Snakes And Ladders: Israel Is Alive And Well In Your Classroom….

By: Chari Schwartz, Ayala Shalev, and Avital goddard Snakes and Ladders Make Israel Alive and Well in Your Classroom… This booklet is a suggestion for a short activity that is aimed for gaining basic information about Israel. We chose three of the themes that will appear in the game. Preparing the students for the activity is very important. Playing the game will be easier and much more fun when the students know what they are asked about… You can add some more activities or give your students a brief explanation about the other subjects in the game. Which are – 1. Israel wining Olympic medals. 2. Famous people in Israel, such as prime minister Ariel Sharon, David Ben–Gurion 3. The wars in Israel. 4. Operation Entebbe 5. Israelis and the Olympic games in Munich 1977 Good luck!!!!!! 10 minutes about… Aliya Background: A tradition of Aliya This is the term used to describe a Jew's immigration to Israel. Literally it means 'uplifting'. Jews move upwards to Israel. The tradition of Aliya goes back for thousands of years. Ever since they were exiled, Jews have always yearned to return to their homeland. The Bible talks about God's promise to bring the Jewish people home: "For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land... Then you will live in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you will be my people, and I will be your God." (Yechezkel 36:24,28) Coming to Israel from all around the world: 1.Explain the students the meaning of the word “Aliya” 2.Read / let 3 students read the short stories. Each story represents immigration to Israel. After each story, the students have to guess where the immigrant came from. (The picture can help). Answers: Story A: Ethiopia Story b: Yemen Story c: Russia Showing the student these countries on the world map can emphasize the effort the state of Israel made and still making to bring Jews from all over the world. 3.Question for discussion: • What was the reason for each immigrant to come to Israel? • What are the difficulties of making Aliya? (Language, culture, loneliness…) • What is the meaning of the operation name? • The biggest amount of immigrant came from Russia. 3.Summerize: In 1950, the Israeli Government passed the 'Law of Return' which grants every Jew the right to return to their homeland and, upon entry, to automatically acquire citizenship. It gives legal confirmation to the age-old yearning for the return to Zion. Israel, as a nation, is committed to encouraging and enabling Aliya for any Jew anywhere in the world. Today, Jews are still coming to Israel – their home. (The reasons have not changed. Jews from France are still coming because of the growing anti-Semitism, Jews from Argentina – because of poor economy…) but the main reason for Aliya was always Israel as a real home for Jews. STORY A: “The famine crisis was growing. Life was difficult. We lived under terrible conditions and hunger. The government refused to recognize that we are Jews. Our name was Beta Israel – the home of Jews, and we wanted to go home. We started walking towards Sudan, into the wilderness. The journey was dangerous and hard. Finally, when we got to the refugee camp, but the condition was bad. Israeli agents realized that a large operation was necessary. Operation Moses began on November 21, 1984. We were bused directly from the Sudanese camps to a military airport near Khartoum. Under a shroud of secrecy established by a news blackout, they were then airlifted directly to Israel. Between November 21, 1984 and January 5, 1985, approximately 8,000 Ethiopian Jews came home to Israel. Unfortunately, News leaks ended Operation Moses and thousands of Jews were still waiting to come. Most of them came a few years later, in The “Solomon operation”...” STORY B: In May 1949, when the Imam agreed to let 45,000 of the 46,000 Jews in the country leave, I flew home. The operation was called “Operation Magic carpet”, not because we flew on a carpet (that kind of things happen only in movies), but because I have never seen a plane before and I felt as if I was carried on a carpet. Most of the people were children, like me. We were brought to Israel on some 380 flights. This was one of the most wonderful and complex immigration operations the state has ever known. British and American planes airlifted the Jews from Aden, our capital. We reached the city from all over after extremely dangerous and risky journeys. The operation was secret and was released to the media only several months after its completion. STORY C: Hi, my name is Marina.I immigrated to Israel 6 years ago. We left our country because we did not have money, the economy was poor and the anti-Semitism was growing. In the past, my government imposed all sorts of strict and complicated conditions on Jews who wanted to leave the country. At the end of the 1980’s,president Michael Gurbatchuv removed those restrictions. Between 1989 and 1991, 380,000 immigrants arrived to Israel and they continue to arrive every year. Today there are around million immigrants from my country. Imagine! Million people who don't speak Hebrew and aren't used to our culture or our society. It would be utter chaos! However, Israel has taken on this challenge. Today I talk Hebrew, and I have friends from my country and from Israel too. I love Israel! 10 minutes about… The Map of Israel Bingo: know Israel! Things to prepare: • A board with 9 squares filled with 9 different places in Israel. • A bag with 15 cards – each card is a different place. • A map of Israel • Small prize for the winner. 1.each student on his turn takes out from the bag a card. He has to read it loudly and find the place on the map. The teacher sticks the card on the map. The other students who recognize the place on their bingo board mark it. Give a short explanation (one sentence) for each place. The student who marked a row/a whole board is the winner. Place Description Jerusalem Israel’s capitol The Dead Sea The lowest place in the world. (Sea Level) The water of the dead sea is very salty. It is also called “yam hamelach” - the salt sea. Tel Aviv Egypt Israel’s border in south Negev The south desert of Israel. It comprises more than one half of Israel's land area Hermon The highest mountain of israsel.called “the eyes of the country” Jordan river The border between Jordan and Israel. The river starts under the Hermon and ends at the dead sea. Yehuda mountains The mountains between Jerusalem and the dead sea. Syria and Lebanon Israel’s border in the north Golan heights Strategic upland region. Bordered by Syria. Tel Aviv Israeli city on the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Tel-Aviv is also part of a major metropolitan area in Israel known as gush Dan Qiryat Shemona A city in the north district in Israel Haifa Located below and on mount Carmel and lies on the Mediterranean coast Ashkelon Was an ancient philistine seaport on the east coast of the Mediterranean sea just north of Gaza Jordan The east boundary of Israel Beer sheva The largest city of the Negev desert Kineret The Sea of Galilee is Israel’s largest freshwater lake. 10 minutes about... Ilan Ramon The First Israeli Astronaut Background: Ilan Ramon was the first Israeli astronaut on the Space Shuttle Columbia (STS-107) that was launched on January 16, 2003. The seven astronauts died on February 1, 2003, when Columbia broke apart during reentry into the atmosphere over Texas on its way to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Going to space... 1. Ask the students: pick 2 things you would take with you to space. Let each student explain about one of the things he chose. 2. Ask again: what do you think an astronaut would take with him to space? Would Israeli/jewish astronaut choose different objects? 3. Tell the students about Ilan Ramon’s choice: Ramon carried several personal souvenirs with him into space. His wife gave him four poems and his father gave him photographs of the family. His 15-year-old son, Assaf, and Ramon's brother, Gadi, both gave him letters to be unsealed and read only after he was in orbit. Israel's president, Moshe Katsav, gave him a credit card-size microfiche copy of the Bible. He also took a pencil drawing titled "Moon Landscape" by a 14-year-old Jewish boy, Peter Ginz, who was killed at Auschwitz. Being the first Israeli astronaut -- I feel I am representing all Jews and all Israelis," Ramon said. Referring to his mother and grandmother, who both survived imprisonment in Auschwitz, he added, "I'm the son of a Holocaust survivor -- I carry on the suffering of the Holocaust generation, and I'm kind of proof that despite all the horror they went through, we're going forward." A Czech-Jewish boy of Prague was very intelligent and advanced kid retaining his aspiration to knowledge also during his stay in Theresienstadt Ghetto and later in Auschwitz concentration camp. Peter Ginz could be an example of excellent personality in these days. He draw before his death in a gas cell many pictures and wrote notes connected with space. Peter Ginz (1928-1944) Show the picture and explain About Peter Ginz. "Moon Landscape" Ilan Ramon (1954 – 2003) “I wanted to commemorate the spirit of both these great souls, Ilan and Peter, by repainting young Peter’s landscape in such a way as to show both of them, side by side, looking on the Earth from the vantage point of the dream they shared...as I like to think they now are.” Painting by Barry Munden 10 minutes about... Sports and Hebrew Divide your class into 3 or 4 small groups. Each group will get a short story in English some of the words in the story are written as they sound in Hebrew. The group’s task is to translate these words by looking for them in the Hebrew columns in the terms page. The group who has completed its story first is the winner. For example: shahqan = שחקן = player Sahyan = שחיין = swimmer Things to prepare: • Story and terms page for each group. • A small prize for the winners. Snakes and Ladders: Israel is alive and well in your classroom…. Purpose: In this session we will gain knowledge about the state of Israel through the various subjects such as sport, characters/people/events and geography .the knowledge will Gained by – fun and active way; creative will entice students to continue learning Time: 90 minutes Method of activity: Divide the group to 3 or 4 groups Through the game Snakes and ladder, student will be asked to answer questions and fulfill some task in various subjects. Teachers task: -Prepare the students for the following activities With a short explanation on the goals and content -Dealing with behaviour problems when it is needed -Active participation form both teacher and students Equipment: Computer LCD projector VCR Classroom – hall – large area circle seating