HAFTR’s pre-K children creating more than soup

Pre-kindergarten children at the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway Early Childhood Center cooked lentil soup as part of their Torah learning last week.

By chopping celery, peeling carrots and stirring and mixing the ingredients, the youngsters improved their small muscle control and eye-hand coordination; they learned how to measure and developed problem-solving skills through experimentation; and they observed cause and effect when they saw the ingredients come together to form the soup.

 Making soup was not just an exercise in math and science, however; when seen through a Jewish lens, cooking becomes so much more.

The ingredients used determine which bracha to recite before eating, and sharing their food provided the children with an opportunity to practice the chesed of kindness that they just saw Avraham, Sarah, and Rivka perform.

Sharing in Hashem’s bounty gives us a reason to thank Hashem for watching over us.