Educator’s Guide to ...A Ne w Leaf ! Y OM H A ’ ATZMAUT • V OLUME gy • FROM J EWISH N ATIONAL F UND This Educator’s Guide to A would be a good name for the class model? In New Leaf is provided to this iss 2. Buildings: Every kibbutz has places to sleep, eat, ue: help you engage, educate and work. The class kibbutz model can have sepa - • Yom and energize your students rate sleeping quarters for children and adults, the Ha’ in grades 1 - 4 to a deeper way the first chalutzim lived, or children can stay atzmaut commitment to the land with their parents, as is now done on most kibbutzim. and people of with Students should plan gardens and fields, industrial מ ָאותH • ו יׂם&ה ָע rֲyצ istoְ Spirit interactive and relevant and agricultural buildings, and public buildings classroom activities. The such as a dining hall, clinic, auditorium and guest Yom Ha’atzmaut issue houses if the kibbutz welcomes guests. focuses on the history and 3. When your class kibbutz model is complete, invite culture of the modern State of Israel. other classes to see it. Hold a kibbutz party serving food that is grown on kibbutzim in Israel. Interview with Blue Box Bob: (5 - 10 minutes) Immigration/: Have the students read the interview aloud together, Try one (or both) of these recipes that explore different playing the parts of the Reporter and Blue Box Bob. countries from which Jewish people have emigrated The interview touches upon many aspects of the to Israel; both can be found at www.jnf.org/yourpage. modern state of Israel, and also introduces some Go to “Crafts and Recipes” on the left menu bar, and vocabulary words. Expand upon as many of the topics then to the drop-down menu under “Recipes.” as you wish. • Melting Pot Fondue • Fruit Fusion

After reading the interview, check comprehension of Milon Man: (10 - 20 minutes) Read the cartoon the new words by checking students’ answers to the story of Eliezer Ben Yehuda together. Discuss: Why puzzle. was it important for modern Jewish families in Israel to Zionist Congress: speak Hebrew? (Jewish people had come to Eretz Learn more about the Zionist Congress during a visit Yisrael from many countries. This was a way to build a from Blue Box Bob. A parent or teacher volunteer new Jewish culture that included and unified the dressed as Blue Box Bob visits students in grades diverse groups.) Expand on the story with the craft pre- K - 4, connecting them to modern Israel while activity, Card Kayf (20 to 30 minutes). This craft ake. Help the students chooseכֵּיteaching the history of our homeland with age-appro - is very easy tom priate educational materials. A skit about the Zionist Hebrew words to write and illustrate on the cards. Congress is included in the materials. For more Younger students will need a limited number of words information, contact [email protected]. to choose from and copy. More advanced students Kibbutzim: can look up words in a Hebrew-English dictionary. Build a model of your own kibbutz as a class, using Students working in groups can put together a deck recycled materials such as boxes, wrapping paper of cards, and then play together. Plan a few minutes and paper towel rolls. Discuss the components: to play Card Kayf games each day. כֵּי ,Name: The first kibbutz was named Degania .1 derived from the Hebrew word “dagan” meaning Educators: Find ready-to-use student “grain,” because of the five species that grew materials at the “Teacher’s Take-out” there: wheat; barley; oats; corn and sorghum. What link on:

Visit jnf.org/iae to learn more about JNF Israel Advocacy and Education programs. www .jnf.org / We welcome your feedback. Contact: Nina Woldin, nwoldin @jnf.org Chomah U’Migdal: (15 minutes, plus optional OUR GARDEN 20 minute poetry project) Direct students to do the Spring and early morning – puzzle independently or in groups. Then discuss: do you remember that spring, that day? – How would you go about building a tower and stockade our garden at the foot of Mount Carmel, fence settlement in the middle of the night? Where facing the blue of the bay? would you get the supplies? How would you transport them to the location? How would you see what you You are standing under an olive, were building in the middle of the night? (There is no and I, like a bird on a spray, right or wrong answer. Students will think through the am perched on the silvery tree-top. project and identify more closely with the chalutzim.) We are cutting black branches away. Explain that most of the chalutzim were young and very idealistic. They believed strongly in what they From below, your saw’s rhythmic buzzing were doing, and that is what gave them the strength reaches me in my tree, to stay awake all night and work so hard to build a and I rain down from above you homeland for the Jewish people. fragments of poetry.

3rd and 4th grade: Expand on this idea by teaching Remember that morning, that gladness? about the poet . Rachel (Bluwstein) immigrated They were – and disappeared, to Eretz Yisrael in 1909, and lived for four years at an like the short spring of our country, agricultural girls’ school on the shores of the Kinneret. the short spring of our years. She loved Eretz Yisrael and worked hard to build the country. Unfortunately, she caught tuberculosis during Discuss the poem: What does Rachel mean when she World War I while caring for refugee children, and in speaks of “the short spring of our country, the short her later years could neither work in the fields nor spring of our years”? (She is talking about the early teach children. She died in 1931 in , and was years of the country and about her youth. Perhaps buried next to the Kinneret. Most of her poetry was she compares the two because Eretz Yisrael means published in her later years. It featured clear, simple so much to her that the two are intertwined.) language and expressed deep emotions. Read the following poem Rachel wrote about pruning trees on Have students write a paragraph telling what the the kibbutz with her friend Chana: poem means to them. Then choose one of the following activities: 1. Illustrate the poem, either with a drawing or collage. enter the udents to 2. Show what it means by creating movements to go courage st En x Contest. along with it. idden Blue Bo H 3. Show what it means by creating a tune to go with people to he Jewish it. Sing it (or play a recording you make at home) to onnected t box has c dents the class. The blue years. Stu or over 100 ew of Israel f e of A N the land in this issu xes hidden g Parents + Kids = Fun 2gether: e blue bo in a drawin (10 minutes, plus count th r, to enter heir answe dinner) Israel is home to Jewish people from all over d send in t t that gets Leaf an ly flashligh ally-friend the world. Read about Earth’s Promise, an organization vironment s instead for an en f their hand ovement o which is working to help Israel’s environment, and at rom the m s on the its power f the addres the same time, helping Ethiopian immigrants to adjust are sent to ! Answers y visiting of batteries r on line b to their new lives. Follow up with a Yom Ha’atzmaut s can ente or student sts on ack page, g on Conte dinner, and invite parents to join in. Serve Ethiopian b and clickin g/yourpage vegetable stew. Families can suggest traditional www.jnf.or nu bar. recipes they may have from earlier generations who the left me came from other countries. You can also serve Melting Pot Fondue and Fruit Fusion (see above). To support water projects in Israel call 1-800-8733 or visit www.jnf.org