As students entered the decorated halls of Yavneh on Yom Ha’atzmaut morning, they immediately felt the spirit of the day. The festive feeling was in the air as the children continued to their classrooms or the Bet Midrash for tefila chagigit.
Each grade then made its way to the Yavneh fields for dancing filled with lots of ruach to celebrate Israel’s 66th birthday. The first graders gave a wonderful performance of “Hadegel Sheli” followed by a beautiful Daglanut presentation by the 7th grade girls, under the direction of Mrs. Rubin and our Bnot Sherut Leumi, Atara and Hila. Tefila L’shlom Hamidina, and Tefilah L’shlom Chayalei Tzahal were then recited followed by the singing of “Hatikva” by the entire school.
Throughout the rest of the day, Early Childhood students took off on a “flight to Israel” with Rabbi Penn as their pilot. The students visited Yerushalayim and wrote notes and placed them in the Kotel. They danced in Tel Aviv, visited Tzfat, and made their own salads and tasted Israeli foods at the shuk. The children continued to Ein Gedi for water play, and finally on to Eilat for some fun in the sand and refreshing fruit drinks.
Students in the first and second grades created projects in their classrooms connected to various cities in Israel. The students learned interesting facts about the great cities and then created a “city sign.” The signs will hang outside the classrooms in the Yavneh hallways. Students in grades 3-5 researched and worked on projects related to 26 different events throughout Modern Israel’s history, for example, First Aliya, the Six Day War, the Peace Treaty with Egypt, and Instant Messaging created by ICQ. The students created a poster and audio file explaining their event. The timeline created by these posters will be on display as an interactive exhibit in the school until the end of the year.
Yavneh’s morim shlichim, Moreh Shahar and Morah Zohar Elazary, conducted a special program with each Middle School class. Using the song “Shalom Lach Eretz Nehederet,” the students researched various places around Eretz Yisrael and shared their knowledge with their classmates. As the song concluded, they learned that while seeing the whole world is enjoyable, Israel is the homeland for the Jewish people.
