Learning about food berachos (blessings) in K1!

Kindergarten learned all about the different blessings we say on the different foods we eat. There are 6 different berachos said on food:

1. Hamotzi ("...Hamotzi Lechem Min Ha'eretz")- Said on baked breads that are made from the following five grains (wheat, oat, spelt, rye and barley) and have water as their main liquid ingredient. Examples of foods: challah, matzah, rolls, pita breads, rye bread, baguettes, etc.

2. Mezonos ("...Borei Minei Mezonos")- Said on foods that are made from the five grains besides for bread (wheat, oat, spelt, rye and barley), (note to parents: mezonos is also said on breads that their main liquid ingredient is not water, but rather juice....). Examples of foods: crackers, pasta, some cereals- like Life, Cheerios, and Rice Crispies, cookies, cake, donuts, wafers etc. 

3. Hagafen ("...Borei Pri Hagafen")- Said on wine or grape juice

4. Ha'etz ("...Borei Pri Ha'etz")- Said on fruits that grow from a perennial tree. These fruits also cannot grow too close to the ground. Examples of foods: apples, pears, peaches, plums, all nuts (except for peanuts), blueberries, etc.

5. Ha'adama ("...Borei Pri Ha'adama")- Said on vegetables, legumes, fruits that grow close to the ground, and peanuts. Examples of foods: strawberries, beans, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, melons, bananas, etc. 

6. Shehakol ("...Shehakol N'heyeh Bidvaroh")- Said on foods that do not fall in one of the above categories. Examples of foods: fish, chicken, meat, eggs, cheese, all drinks (except for wine/ grape juice), candy, etc. 

The yiladim learned about the difference between hamotzi and mezonos and then we did an activity to help us realize the difference between the two! The children were grouped together and had the task of differentiating the pictures of foods into the correct section of hamotzi or mezonos. 

The children had a tasting test for "...Borei Pri Hagafen"- between three different types of grape juice. The choices were Concord regular grape juice, sparkling grape juice or golden grape juice. We then graphed our results to see which grape juice was the favorite type in our class. 

For Borei Pri Ha'aitz the yiladim got to make their very own "ha'aitz faces." We had a great time creating our happy faces made out of different types of apples, clementines and mangoes!

Art center by playtime- drawing and creating our "borei pri Ha'aitz" fruit:

Our Borei Pri Ha'aitz Fruit store- the children bought and sold the fruit they created. (Notice the Fruit Store sign they made in the background:)) :

The yiladim were making berachos posters for our bullentin board, which also separated the different foods according to their beracha. They cut out from circulars, newspapers and preprinted pictures all different foods, based on the assigned berachah they were given.

We read the book "Boruch Learns His Brachos," written and illustrated by Rabbi Shmuel Kunda. This was an interesting and informative book about how a boy named Boruch goes into Tzvi's grocery and learns far more than he would have imagined all about berachos!

To purchase this book press: http://www.eichlers.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=boruch+learns+his+brachos 

After we learned about all of the berachos we got to play a game of berachos musical chairs and musical spots. The children got to dance around the chairs/ food pictures as long as the music was playing, but as soon as the music stopped the children had to stop and quickly stand by one of the cards/chairs. We then went around and said the berachos of all the foods on our cards:). The children did a good job on remembering their berachos!