By Alex Lawson, Special to JTNews
Like many members of the area’s Jewish community, they made their own Seder plates and hagaddot. They prepared their own charoset, boiled eggs and even made their own matzoh. These aren’t your typical family members preparing for Passover, however; they’re the children at two of metropolitan Seattle’s Jewish preschools: the Jennifer Rosen-Meade preschool and Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder.
Situated on opposite sides of Lake Washington, each school has something to offer young children as they prepare for Kindergarten.
In Bellevue, the Jennifer Rosen-Meade Preschool of Temple De Hirsch Sinai is creating another positive learning environment for preschoolers.
Now in it’s 12th year, the preschool is home to 101 children at its new Bellevue facility. The school was created in 1991 from a sizeable donation by the parents of Jennifer Rosen-Meade, in her memory.
According to Gayle Carrol, Director of Education for Temple De Hirsch Sinai, the intention from the beginning, was to “create an environment for kids to develop at their own pace, and to give kids an opportunity to be kids.” She believes that objective still holds true today.
It’s a preschool within a synagogue, and the children take advantage of that. Each week they have an all-school Shabbat with a rabbi, and each winter they hold a Hanukkah Art Show, inviting the entire synagogue to attend.
Children can begin the Jennifer Rosen-Meade Preschool as soon as they can walk, through a program called “Bagels and Blocks.” Additional programming is available through pre-Kindergarten. The school also offers afternoon extended care.
Administrators have found that even if a child’s family does not belong to the synagogue, children still come back year after year for the religious school and youth activities. More importantly, they find that friendships that began in preschool hold true through the years as the students continue their education.
“I’ve invested so much time and effort in this program,” said Carrol, ”it’s like watching my kids grow up.”
Students at Jennifer Rosen-Meade study curriculum through a hands-on approach.
According to Laurel Abrams, preschool director, the students recently learned about the holiday of Passover while preparing for an all-school seder with the rabbi. The children had an opportunity to prepare their own charoset, hard-boiled eggs and matzoh. They learned Passover songs and the four questions in Hebrew and English and the oldest children even had a chance to create their own hagaddot.
Additionally, each spring, the students participate in a hands-on tzedakah project.
“It’s a kid-driven project from start to finish,” describes Carrol.
Through the project, students give tzedakah money in their classrooms. They also discuss what kind of foods less-fortunate children would want to eat with that money. Then, armed with the wish list and their tzedakah money, the four year olds go to the grocery store to pick out the food. Finally, they deliver the food to the Jewish Family Service food bank.
According to Abrams, the children put money toward projects they can relate to. The children participate in additional tzedakah projects year-round including planting trees in Israel, collecting food for Passover and a coat drive.
On the other side of the lake, in Seattle’s University District, Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder and Girls’ High School preschool program “is no different than most preschools, it’s just Jewish,” describes Tziviah Goldberg, the cheder’s principal.
Now in its 27th year, the cheder also provides hands-on creative activities mixed with Judaic themes. Children ages two through five participate in circle time, free play, prayer, stories and music as they become exposed to the cycle of Jewish holidays and customs. They are arranged in two separate classrooms, one of preschool children ages 30 months to four years, and another of pre-Kindergarten students who turn four by August 30.
In addition to their standard curriculum, the children also learn how to get along with each other, be good people, how to share and ask for what they want, but all in a Jewish context.
Students not only learn about the holidays, customs and Torah portions, they put them into action.
“We encourage them to do what they are learning about,” says Associate Principal Shae Morry.
For example, the children studied Noah’s Ark, considering every aspect of the story. They built an ark in their classroom, but also thought about what types of animals were on board, what types of materials were needed to build the actual ark, where they kept their garbage while on the ark and much more.
Throughout the year, children have also had a chance to learn about the creation of oil in preparation for Hanukkah. Through a lesson from Chabad, they learned about the force needed to create the oil, which they tied into the miracle of oil. For nearly a month, they continued to learn and talk about how much oil they would need during Hanukkah and how many olives it would require to create that amount of oil.
According to Goldberg, another memorable unit dealt with fish. The students took a trip to the Seattle Aquarium to see what makes a fish kosher, followed by a science component in the classroom in which the students learned about where fish live, what they eat and more.
The cheder recognizes that not all students continue their religious education, so in preparation for Kindergarten, school administrators ensure that each child will learn how to function at any type of school, be able to focus for long periods of time, and have the social skills needed for their elementary education.
As more holidays approach and curriculum is presented, there is no doubt that the students of Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder and Jennifer Rosen-Meade preschool will wrap their little hands around the context, preparing for Kindergarten and a Jewish life.