It's Monday and we're still learning and playing about Israel in honor of Yom Ha'atzmaut. We've recently renewed our family membership to our local zoo. One of my son's favorite attractions there are the camels, an animal native to the desert climate of Israel! He loves to sing the popular children's song/action rhyme, "Alice the Camel," a cute little ditty that demonstrates counting backward with a humorous surprise at the end:
Alice the Camel Alice the camel has five humps, Alice the camel has five humps, Alice the camel has five humps, So go, Alice, go! Alice the camel has four humps...[continue in this fashion, you can also use your fingers as you count backward] Alice the camel has no humps, Alice the camel has humps, Alice the camel has no humps Now Alice is a horse!
If you have a group of children with you, grab a large sheet and you can act out the song with children as "humps" who take turns moving to the front as they are counted "out" to be the head. This was a favorite activity in my classroom teaching days!
Alternatively, you can make your very own Alice the Camel brown bag puppet to use as you sing.
You Will Need:
a brown paper lunch bag
a google eye
brown construction paper
scissors
glue
markers, crayons and anything else you'd like to add for decorating
Instructions:
Trace or copy the shape of a camel to brown construction paper. If you do not have brown construction paper, you can use white paper and color your camel or you can use another brown paper bag. If free-handing a camel silhouette is not your strong suit (it's not mine!) you may want to use an image printed from the internet or a stencil. Older crafters can assist with this step and cut out the camel shape. For younger crafters or those who are short on time, you may wish to prep the camel in advance.
Glue your camel to the rectangular bottom flap of the brown paper bag so that when you insert your hand into the bag, you can flap your camel up and down. Glue on the eye and decorate your camel as you like. You may wish to draw on a mouth or other details. My little artist even enjoyed decorating the bag!
Once dry, use your puppet to sing "Alice the Camel" or put on a puppet show!
Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day/Israel's Birthday is next week. To celebrate this special day, we are learning through play here about Israel! We did a brief study of Israel earlier this year during our Around the World unit, but I love the opportunity to revisit previously enjoyed activities and to add in a few new ones. If you're looking for some ideas to incorporate learning about Israel into your home or school routine, here are some of the ones we have greatly enjoyed! Our Israeli Artifact Observation Station (pictured to the left) was a big hit with my toddler. While sorting through bins of stuff in our closets, we came across many souvenirs, photos and keepsakes my husband collected on his trips to Israel as a child. I have actually never been to Israel in spite of having a great deal of family living in the country, but on his trips, my husband collected and saved water from the Dead Sea, tea bags, Coke wrappers, coins, photos and post cards--all of which have been great to share with our children now (who have also yet to travel there). Rather than "formally" instructing on the topic, I am aiming to make this mini-unit more hands-on and child-led. In my traditional preschool classrooms, I would often swap out our picture books in the library area for copies of popular favorites in Hebrew and other Hebrew picture books. The students always got such a kick out of seeing The Cat in the Hat all in Hebrew!
They also loved books that introduced Hebrew vocabulary with pictures in a child-friendly way. My son also really enjoys learning words in Hebrew and has repeatedly requested to go through the colorful pages of our copy of My First Hebrew Word Book. We own it now but have previously checked it out from our local library. Introducing vocabulary in a second (third or fourth) language is a great asset to children. While previous schools of thought encouraged parents in bilingual/multi-lingual homes to focus on only one language, studies now show that in most cases of early childhood development, learning additional languages is a benefit to young children as they become verbal. While my husband and I are only fluent in English, we introduced words in American Sign Language, Spanish, Hebrew, Yiddish and Portuguese from the time our older son was a baby. He now knows a plethora of words in these languages and communicates quite effectively in English. He loves learning words in any language!
Maps and Flags of Israel are hung at child level so my son can access them
Our local Jewish Community Center usually has a family event for Yom Ha'atzmaut featuring performance arts, a petting zoo, camel rides, music and Israeli cuisine. If your community or synagogue does not happen to have any events for this day, or you would like to introduce the theme at home, there are a variety of ways you can do so through a multi-sensory approach:
Come SEE Israel:
Displaying souvenirs or artifacts, maps and flags, photographs and artwork at child level can draw in their natural sense of wonder and exploration
A photograph of the Western Wall in a block area can inspire young architects to construct their own version
Even pre-readers can benefit from an environment rich in written language. When you're learning about Israel, include some labels in Hebrew for popular household items/areas.
Books about Israel and books in Hebrew are a wonderful material to include. Children also like to see greeting cards from Israel (that open backward!) and especially appreciate photographs or books that are specifically meaningful to their family. This can include photo albums from family trips, sefarim (holy books), travel pamphlets from trips or even mementos like food labels and wrappers, ticket stubs, currency, postcards, etc.
It is common during Yom Ha'atzmaut both here and in Israel to wave Israeli flags in celebration. We had fun decorating and making our own this year!
When it's dry, I will laminate it and attach a long wooden dowel. You can also use a laminated flag as a playdough mat, as pictured below:
Come HEAR Israel:
We generally have the custom not to listen to recorded or live music during the Sefira period. We are more lenient with children, particularly for educational purposes. Israeli music and Israeli dance are a great way to hear the sounds of Israel right in your home, car, or community.
Singing songs with and to your children can also introduce the theme of the holiday. My toddler especially likes singing this song I learned while teaching preschool (and unfortunately do not know whom to credit):
I Have a Lovely Degel [Hebrew: Flag]
(to the tune of "I Have a Little Dreidel")
I have a lovely degel
It comes from a special land
It's blue and white
And I hold it tight
As I wave it in my hand!
It says we have a homeland
A land we love so well,
I stand up proud and I shout out loud
I love Eretz Yisrael!
I stand up proud and I shout out loud,
I LOVE ERETZ YISRAEL!
My toddler loves singing popular Hebrew songs for children. He also enjoys hearing popular American songs with Hebrew words. YouTube is a great FREE resource for this and one of his very favorite videos to watch is "Morah Shifra's Sing-along:"
He also loves the TuTiTu Language Learning English to Hebrew series. The adults in the house find it a little less entertaining but the toddler requests it whenever we offer screen time! He has, in fact, learned a great deal of Hebrew vocabulary words from this and taught them to me!
Come TOUCH Israel:
Learning is very hands-on here and learning about Israel is no exception! Encourage fine-motor development with Israel themed activities like sticking Israeli flag toothpicks into floral foam, clay or playdough.
Early writing comes into play when you create and keep a travel journal with your child(ren). Include what you already know, what you'd like to learn more about, pictures from your adventures, maybe even some correspondence with friends and family in Israel. My students always particularly enjoyed dictating questions for me to email to my cousin in Israel for her children to respond to. Pen-pal relationships are a great childhood asset!
Early writers can write or dictate/draw prayers to stick inside the Western Wall. Bonus points if you get your little one's hands busy building their own Western Wall!
Building and construction play is a great way to incorporate STEM activities into an Israel theme. Provide building prompts in the form of printed photographs of Israeli landmarks or books featuring photographs. You can experiment with a variety of building materials and mediums and even incorporate some dramatic play with construction themed props, tools, trucks and costumes.
Sensory play is a great way to introduce some of the textures of Israel. Sand play is a great way to learn about the desert climate. Salt and saltwater can help teach about the Dead Sea. Incorporate some science into your experience by testing how objects sink or float in water versus salt water. This is a great way to demonstrate and experience the buoyancy of the Dead Sea!
Fine motor skills are not the only ones that come into play when learning about Israel. Get the whole body involved in some themed gross motor activities by setting up your own Israeli Defense Force obstacle course or (if you have enough kids for humps) acting out the song "Alice the Camel:"
Arts & Crafts are also a hands-on favorite for all ages. We love process art here. Last year, my son had a blast creating this painting in blue (and white) using cookie cutters shaped like a Star of David and his hands in blue paint and glitter. It still hangs above his chair at our table and he talks about it almost every day!
Come SMELL Israel:
We loved making (and using) these "Jaffa Orange Scented Dead Sea Salts" earlier this year using Epsom salts and sweet orange essential oils
Come TASTE Israel:
Make some of your favorite Israeli cuisine together and enjoy it as a family! Israeli salad, schawarma, falafel, couscous, and shakshuka are some of our favorites. My toddler also LOVES squeezing oranges for fresh juice like the type he might enjoy if he were to visit Jaffa!
Play is a great way to explore and learn. You don't have to get too complex to incorporate Israeli themes into your dramatic play. You can make a pretend passport, board an airplane made from chairs and visit Israel right from your living room. While you're there, perhaps you'll try some of the activities we have tried and loved. Whether you're here (or there), happy travels, happy Yom Ha'atzmaut, and HAPPY PLAYING!
Learning about farm animals at a kibbutz through farm-themed play!
This made for a great Table Time activity this morning when the "teacher" overslept a bit and hadn't had coffee before her pupil woke up!
Shalom from Israel! Our home preschool Around the World unit would not be complete without a visit to Israel. The curriculum I have created for the year will include a longer unit on Israel closer to Yom Ha'atmazut (Israeli Independence Day), but we did make a two day stop on our worldwide trip this week. We began our visit by learning about the Israeli flag using a playdough mat (just a print of Israel's flag that I laminated), some blue playdough, a rolling pin and Star of David shaped cookie cutters.
We used a couple of books we already had at home to assist us in our learning journey.
This book has great photographs of various destinations in Israel and takes the reader through the spectrum of the rainbow--including Hebrew words for color names!
We teach our son a variety of words in Hebrew and Yiddish. This book has great illustrations and a variety of useful vocabulary words that would enhance any Jewish home!
Our Israel visit was also a great opportunity to incorporate a long-term project we've been working on as part of our Jewish curriculum. We've been creating a book of the Twelve Pesukim, twelve Torah passages selected by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson as the twelve most important pieces of Jewish literature for children to learn by heart. My son has been learning to repeat and say these passages from the time he could first speak and he feels so proud to be creating his own book.
We had a lot of fun pretending to visit a kibbutz and playing with the farm animals there. He loved singing some of his favorite farm themed songs while we were at it!
We took a creative spin on learning about the Dead Sea and made some "Jaffa Orange Scented Dead Sea Bath Salts." To make your own at home...
You will need:
Epsom salt
Sweet orange essential oil
yellow and red food coloring
a ziplock bag and container/scoop for the salt
We scooped some Epsom salt into the ziplock bag. My son decided we needed four cups! To that I added several drops of essential oil and a few drops each of yellow and red food coloring.
Next it was time to seal the bag and shake it up!
The results smelled wonderful and took on a lovely shade of orange! My son is very excited to try a bit in his bath tonight. These would also make a great homemade gift and could be made with any of your favorite essential oils and with or without food coloring.
The bath salts smelled good enough to eat, so the last part of our trip included some edible (or drinkable) fun with squeezing our own orange juice! I recently purchased a simple citrus juicer from Walmart to use with my son. There are certainly a lot of electronic options out there, but I love the gross motor, fine motor and sensory development aspects of using the old fashioned kind. We love to do kitchen activities together and they can be very involved sometimes when it comes to baking and cooking. This was about $4 well spent and proof that you don't need a lot of tools or a lot of ingredients to have a great experience getting your kids into the kitchen!
We talked about and observed the parts of the fruit: the rind/peel, the pulp/fruit and the juice inside!
We did not have any Jaffa oranges available but we had recently bought some Cara Cara pink oranges and they were up to the task of being squeezed into some very sweet and tasty orange juice! It took some practice and demonstration to learn how to use his hands to squeeze and turn the orange halves simultaneously, but he mastered it and was quite pleased.
As an added bonus, he actually enjoyed trying (and finishing) what we made! Many times this is not the case with our baking and cooking adventures...
We had a great time on our visit to Israel. We have just a couple of more stops now to the continents of Australia and Africa where we will playfully and artfully explore the vast array of wildlife on a pretend Safari! Until then, happy playing!
