Geography Travels: Back to Israel

This is my 2nd time teaching a unit on Israel.  Go HERE to see my son’s two-week study.  My daughter’s study was different in some ways.  Also, I haven’t had time to check yet, but some links may be broken or obsolete on the older post.  Here’s the updated version of our Israel unit.

Week 1

Located Israel on world map and globe; located capital and largest cities; stamped passport, and listened to the national anthem.

Listened to “Middle East Song” from Geography Songs

Read the entry for Israel in The Not-for-Parents Travel Book

Looked at the website Akhlah for information and fun printables. 

Started a notebook page (Country Fact Sheet from Homeschool Creations)

Labeled a map of Israel (outline from Enchanted Learning)

Read from Geography from A to Z: desert, mountains, coastal plain, hills, sea, valley

Watched several YouTube videos on Israel (please visit the older post on Israel for videos)

Week 2

Colored the Israel flag (Coloring Castle)

Discussed Israel’s government, currency, and religions

Learned about Jewish dancing, music, and weddings (did a few color sheets from Akhlah)

Read from Children Just Like Me and completed a notebook page for it (Homeschool Creations)

Week 3

Read Israel ABCs

Learned some Hebrew and Arabic words and did a worksheet from Akhlah.

Read Colors of Israel

Learned about Hebrew holidays

Made a paper dreidel and also played a dreidel game online

Week 4

Studied Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv

Read about prayer shawls and colored pages on the tallit and the Menorah

Read Zvuvi’s Israel

Watched more YouTube videos on Israel (see older post on Israel)

Read an Israel folktale from Around the World in 80 Tales

Finished our notebook page.  This country fact sheet (from Homeschool Creations) involves finding a famous person from the country we’re studying.  My daughter was very amazed to find out that the actress Natalie Portman is from Israel (she was born there and has dual citizenship).  Not that we are very familiar with many movie stars, but she knows Padmé Amidala from Star Wars and thinks she’s very pretty.

Israel Resources Online:

Akhlah: The Jewish Children’s Learning Network

About.com (Free Israel Coloring Pages for Children)—links to several websites

Billy Bear 4 Kids (Hanukkah)

Chadis Crafts

GoIsrael

Homeschool Creations (Scroll down to Israel and follow links for lesson plans and printables)

Israelcraft, the Tallit Shop

Pitara Kids Network (Star of David craft idea)

Travel for Kids

Geography Travels: Israel

I finally have a bit of time to catch up on last year’s geography units.  This unit on Israel was done months ago!

Week 1    

Monday:   We located Israel on a world map, globe, and in our atlases.  We found the capital, other major cities, land borders and water borders.  We put the flag sticker in our passports and date stamped under it.  We also read pages 4-8 of Bold Believers in Gaza and the West Bank, listened to Middle East Song, and checked out some stuff on the Akhlah website, a neat children’s site about Jewish traditions.

Tuesday:  We did a map page from Time for Kids (the link takes you to the website itself…I couldn’t find the map at the time of this writing) and also map pages from Bold Believers, pages 46-52.  We read from Geography from A to Z about desert, mountain, coastal plain, hill, sea, and valley.  Finally, we watched a Youtube video clip on Naturally Israel Tour. 

     

Wednesday:  We listened to the Middle East Song, did our notebooking page (printable created by Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations), read pages 12-13 in Bold Believers, and watched some Youtube clips on Jewish dancing and music.

 

Thursday:   We listened to the Middle East Song, did a flag page from Coloring Castle, read pages 18-21 from Bold Believers, and designed switch-plate covers to remind us to pray for Israel.  Only problem with the switch plate covers is that they do not fit the kind of light switches we have in England.

Friday: We read Israel ABCs, learned some Hebrew and Arabic words, read Bold Believers, pages 11 and 41, and looked some more at the Akhlah site.

Week 2

Monday:  We listened to the Middle East Song, read about a boy from Israel in the book Children Just Like Me, did a notebooking page about him (printable from Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations), and read some pages from Bold Believers.

Tuesday:  We read Colors of Israel, talked about Jewish holidays (akhlah), read from Bold Believers, made a paper dreidel to play with and also played a dreidel game online.

Wednesday:  We discussed Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv (goisrael and travelforkids), read some pages from Bold Believers, and discussed the prayer shawl (the website we looked at is no longer available).

Thursday: Reviewed Middle East Song, read Zvuvi’s Israel, read from Bold Believers, did a religion comparison chart (from Bold Believers), and watched some YouTube videos.

Friday:  Read from Bold Believers, looked at a website (israelemb), watched some YouTube videos, and read the story from Israel in the book Around the World in 80 Tales.

Akhlah.com is a wonderful website for studying Israel.  The site has lots of color sheets, activity ideas, and Hebrew writing practice sheets.  Here are a few pages Isaac did:

We also did a quiz created by Jolanthe at Homeschool Creations.

Just a note to say that parts of this unit study are from a Christian point of view, and I make no apologies for that (since I am a Christian).  ; )  The purpose of this blog is to share homeschool ideas and for my personal record keeping, and I will not argue with anyone about politics or religion.  Thanks for your understanding.

I'm linking this post to "History and Geography" at All Things Beautiful.