My staff made my week at our staff meeting on Wednesday! My long term goal of directing a Jewish Preschool is to know Jewish Values are being stressed and taught!
My teachers said now that we have been working on stressing Jewish Values so long it really has come to the front of our minds and we find ourselves framing conversations with the children around Jewish values. I feel like we are teaching kids to be menshes and the kids are getting it. A little boy found a dinosaur on the playground. This child might not have given the dino to a teacher in the past however he brought it to the teacher and said we need to find who lost this because it is important to return lost items to their owners. The children had learned about Hashavat Avaydiah in class and this little guy got it! The next day when we found the owner we made the connection between the two kids.
In a prek class someone had drawn on a table. The teacher talked to the kids about respecting and taking care of our property, Bal Tashcheet. The teacher also told the kids she did not want them to tell her who they thoght did it, Shmirat Lashon. If someone saw another person with their own two eyes they should go to that person and remind them to take care of our toys and equiptment. The kids seemed to really get this concept. It is amazing to watch them process this information! We are hearing children talk about doing the right thing. These children are ripe for learning about kindness, compasion and how we should live.