Year 1 Enjoy Baking Bread in RE
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Over the last few weeks, Year 1 have been learning about the Jewish celebration of Shabbat in their RE lessons. Shabbat takes place each weekend from Friday evening to Saturday evening and is a special time when families dress in their best clothes and come together for a shared meal.
The children discovered the many traditions that are part of a Shabbat meal, including lighting candles, sharing wine (or grape juice) from a Kiddush cup, eating challah bread and giving blessings. They learnt that challah is a sweet, plaited loaf, traditionally bought fresh on a Friday, with two loaves symbolising the importance of the occasion.
To bring their learning to life, the children enjoyed baking their own challah. They carefully mixed and kneaded the dough, left it to prove, then plaited and baked it. As part of the experience, they also poured grape juice into a Kiddush cup, allowing it to gently spill over to symbolise spreading the happiness of Shabbat into the week ahead.
The highlight, of course, was sharing their freshly baked challah together – it was delicious, and many of the children were delighted to have a second helping! This was a wonderful practical way to bring the Shabbat meal to life, as part of the their learning of Judaism.
