Elementary School Aged Children: Being Slaves/Being Free/Acting in Hashem’s Image
ELANA RIBACK RAND
JORDAN SOFFER
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Elementary aged children best understand concepts when they can apply them to their own lives and experiences. The Haggadah’s requirement to see oneself as a slave in Egypt who is then redeemed can therefore be very helpful in promoting children’s understanding. But beyond this directive, the Haggadah does not offer guidelines on how to achieve this transformative experience ourselves or how to guide our children to reach this goal. The first activity below offers children some concrete ways to explore the experience of the Jews under Pharoah’s rule, and to consider how different the experience can be understood in hindsight, after one is free. The second activity focuses on Hashem’s care for B’nai Yisrael, and how we embody the idea of “b’tzelem Elokim” when we care for others. The final activity provides children an opportunity to put their feelings and ideas into words, joining with others at the table to perform a poetry slam.
PICTURE YOURSELF Show children the picture above and ask them to imagine they are one of the Jewish slaves in the picture. Tell them you are going to interview them for your TV or radio show. Ask them the following questions: What is your name? What are you doing? Do you like it? How do you feel? Why don’t you stop? What do you wish, hope or dream will happen? Have each person at the table (including the children) share one or two things they would miss, or how they would feel, if they were a slave. l TEACHING TIP: A great way to engage learners is with activities that mimic familiar, real-life experiences, but with a twist. Asking questions and giving answers can be boring. But pretending you areba talk show host, complete with a fancy introduction and your best “radio voice,” can transform the same question/answer model into anbexciting activity.
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ON THIS NIGHT WE ARE ALL TEACHERS
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