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A checklist of ideas to bring Israel into the classroom, help students
identify with Israel and the daily life of its young people, and cultivate a
love of the Jewish homeland.
Each of us, as educators, wants desperately to provide our students with a deeply felt and profound connection to eretz Yisrael. But today, the questions outnumber the answers: How can I encourage my students to go, given Israel's security concerns? How can I help students identify with life in Israel, when they see only how different life there is? How can I counteract the images they see on TV?
The answer: Bring Israel to your students. Show them, through experience and imagination, that Israel is not only a vibrant and colorful place, but their second home—an integral part of their spiritual lives. To that end, here's a checklist of ideas to bring Israel into the classroom, including suggestions from our newest Israel books—The Great Israel Scavenger Hunt (grades 2-3) and Welcome to Israel! (grades 4-5):
- Create a Hebrew-rich environment. Infuse classroom discussions with Hebrew word and phrases. Make "mah nishma" and "l'hitra'ot" part of your everyday vocabulary. Refer to your students as talmidim and their ears as oznayim.
Check It Out!
- Welcome to Israel!'s "My Hebrew Dictionary" feature contains fun and practical ideas for peppering your classroom with Hebrew vocabulary.
- Visit Ulpan Alef Interactive, where students learn basic modern Hebrew vocabulary through multimedia cartoons and video games. Kids tell us they love this site.
- Learn your students' Hebrew names and incorporate them in your normal classroom routine. Use a resource such as Jewish Lights' New Jewish Baby Book to provide your students with origins and definitions of their Hebrew names.
- Take students on a "virtual tour" of Israel. Be as ambitious as hosting an Israel Fair—with passports and stamps for each family, and each classroom a different city—or as modest as gathering around the computer for an online sampling of Israeli sights and sounds.
Check It Out!
- Both The Great Israel Scavenger Hunt and Welcome to Israel! bring students on a "virtual tour" of Israel, Scavenger Hunt with a sticker-map of Israel and a peel-off sticker for each stop.
- Transport your school to Israel for a day. Turn classrooms into Israeli cities, each with a "tour guide." Ask the guide to show photos, read a chapter from Welcome to Israel!, or serve hummus in a warm pita. Allow younger students to write personal notes for your makeshift Kotel.
- Visit www.babaganewz.com/virtual for a very cool electronic peek into Eilat's aquarium, the Carmel shuk, and more.
- Bring in Israeli food, music, ritual objects, and art pieces. Create a falafel stand. Hand out Bazooka gum with Hebrew comics inside. Play Israeli rock CD's. Tell stories about the art. Make Israel fun and real.
Check It Out!
- Great Israel Scavenger Hunt includes a menu and a "taste" of Israeli foods on pages 24-25. Use it as an excuse to throw an Israeli food party. Invite parents!
- Especially for your kinesthetic learners, nothing makes religious school more memorable than some roll-up-your-sleeves Israeli dancing. If a dance leader doesn't come to mind, ask your educator, rabbi, or local JCC for suggestions.
- Visit www.myjewishlearning.com/culture/food/IsraeliFood.htm for a history of Israeli foods—as well as a great recipe a cake made from Israeli ingredients!
- Weave Israel into Jewish values, holiday, and Torah studies. Show your students that Israel is a "common ground" for everything Jewish: It is the place where Jacob wrestled with God. It is the place where the oil burned for eight days and eight nights. It is the place where the value of rodef shalom—seeking peace—becomes more important every day.
Check It Out!
- Welcome to Israel!'s "Living Jewish Values" feature connects Israel to core Jewish values. Page 78 explains how the value of bal tashhit—do not destroy—helped Israel's pioneers make the desert bloom.
- Great Israel Scavenger Hunt's "Working for Peace" on page 65 allows your 2-3 graders an opportunity to develop different solutions to the Middle East crisis.
- Have your older students (6-8 grades) teach younger classes about Israel's national holidays—Yom Ha'atzmaut, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Yerushalayim—using chapter 14 of Rediscovering the Jewish Holidays.
- Invite an Israeli or someone who has visited Israel to speak to your
class about life in Israel. Make Israel relevant to your students by comparing their lives to those of Israeli kids. Explain that Israeli kids like to play video games, talk on the phone, watch TV, and use e-mail!
Check It Out!
- Ask your educator, rabbi, or local college professor to recommend an Israeli teen to speak to your class about life in Israel. Adults are good, but teens are cool.
- Prepare your students for the visit with Great Israel Scavenger Hunt's "A Day in the Life of an Israeli Kid" (pages 40-41), which will invite your students to compare their everyday lives with those of Israeli students. Hey—they're just like us!
- Help your older students (6-8 grades) find an Israeli pen pal at http://penpalsnow.com/go/search.html. Create friendships that can last a lifetime!
The good news is that we can supply our students with warm, positive, and encouraging images of Israel—with good books, good ideas, good programs, and ahavat Yisrael—the love of Israel.
Return to In the Classroom: Teaching Tips
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