For Pesach at Gan Mah Tov, a preschool in Oakland, the 3-to-5-year-olds fed a meal worm some matzah.
The activity, said former preschool director David Worton, represented his attempts to combine tradition with what’s known as “emergent curriculum”: a new method of instruction in which teachers follow the students’ lead.
“You build a scaffold for the children, you don’t paint the house for them,” said Worton, taking a break on a recent school day before he stepped down from his post.
Affiliated with Beth Jacob Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue in Oakland, Gan Mah Tov offers the preschool program as well as a separate program for 2-year-olds called Chaverim Tovim.
Both stress Jewish life, featuring Hebrew, prayer, Shabbat and holiday observances incorporated into daily and weekly activities.
Preceding this past Passover break, the students made seder plates they presented to their parents and families during a special holiday program. At many schools, Worton said, the children would be given drawings of a plate and its contents, then instructed to color and paste them together.
At Gan Mah Tov, the preschoolers had loads of collage materials — fabric, yarn, buttons and paper — from which they created their own plates.
“I think the children learn by doing,” Worton said, “If you have a plate that’s almost complete, they’re not going to learn much about it.”
After the holiday presentation, the theme continues, as Worton and three teachers begin the school day in a circle with 21 kids, singing about insects after a morning “shalom” greeting.
In a loose lesson combining nature and Passover, Worton shows the children a meal worm and asks them to describe it, while teachers joke that they hope it doesn’t end up in the charoset.
The session ends when the group agrees that some matzah might be nice for the worm when the class is away on break, then segues into a craft activity in which the kids make their own bugs from paper cups, plates, pipe cleaners and other assorted materials.
While Worton and his team of five colleagues planned for heavy interaction with the preschoolers, he admitted that he sometimes didn’t employ the emergent curriculum as much as he’d like.
“We’re a theme program,” he said, noting that the cycle of holidays is what primarily drives the lesson plans.
And because the school is affiliated with an Orthodox synagogue, Worton said, “We have a higher level of Jewish content than other schools.”
Worton, who used to direct the preschool at San Francisco’s California Street Jewish Community Center and is familiar with some half-dozen Jewish preschools in the East Bay, said Gan Mah Tov is an exception in that brachot (blessings) and tefillot (prayers) are emphasized.
“They’re not the most preschool-friendly thing to do.”
Parents of the preschoolers include both Beth Jacob members and others who are not. Some are already teaching their children a lot about Judaism at home; others are families who themselves want more knowledge.
“It’s common in Jewish America,” Worton observed.
While most parents are supportive of Gan Mah Tov’s program, Worton added that sometimes they have a difficult time understanding that preschoolers don’t always have to have the right answer during their lessons.
For example, when the kids substitute Haman for the Pharaoh in the story of Passover, Worton didn’t make a big deal about correcting them.
“It shows me they’ve incorporated the story,” he said. “There should be an emphasis on process, not product.”
Worton smilingly recalled a Gan Mah Tov Purim play, when one child said Vashti was sent away by the king because she wouldn’t shop at Macy’s, so she shopped at K-Mart in secret. Some parents weren’t pleased that he didn’t set the story straight immediately, he added.
But he didn’t. “When things are more canned, the social possibilities become limited. We want our children to be successful and socially competent people.”
And though Gan Mah Tov is responsible for imparting tradition, “We can use non-traditional methods,” Worton said.