Kindergarten: Colors and Judaism
The Netivot Kindergarten class takes four deep dives into “Colors and Judaism”
1. The Rainbow
2. Adom/Red
3. Clothes and Colors
4. The Colorful Fruits of Israel
Kindergarten Deep Dive #1: The Rainbow
To the teacher:
Deep Dive 1 focuses on an extraordinary natural phenomenon, A source of wonder for human beings throughout all time, and the purest display of color we ever see in our lives: The Rainbow which appears in the sky when the sun shines through the rain
Primary text:
God spoke to Noah, and to his sons, saying: “Now see, I give you My promise, and to all people after you; and to every living animal that is with you—birds, tame animals and wild animals--; every animal of the earth. I give you my promise, never again to bring a flood to destroy the earth.”
God said, “This is the sign of My promise to you, forever: I set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of My promise. When I bring a cloud over the earth, the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; Then I will remember My promise, and no flood will destroy the earth.”
Primary mitzvah: Blessing for a rainbow
The Jewish blessing we say when we see a rainbow:
Baruch atah Adonai eloheinu melech haolam, zocher habrit.
You are blessed Adonai our God, Majesty of the universe, Who remembers the promise.
Enduring Understandings:
1. Something wonderful happens in the sky,—it is very unusual (We only see it once or twice or year)--A rainbow!! A magical, miraculous bow of colors in the sky.
2. A rainbow appears when sunlight shines through the rain
3. The Torah tells the story of the first rainbow, which God showed to Noah. Every rainbow is a reminder of that story: a reminder to God and a reminder to us.
4. When we Jews see a rainbow, we say a special blessing (and we never say it at any other time!) in which we remind ourselves that God is seeing the rainbow and remembering the promise.
Possible Projects:
· A science project in which the students learn the way light bends and splits, using prisms and spraying water in the sunshine
· an art gallery of rainbows created in many different media: clay, water color, fabric, construction paper
· a dramatic presentation of the Noah story…with special attention to the rainbow…to be presented at Friday night services ….and/or at other times
· an exploration of the traditional blessings said upon seeing natural wonders: lightning, the ocean, trees in blossom, the mountains, thunder or a hurricane (or huge wind). Learning them by heart….and what they mean. Teaching them to others: students and or adults
· a picture book of the Flood story, using torn paper or other medium, with the students’ telling the story and recording their reactions
· learning to sing Rise and Shine with real conviction and singing it in a performance for the rest of the school or on a Friday night (come up with a new verse that tells about the rainbow!!)
Choosing the Project:
1. a 5-year old or group of 5-year olds can complete successfully
2. It should require learning, practice, time, and attention to complete
3. It should be something the student will want to take home and keep (create one project as a whole class, in which case the final project would stay at CBB, but each student could receive an album with photos of the project)
4. It must engage the students deeply with the story of the Noah and the Flood
5. It must take the students on an exploration of the natural phenomenon of a rainbow, and how it appears, and why
6. It must include learning the blessing zocher habrit
7. If the project is going to be individual art projects, you should prepare for the unit by making one for yourself, and adding your own personal touch, and being ready to share with the kids what it means to you.
Kindergarten Deep Dive #2: Adom/Red
To the teacher:
In our English language, the color red has associations with anger, danger, violence and sensuality: “Seeing red,”“code red,” “the red light district,”and “the red planet Mars” all contribute to the web of associations that Americans have with red. But in the Hebrew language, red has a different emotional resonance. Adom resonates with the red earth from which we were formed, and the lifeblood that flows in our veins. Red is the most human of colors
The Hebrew word for Red, adom, is related to dam (blood), and adam (human being), and adamah (earth). We are all “Children of Adam”, the creature formed from the adamah, in whose veins flow dam, whose color is adom.
Primary text: The Creation of Adam (Genesis 2:4-8)
This is the story of the sky and of the earth when they were created, in the day that God made the earth and the sky, before any plant of the field was in the earth, and before every grass of the field grew; for God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no human being to till the ground.
Then a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And God formed the human being (adam) of the dust of the ground (adamah), and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and adam became a living soul.
Then God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the adam whom he had formed.
Primary mitzvah: Blessing for Fruit of the Earth
The Jewish blessing we say when we eat a vegetable:
Baruch atah Adonai eloheinu melech ha-olam borei pri ha-adamah
Enduring Understandings:
1. In Hebrew words come in families. These are words that are different from each other, but share some important sounds.
2. One interesting family of Hebrew words is: Adom (red), Dam (blood), Adam (human being), adamah (earth).
3. our old story of the creation of Adam, the first human being. We human beings are called bone Adam “children of Adam” because we come from the adamah/the earth
4. the word for earth is adamah
5. vegetables are called “fruit of the adamah” because they grow directly out of the earth
Possible Projects:
· create little model human beings out of red clay
· an exploration of all the red things in the world, stop lights, stop signs, red flowers (e.g. climbing penstemmon, scarlet larkspur, Indian paintbrush, Indian pinks), red fruit, red vegetables, red cardinals, scarlet tanagers, red wing blackbirds, sports teams (Red Sox, Reds, ), etc etc
· with paints or crayons, explore all the different kinds, shades and tints of red
· make a display or book or guide to take home, showing all the different vegetables over which a person would say the blessing “borei pri ha-adamah”
· on the final day of the deep dive, go to the Sunday morning Farmer’s market and share with the shoppers there the blessing we say before eating a vegetable...that it reminds us of the way that vegetable grew in the ground, and that we also come from the ground (you will need to get permission beforehand with the farmer’s market)
Choosing the Project:
1. It should be age appropriate, that a 5-year old or group of 5-year olds can complete successfully.
2. It should require learning, practice, time, and attention to complete
3. It should be something the student will want to take home and keep (unless you create one project as a whole class, in which case the final project would stay at CBB, but each student could receive an album with photos of the project)
4. It must engage the students deeply with the story of the creation of Adam
5. It must include learning the blessing borei pri ha-adamah
6. If the project is going to be individual art projects, you should prepare for the unit by making one for yourself, and adding your own personal touch, and being ready to share with the kids what it means to you.
Kindergarten Deep Dive #3: Clothes and Colors
To the teacher:
Each one of us makes an important “color choice” every morning when we choose what clothing we will wear. Even choosing a shirt or sweater that seems “colorless” is still making a choice. One day we might choose “earth tones,” or “hot pink,” or pure white, or pitch black. In making these color choices, we are deciding about emotions we want to awaken in ourselves, and in the people around us.
In the story of Joseph and the “coat of many colors” that his father gave him, the coat certainly aroused emotions in both Joseph and in his brothers! Joseph loved that coat, but his brothers hated it.
When we dress in white for Shabbat, or when a bride wears a white dress at her wedding, we are using the color white to connect ourselves to God
Primary text: Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors (Genesis 37)
When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was grazing the sheep and goats with his brothers. Joseph told his father when his brothers did something wrong.
Now his father Israel loved Joseph more than all his other children, because he was the son of his old age; and he made for him a coat of many colors.
But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of them, they hated him, and could not speak calmly to him.
Israel said to Joseph, “I think your brothers grazing the flock in Shechem. Come, and I will send you to them.” Joseph said to him, “Here am I.” Joseph went after his brothers, and found them in Dothan. When they saw him from far away, even before he came near to them, they said one to another, “Behold, this dreamer comes. Come let us throw him into some pit, and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his coat, his coat of many colors.
Primary mitzvah: White Clothes on Shabbat
Wearing white on Shabbat
Enduring Understandings:
1. We are making a “color choice” when we decide what to wear in the morning, and that choice connects us to the emotions that come with that color
2. Joseph’s father gave him a coat of many colors to show his love for him, and the coat made Joseph feel wonderful...but it made his brothers jealous
3. We wear the color white on Shabbat to connect us to God
4. A bride wears white at her wedding...and the white connects her to God
Guiding Questions for Teachers:
1. Do you have a favorite article of clothing, and is color an important part of what makes you love it?
2. Is color an important consideration in choosing what you will wear on any given day? If so, how does it enter your clothing decision making?
3. Do you think that Joseph’s father Jacob was aware of how giving the coat to Joseph made his other sons feel? If so, why did he give it to him anyway?
4. Have you ever made a point of wearing white on Shabbat? Did it enhance your experience of Shabbat?
Possible Projects:
· Create a collage from magazines of people wearing clothes of different colors
· Present a play of the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors
· Create a slide show or a book with pictures of members of the kindergarten class wearing clothes of different colors: black shirts, white shirts, red shirts, blue shirts, green shirts, yellow shirts
· Conduct an exploration of colors and feelings. a list of things with different colors (flowers, birds, clothes, etc) and the emotions they feel when they see those colors....turn this into an art project with pictures, splashes of the colors, etc
Choosing the Project:
1. It should be age appropriate, that a 5-year old or group of 5-year olds can complete successfully.
2. It should require learning, practice, time, and attention to complete
3. It should be something the student will want to take home and keep (unless you create one project as a whole class, in which case the final project would stay at CBB, but each student could receive an album with photos of the project)
4. It must engage the students deeply with the story of Joseph and His Coat of Many Colors
5. It must take the students on an exploration
6. and how it appears, and why (at a kindergarten level of understanding)
7. It must include learning about wearing white on shabbat
8. If the project is going to be individual art projects, you should prepare for the unit by making one for yourself, and adding your own personal touch, and being ready to share with the kids what it means to you.
Kindergarten Deep Dive #4: Colorful Fruits of Israel
To the teacher:
When God first told Moses to speak to the Israelite people about the Promised Land, He described it as a “land flowing with milk and honey.” Throughout our long love affair with the Land of Israel, we have often begun by imagining the food it produces, both delicious and beautiful. And our unwavering commitment to care for the poor begins with making sure they have access to the bounty of the earth—the corners of our fields at harvest time. We conclude our year-long kindergarten celebration of color with a feast for the eyes and for the palate: the colorful fruits of Israel:
Purple grapes
Red pomegranates
Yellow lemons and etrogs
Oranges
Golden Wheat
Green olives
Dark brown dates
Green figs with bright red insides
Primary Text: The Spies and the Giant Fruit
Moses sent twelve men to spy out the Promised Land, and said to them, “Go up this way, up into the mountains; and see the land, and the people who live in it, are they are strong or weak? few or many? And how is the land? good or bad? Do the people live in cities, in fortresses, or in tents? And how is the land? Are there trees? And be brave, and bring back some of the fruit of the land.
Now the time was the time of the first ripe grapes.
So they went up, and searched the whole land. Then they came to the brook of Eshkol, and cut down a branch with a single huge cluster of grapes, and two men carried it on a pole; and they brought pomegranates, and figs.
Primary Mitzvah: Tsedakah
Tsedakah, as expressed in the mitzvah of Peah (leaving the corner of the field)
Enduring Understandings:
1. God gives colors to fruit to make them look beautiful and delicious
2. The Torah tells us by name the fruits and grains that grow in the Land of Israel. When Moses sent twelve scouts into the Land, they brought back giant grapes, figs and pomegranates
3. Many of the fruits and grains of the Land of Israel grow right here in Southern California, especially grapes, pomegranates, figs, dates, olives, lemons and oranges
4. Some people do not have enough food to eat. The Torah teaches the importance of sharing our food with them.
5. The mitzvah of peah is a way of sharing food without embarrassing the person who receives it
Guiding Questions for Teachers:
1. What do you consider to be the most beautiful fruit?
2. What do you consider the most delicious fruit?
3. Where would you go to buy fruit that is both beautiful and delicious?
4. How would you go about fulfilling the mitzvah of peah?
Possible projects:
· Creating a class cookbook with recipes for using the colorful fruits of the Land of Israel.
· An exploration of the Sunday morning Goleta Farmers Market, and identifying fruits and vegetables there...with special attention to the colors
· Create an educational booth to display either at CBB or at the Farmer’s Market, making people aware of the importance of colors in the different varieties of fruit, and/or of the Biblical verses which mention fruit
Choosing the Project:
1. It should be age appropriate, that a 5-year old can complete successfully.
2. It should require learning, practice, time, and attention to complete
3. It should be something the student will want to take home and keep (or create one project as a whole class, in which case the final project would stay at CBB, but each student could receive an album with photos of the project)
4. It must feature the story of the Spies who brought back the fruit of the Land
5. The mitzvah of peah: setting aside food for the poor
6. Prepare for the unit by making one for yourself, and adding your own personal touch, and being ready to share with the kids what it means to you.