‘Tis the season of giving!

Dear Spinoza Community Public School Staff,

Everyone’s favorite season is here — It’s PURIM TIME!!!

The kids are naturally all so excited to celebrate this festive season. Here are some easy and fun ideas for your class Purim party at our school plus some additional tips to make this party welcoming for students of all cultures and dietary needs.

• The Purim party is held this Fourthday. It’s a normal school day until after lunch, when all of the festive activities begin!
• Children may wear their Purim costumes to school on Fifthday, since this is the day of our school’s planned observance, since Purim falls on a weekend this year. Please do not bring toy weapons and do not dress as another culture for a costume.
• The school Purim events will begin at lunchtime, when the students will enjoy their class Purim seudah together. Each student in your class should bring a traditional pareve Purim dish from their culture to share, with a small tag that has the name of the dish, the country of origin of the dish, and a list of any major allergens it may contain. Please no peanuts or tree nuts.
• Some of you may have Christian students in your class; those students may bring a traditional pareve dish from whatever holiday they celebrate instead in Adar. In the alternate, they may bring the plates, cups, napkins, etc.
• Don’t forget to serve the hamantashen that the students baked themselves as a class earlier in the week!
• After the seudah, you may set up stations in your classrooms with fun seasonal art projects. The art room has supplies for some popular choices (build and decorate your own grogger; decorate gift bags or boxes for mishloach manot; decorate a Queen or King’s crown, etc). You may bring in your own supplies if you want to offer a different craft.
• This year’s school Purim Shpil will be held on Fourthday evening, since Fifthday is a fast day. Each class will be performing a song or a skit; students with a religious objection may be excused. It is traditional to start the Shpil with a rousing rendition of Mishenichnas Adar sung by the school chorus and orchestra, and to end it with the whole audience singing Shoshanat Yaakov, led by the kindergarteners. The fifth grade usually does a humorous retelling of the Purim story, but please coordinate with the teachers for all other grades to ensure diversity of content.
• Students may choose to bring mishloach manot to share with their classmates. Enough should be brought for the entire class. All food items should be marked with allergy information. It is polite, but not mandatory, to include a small non-food gift with your mishloach manot in case a child has food allergies.
• This year’s class has chosen World Central Kitchen as the beneficiary of the donations given for this year’s Adar tzedakah project. Please come to our Adar bake sale; all proceeds go to WCK to support their good work; ‘tis the season of giving!
• This year’s Adar food drive is also in full swing, to support needy families in our community. Students may arrive in school with checks or canned goods; these can be kept in the marked receptacle in the classroom and will be collected by the administration and brought to a charitable organization on Sixthday afternoon.
• Students with a religious objection to participation in the Purim festivities are welcome to complete an alternate craft project during the time allotted to Purim activities. A decorate your own tzedakah box is an idea; if the student has an objection to tzedakah, the student may spend that time in the library. Our librarians thoughtfully maintain a stock of coloring sheets with trees on them, and some yellow and white crayons, for students who are unable to participate in class celebrations.

Purim Sameach to everyone!!

Noa Kapach

#MedinatAmerica