In the weeks leading up to Pesach, the BPY students in all three divisions prepared for the chag by making Haggadot, learning about the related mitzvot and minhagim and preparing for the Seder. The Monday before Pesach was a unique culmination of all of their Pesach preparations. Following festive Zoom minyanim, Rabbi Zucker helped set the tone for the day with a school-wide assembly that kicked off the BPY “Choose Your Own Adventure” Pesach Fun Day. After students enjoyed delicious breakfasts with their families, they spent the day choosing from a vast array of activities. Students in the three divisions had over 60 engaging and interactive sessions to choose from. The sessions were led by the outstanding BPY staff. The students were excited to even have some guest appearances from past BPY shlichim who virtually joined for our pre-Pesach celebrations! The sessions were a combination of synchronous and asynchronous activities.
Students and parents were thrilled to have access to the pre-recorded Pesach activities during chol hamoed. Kara Epstein, BPY parent from Tenafly shared: “We are so grateful that our school planned such a fabulous day of special programming that involved learning and fun for all grades! The administration and teachers thought outside the (literal school building) box, and took advantage of our current virtual education setting.”
The students were so busy, whether they were listening to a Pesach story, making a craft for the Seder, playing an interactive game, participating in a Pesach STEM challenge or learning new Pesach trivia that could be shared at the Seder table. Students had opportunities to prepare for the chag through a variety of modalities.
In early childhood, the students enjoyed sing alongs, freeze dance, yoga, scavengerhHunts, Van Gogh aviv art, games like “Guess that Pesach Word” and Pesach Bingo and art projects including making napkin holders, kiddush cups, 10 makkot puppets and so much more. The students were thrilled to be with their friends as they prepared to be actively involved in their family sedarim.
The elementary and middle school students had their own schedule that offered both grade specific activities as well as options that were open to all. Students were able to try their cooking skills while making charoset and special Seder treats and desserts. BPY mathematicians applied their number sense as they worked on gematria, created coordinate graphing Pesach pictures, looked for “Hidden Numbers” in the Haggadah, created Sefirat HaOmer charts and solved challenging math problems. Students competed as they played Kahoot, Pharaoh Amar, Jeopardy and other engaging games. Through stories and word games, the students enjoyed creative Pesach activities. Our scientists went outside for the brick making challenge as they became slaves and had to create the best bricks possible.
Max Epstein, grade eight, said “It was amazing to see his former teachers who now live in Israel.” Zoey Epstein, grade six, loved participating in the game shows, and Hank, grade three, and Leo Epstein, in first grade, were focused on making the most adorable origami bookmarks for their Haggadot.
“Even though none of my children have Morah Tamar from first grade,” Stacy Goldstein, BPY parent from Teaneck said, “they all watched her ooey gooey brownie Pesach brownie video that we then made three times over Pesach! My middle schooler enjoyed seeing his rav, Rav Acoca, made a special Sephardic charoset. Not only was it a delicious recipe but it was nice to see his teacher in a less formal way. My first and third graders especially enjoyed the brick STEM challenge where they needed to build “charoset bricks” from dirt and mud in their yard just like the Jewish people did. We had an entire line set of bricks that they built with over pesach. Finally, there were so many options that when they finished their sessions, they went back and did all the other ones too. They are used to having fun, educational learning before each chag and it was amazing to see the BPY translated to “BPY BaBayit”
A special thank you to the teachers and staff for all of the time and care that went into creating this outstanding pre-Pesach program!
