How To Host A Happening For Two Year Olds

 Yesterday evening the three nursery classes at DD's pre-school (ages 2 - 4) hosted a happening in celebration of the Jewish festival of Shavuot. This is when we celebrate the giving of the Tora on Mt. Sinai. In agricultural terms we are celebrating the wheat harvest and other grains. Two traditions are to eat dairy foods - the Israelites were waiting to receive the dietry laws about eating meat and, conveniently, ancient communities had run out of meat by this time of year - and to wear white in honour of the purity of the Tora (or possibly to look like a big cheese cake ;-) ).

All the children came wearing white. 

They crushed herbs to sprinkle on the Israeli salad (tomato, cucumber, pepper) which they helped to chop. And also put together skewers of vegetables, olives and cheese. Yes, this is what Israeli children like to eat.


They poured different coloured grains through a funnel to make decorative jars. And they made wreaths of flowers to wear on their heads.

 They helped to make non-cook cheese cake which we all enjoyed at the end.



 But the best thing of all was making pitta bread. First DD rolled the dough - and poked it a bit for good measure. Then she gave it to the lady to put on the fire. Finally, after a bit of a wait, we got to eat it. Then we didn't stop discussing it all night - it had made that much of an impression.

As evenings for two year olds go, this one was a 10 out of 10!