people leave Egypt. But Pharaoh was very stubborn and said, "No." Moses asked again and again. Finally Pharaoh decided that the Jewish people could leave Egypt.

The story of Passover is about how the Jewish people left Egypt and became free. It is told in the Bible.

MATZO

When the Jewish people left Egypt, they had to pack their lunch and dinner. (They were going into the desert. Almost nothing grows in the desert for people to eat and there were no stores or restaurants there.) And the Jewish people had to leave quickly.

Why do you think they had to hurry? (Let several children answer.)

The Jewish people had to hurry and leave before Pharaoh changed his mind.

But when you try to make bread in a hurry something happens.

(Postpone the following three paragraphs until first grade. They are not essential to the story and the presentation is probably long enough already for kindergarteners.

Has any of you ever helped your parents bake bread?

Well to make bread you first make dough by mixing flour and water and something called yeast. Then you let the dough just sit for a while. The yeast makes the dough puff up and begin to get soft and fluffy. This is called letting the dough rise. After the dough rises, you put it in the oven to bake. By cooking the bread carefully for the right amount of time, you can get soft and fluffy bread like you buy in the store.

What do you think happens if you are in a hurry and don't give the dough time to rise, or if you bake the bread too quickly? (Let children answer.))

It does not get fluffy. If you are in a hurry and don't let bread dough rise, or if you try to bake bread too quickly, it will not get fluffy.

Well the Jewish people were in a hurry to get away from Egypt and Pharaoh. They did not have time to bake fluffy loaves of white bread. They did not have time to let the bread dough rise and get fluffy. And they had to bake it quickly. They only had time to bake MATZO bread.
(Pass out matzo -- a 4" by 4" piece is enough for each child. A 4" by 4" piece is about a quarter of a regular square sheet of matzo.)

Can we all say "matzo" together?

MATZO.

Very good.

Matzo is bread that looks like a big cracker -- flat, crispy and crunchy. It can be fun to eat, but most people think it is not as nice as bread that the baker takes time to bake the fluffy way.

At Passover, we eat matzo bread to remind us how we had to hurry to escape Egypt to reach freedom.

CELEBRATIONS

Passover is celebrated, not by a special church service or synagogue service, but by a special meal at home with matzo and special songs, special prayers and special foods. This meal is called a Passover SEDER.

Can we all say "seder" together?

SEDER.

Very good.

The songs and prayers are in a special prayer book called a HAGGADAH.

This is a Haggadah with all the prayers in both English and Hebrew. This other Haggadah is Jacob's, a special children's version with pictures to color. There are special songs and prayers in the Haggadah that the children say. This other Haggadah is one that was used in Russia. (Show other Haggadahs.)

I will sing one of the Hebrew songs from the Haggadah called "Die-aynoo." It is a song of thanksgiving. The song says it would have been enough to free the Jewish people from Egypt, but then G-d did even more for them, like leading them through the desert and giving them the Bible. It has many verses and they all end with the word "Die-aynoo," which means "it would have ben enough." I will sing one verse, and you can join in if you want on the "Die-aynoo" part.

Eeloo hotzee, hotzee-awnoo,
Hotzee-awnoo me-meitzrayim.
V'lo awsaw vawhem sh'fawtim
Die-aynoo.

Die die-aynoo. Die die-aynoo.
Die die-aynoo. Die-aynoo, die-aynoo. (die-aynoo.)

Die die-aynoo. Die die-aynoo.
Die die-aynoo. Die-aynoo, die-aynoo.

There are other special foods besides matzo at Passover, including eggs, but most of them are to remind us of how horrible slavery is and how wonderful springtime and freedom are. Each year at Passover, people all over the world are reminded that all people everywhere should be free.

BITTER HERBS AND CHAROSET (Optional)

I'll finish by sharing two of these foods with you.

Does anyone know what horseradish is?

Horseradish is a plant. And the ground-up root of that plant is used in cooking. (Show horseradish root, show jar of ground-up horseradish.) Here is a horseradish root, and here is ground-up horseradish you can buy at the supermarket.

Horseradish is very spicy. Hot and spicy. Sometimes it's put into mustard or salad dressing. If you eat it by itself, it will taste very strong and bitter. Some people might like hot mustard with horseradish, but still think that eating horseradish plain is very "yucky."

At Passover, we eat horseradish or other bitter herbs to remember how bitter and horrible and "yucky" slavery is.

I don't have horseradish for you to eat, but I have some ground horseradish for you to smell. You can smell it when we are done.

(IF THE KIDS MAKE CHAROSET, THEY HAVE PROBABLY FORMED A LINE AND WILL GET A CUP WITH THEIR CHOICE OF INGREDIENTS. AFTER THEY GET THEIR INGREDIENTS, THEY CAN TAKE A SMELL OF THE HORSERADISH. IF THE KIDS WILL NOT MAKE CHAROSET, THEN TALK ABOUT HORSERADISH FIRST, HAVE THE TEACHER GO AROUND WITH THE CUP OF HORSERADISH FOR THEM TO SMELL. THEN TALK ABOUT CHAROSET AND HAVE THE PRE-MADE CHAROSET PASSED OUT.)

When the Jewish people were slaves in Egypt, they had to build stone and brick buildings. When you build with stone and brick you "glue" the bricks together with a thick paste called "mortar." Today, we make mortar with cement, lime and sand. In ancient days they sometimes mashed together mud and straw to make mortar.

At Passover we make a relish called "charoset." It is made by chopping and mashing apples, nuts, spices like cinnamon, honey and wine. It is supposed to look like mortar, be sticky like mortar and remind us of all the work the Jewish slaves did, mixing and mashing, to make the mortar for the Egyptians. But charoset is sweet.

Can we all say "charoset" together?

CHAROSET.

Very good.

(SOMETIMES I HAVE HAD THE CHILDREN MAKE THEIR OWN CHAROSET. SOMETIMES I MAKE IT BEFOREHAND AND JUST HAVE THE TEACHER PASS IT OUT.)

Over here I have materials for you to make your own charoset: chunky apple sauce, chopped nuts, honey, grape juice and cinnamon. Pick the things you want, and your teacher will put some in a cup with a spoon. Then you can mix your own charoset and try it. You do not have to try it if you don't want to. And you don't have to add the nuts or juice if yo don't like those things.

SUMMARY

Passover tells the story of how the Jewish people escaped from Egypt and slavery to become free over 3000 years ago. Holiday celebrations include a special meal with special foods reminding us how "yucky" slavery is and how wonderful springtime and freedom are.

You have been a good audience. Do you have any questions? (Take questions.)

Thank you for listening so well.