JCC Association's Early Childhood Curriculum Project 'This New Month'

Introduction:

In celebration of Israel Independence Day, take your students on a pretend "trip" to Israel in your school. The following suggestions on how to conduct this activity are from JCC preschool teacher Rhona in Massachusetts. Feel free to submit your own ideas at the bottom of the page.

Directions:

Preparing for the trip
Of course the first thing you must do in order to travel internationally is to obtain a passport. Each child makes his/her own passport, depending upon his/her level, either by just coloring on it, or drawing their picture, or adding their name in their own handwriting. This passport is "stamped" upon arrival, collected by the customs agent, re-stamped, and returned to the traveler prior to departure from the airport.

Prior to departure for Israel, each child has the opportunity to draw a picture, and tell us what their "wish" is, or something for which they are thankful. These notes can be dropped off on our stop at the Western Wall during our trip.
The Plane Ride
For our travel, we have accommodations on an "airplane", which stresses not only comfort, but safety. To create the feel of an airplane, place the students' chairs in rows with an aisle separating the chairs (maybe 4 chairs per row with 2 chairs on each side of the aisle). We tell the children that it will be a long ride. We talk about wearing seat belts, or sitting in car seats.

Role play the roles of pilot, flight attendants (the teacher and student helpers), passengers, etc. The flight attendants serve drinks and food to the passengers. The passengers watch a movie, eat, drink and sleep on the plane.
Visiting Israel
Once we arrive at our destination, the children are exposed to many sights and tastes of the land of Israel. We have a large space, in which we set up a desert, a shop, a café, the Western Wall and an Israeli crafts area:
- The Desert - In the desert, ( the sand table), the children have the opportunity to go on an archeological dig. We place many pennies in the sand, and the children are excited to dig for them.
- The Shop - In the "shop" we display many items which have been collected from the trips of staff members, as well as some which have been donated to the school, which the children can look at. We discuss what they are, and how they know. Because the same articles are not always available, we are never sure as to what we will have. Some items which have been displayed in the past are Coca Cola logo items, comic books, army clothing, jewelry, pictures, Hebrew newspapers and books, photos, etc.
- Food - One of the highlights of the trip is the stop at our café. Here the children have the opportunity to taste oranges, orange juice and falafel and salad on pita. Because of the time restraint and the danger of using a frying pan with hot oil, the falafel are cooked early in the day by a staff member and are cool by the time the children eat them.
- Western Wall - This is built out of large blocks in our open space. When visiting the wall, the children drop off pictures and/or notes with their "wishes" or something that they are thankful for.
- Crafts - Last year we also had two craft stations. At one station, the children were able to make bracelets, by stringing beads on pipe cleaners They were able to take these home. On another large table, we made a large "stained glass window". This was done by placing clear contact paper upside down. The children then placed different shapes and colors of tissue paper on the sticky side. All of the children were able to contribute, and when the project was finished, we were able to hang it in our school for all to see.

Additional Ideas:

From JCC preschool teacher Jo Ann in Florida:
I made a huge airplane for my bulletin board (when teaching 2-year olds at a JCC preschool in Texas). On it I painted the Israeli airlines logo and other details depicting it was going to Israel. For each window I cut out circles and put each child's picture as if they were sitting in the airplane looking out the window. It turned out great and [the students] could imagine themselves in the plane.