Year 2 had a very exciting RE lesson this afternoon. Over the last couple of weeks we have been learning about Judaism and Jewish festivals. Today, we watched a video that explained how Jewish people celebrate Passover and use the Seder plate – a representation of the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. We talked about how the Israelites were kept as slaves and were not treated fairly, so Moses led them out of Egypt, and also watched a video of the story of this to help us understand it.

Next, we looked at photos of Seder plates and talked about the different items that are on them – a lamb shank bone, a hard boiled egg, parsley, bitter herbs such as romaine lettuce and charoset (a mixture of apples, cinnamon, walnuts, honey and red wine). Each represent a different aspect of the Exodus, and are there to remind Jewish people of this time.

Parsley – represents the initial flourishing of the Israelites in Egypt.

Charoset – this symbolises the mortar that the Israelite slaves used to construct buildings.

Bitter herbs – to symbolise the bitterness of slavery.

Lamb shank bone – this symbolises the lamb that Jewish people sacrificed as the special Passover offering when the Temple stood in Jerusalem.

Egg – the roundness of the egg symbolises the circle of life.

The items on the Seder plate are traditionally shared as a family with crackers, red wine or grape juice.

Today, the children tried grape juice, parsley, romaine lettuce, crackers, and a child friendly version of Charoset (apples, honey, grape juice and cinnamon).

They did a fantastic job at giving each food a try. Well done, Year 2!