While parents (and kids too) are busy scouring homes for every last cheerios and challah crumb, Shaloh House Jewish Day School in Brighton, MA, conducted its own cleaning.
Students in the grades 4-6 learned that Chometz foods that contain fermented wheat or flour represent egotism and all other desires and evil inclinations.
With the classroom set up as centers representing different forms of negative behaviors, students circulated around the room to find remains of “spiritual chometz” within themselves.
Findings ranged from traces of irresponsible behavior to acts of selfishness amongst friends and family.
After conducting a thorough internal search, students who ‘found’ in themselves ‘chometz behavior’ that they sought to change, jotted down examples of the negative behavior on colored cutouts of challas, bagels and bread rolls.
What is done with chometz before Passover? Burned, of course (Although this school’s ‘chometz’ was safely discarded in a large garbage bin).
But not before they first recorded the positive behavior of each “chometz behavior” on cutouts of Matzah which resembles the humility in our service to Hashem.
Students then carefully placed their ‘matzah’ with their new behavior resolutions into their Haggadah notebooks to serve as a reminder throughout Passover how do leave their own personal Egypt.
Go Shaloh House!
(I work there in the summers!)
ha ha
Of course, we know that we have to get rid of all our chometz, so therefore, we clean our houses. It is very special for people to teach their kids not only about cleaning there homes, but their souls.Teachers and principals who read this artical should take a powerful lesson from it and put it into action(parants also)!
B”H your such a caring and talented teacher. The children are very lucky to learn with you!!
I love when teachers thing of such creative ways on teaching work.