The world seems a little topsy turvy these days. A plane missing. 223 girls kidnapped in Nigeria. 3 teen agers kidnapped and murdered in Israel. A plane shot out of the sky. Israel in Gaza. Rockets in Israel. Too many children killed in the streets of Chicago. Too many deaths. When does it stop?

In the Fox River Valley, Illinois, after a punishing winter of epic proportions, it is nice to be outside. Six congregations, part of the nascent Prairie Jewish Coalition, sponsored the Topsy Turvy bus.

What is a topsy turvy bus? It is a school bus, bright yellow, with half of another school bus on top, welded together and running entirely on used food oil. It is a project of Hazon to draw attention to climate change.

Draw attention it does. You have never seen anything like it. Part school bus, part RV, part camper, five  people (and two support staff) are driving this bus from Colorado to Isabella Friedman Retreat Center in Connecticut.  Inside the bus there are sleeping quarters, a kitchen, storage space and even a library!

Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry’s commissioned the bus. The first tour raised awareness of wasteful spending at the Pentagon. Maybe this Topsy Turvy bus can bring peace! The second tour promoted the White House Organic Farm project. So it makes sense that on a sunny, Sunday afternoon, my congregation, Kneseth Israel, and Pushing the Envelope Farm have come together to host this event.

The residents, drivers, educators engaged all ages who turned out. There were yummy blueberry smoothies made by a bicycle blender. Even better vegan chocolate chip cookies made with three different models of solar cookers. This led to an interesting debate about whether you could use a solar cooker to cook a chicken for Shabbat.

The solar cooking and the bicycle smoothies remind me that I want to install a solar ner tamid, eternal light at our synagogue.  The brainchild of Rabbi Everett Gendler, one of the first Jewish environmentalists, Temple Emanuel of the Merrimack Valley installed the first one in 1978. It raises awareness about the power of the sun and the need to protect our environment, to be caretakers with G-d, in this glorious creation..

People could tour Pushing the Envelope Farm, owned by Rabbi Fred Margulies and his wife Trisha who built the farm from spare acreage on their Continental Envelope Company land in Geneva, IL. They are using it primarily as a teaching farm, with programs for schools, synagogues, churches and scout troops. With 14 acres, there is an organic CSA, various crops and farm animals.  A portion of everything they grow goes to the nearby Northern Illinois Food Bank.

The kids who came loved playing with the chickens and the goats. They loved making their own smoothies and solar cooked cookies. I loved seeing the signs in English, Hebrew, Spanish. And while the bees are critically important, to sustainability and our celebrations of Rosh Hashanah, I gave them a wide berth as I hiked by.

But maybe what I loved most is how this Topsy Turvey bus got all of us—from six congregations and from two years old to eighty, outside on a beautiful, summer day. It would seem that the world is not so Topsy Turvey. Maybe there can even be peace.

Rabbi Margaret Frisch Klein is the rabbi of Congregation Kneseth Israel in Elgin, IL, and the author of A Climbing Journey Toward Yom Kippur. She blogs as the Energizer Rabbi, at http://www.theenergizerrabbi.org.

A memory: Our newborn is up again. I turn to the clock. It’s 4:25 am. Less than three hours since she last awoke. My husband and I are exhausted, and we lie quietly for a few moments, willing our daughter back to sleep. But her cries are persistent. Who knows if she’s hungry, cold, or simply distressed and looking for comfort?

Regardless, we’ve reached our “give-her-a-moment” limit; there’s only so long one can ignore an infant baby’s cries. My husband grabs for his glasses, makes his way to the

nursery, and returns with our loosely swaddled howling bundle. He lays her beside me and her whimpers subside. She begins to nurse. We are calmed. At that moment, there is no more peaceful sound than the blissful rhythm of our baby sucking.

­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐

The calf is born. Cold and disoriented, its mother nestles close to provide warmth; she guides her baby’s mouth toward her udders. The calf suckles and then falls asleep by its mother.

The mother and child remain this way, comforted, nurtured by each other’s presence. The calf awakes and drinks more of the colostrum, or early milk, from its mother. This liquid gold is rich in antibodies, essential for the health and growth of the baby calf, but not fit for human consumption. Within 24 hours, the calf has done its job, drunk all the colostrum. The cow’s milk fills her udders. This milk, unlike the colostrum, is valuable and will be collected for humans.

It is time; a farmhand waits until mother and baby are sleeping side-by-side, lifts the baby to its feet and nudges it away. The unnecessary cost has been removed; this calf, like all the others on this farm, is separated permanently from her mother. This calf will never again drink its mother’s milk.

Neighbors awake. They hear strange noises: indescribably, inhuman, and unrecognizable. The sounds are clearly coming from creatures in distress. Between midnight and 7:00 am, at least four neighbors alert the police. Officers are dispatched to the dairy farm to investigate the source of the eerie, troubling sound. Assurances are given that all is well.

This is just business as usual. The calf must not drink the profits. The cow and calf’s time together has ended. But maternal-child bonds are not easily broken. The separation causes extreme anxiety and suffering. The bellows emanate from the mother cow lamenting the separation from her baby. Gates will be check to ensure she is securely penned. It is not uncommon for a mother cow to trek for miles in search of her calf. Sadly, this pregnancy, birth, separation, commercial milk production cycle which is forced upon the cows continues. Lactation will not occur otherwise.

Dairy products are suffused with the suffering of a mother and a child separated and unable to soothe one another. I hear their cries and cannot ignore them.

Diana G. is a plant based nutrition/cooking teacher with a BA in nutritional sciences from Cornell, and an MA in Education from Harvard. She is a mother of three and an animal rights advocate. Her article was inspired by this article and this book.

Reisterstown, MD – May 5, 2014 — Pearlstone Center is holding its 4^th annual Nevatim-Sprouts Conference, Sunday, July 13^th through Wednesday July 16^th. This professional development conference brings together early childhood, day school, and religious school educators from around the country for training in Jewish garden and environmental education. Participants learn the basics of educational garden design, share lesson plans and Jewish, environmental curricula, tour the state’s premier outdoor classrooms, harvest and prepare farm to table meals, and walk away with the tools, resources, and professional network needed to develop Jewish, environmental programming at their schools.

This year, in response to past participant feedback, an additional day was added to the conference to provide more opportunities for interactive lesson-plan modeling and group brainstorm. Hands-on sessions explore how to integrate an educational garden into your institution and bring the outside into the classroom to teach about the Jewish calendar, social justice, stewardship and responsibility, among other Jewish values. Pearlstone’s skilled staff utilize the center’s 4-acre organic farm, small animal pasture and trails throughout the conference. Continuing education credits (CEUs) from the Maryland Department of Education are available to participants.

Conference partners this year include RAVSAK, Pardes Institute, The Jewish Montessori Society, United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism, Schechter Day School Network, Early Childhood Educators of Reform Judaism, PARDeS Day Schools of Reform Judaism and the Louise D. and Morton J. Macks Center for Jewish Education. “This opportunity to partner with such a diverse and impressive list of Jewish networks and institutions of Jewish education speaks to the impact this conference makes on educators and their schools. Participants arrive with challenges and questions and leave inspired and excited to ignite passion in their students for Judaism and our relationship with the land,” reported Neely Snyder, Pearlstone Center’s Director of Signature Programs and Nevatim Conference organizer.

4^th Annual Nevatim-Sprouts Conference
July 13-16, 2014
Pearlstone Center, Reisterstown, MD

For additional information, visit pearlstonecenter.org/nevatim

The Pearlstone Center ignites Jewish passion. Our retreat center, farm, and programs enable and inspire vibrant Jewish life. Engaging Jewish, faith-based, and secular organizations, individuals, and families, Pearlstone serves all ages and backgrounds throughout Baltimore, the Chesapeake region, and beyond.

It’s the kind of thing that makes you proud.

I especially wanted to share about a recent event that I attended, the dedication of the new Vera Lieber Memorial Garden.

Vera Leiber was the preschool director at the school, in addition to other roles in the school, in the community, and in our county educational system. (She and her husband, Tsvi, were also supporters of Canfei Nesharim.) When Ms. Leiber died five years ago, she left behind so many people who loved and missed her. Now, her memory can be honored continually, through the dedication of Tsvi and his family and the hard work of staff at the Hebrew Academy, with a beautiful garden for preschool students.

Nancy Moses, the garden designer for the project, explained how the plan was made. The goal was to remove the candy-colored plastic play objects and create a multisensory environment for small children to interact with natural objects, learn where food comes from, and engage in creative play. Five new trees were planted ceremoniously in the garden. Artistic decorations in the garden were also made by the children.

The garden includes specific creative activity “rooms,” including a salad table, arbor, performance area, boulder areas for jumping and climbing, and an edible garden with herbs. The teachers can also integrate lessons about science, planting, and healthy nutrition in the garden.

At the dedication, educators showed a video of the children interacting in this new play area. A fallen tree had been transformed into play logs for the children to sit on, but because they were moveable, they became an active part of the children’s play.

Part of the stated goal of the garden is to help the children appreciate G-d’s world and the miracles of creation.

When I founded Canfei Nesharim more than ten years ago, the myth in the Jewish environmental world was that Orthodox Jews would never care about the environment. But things change. Now we see communities popping up with all kinds of creative and meaningful ways to educate themselves and their children about our connection to land, food, energy and the environment. It’s so rewarding to see!

Kol haKavod to the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy and the entire Lieber family.

Although these pictures were taken on a chilly autumn day, you can still see the beautiful flowers and the natural surroundings of this garden. May the garden grow, and may we see other versions of this model in Orthodox Jewish day schools across the country and the world!

Kayam Farm- the scene of "Planting Seeds: The First Jewish Early Childhood Conference."
It was better than imagined. It was the participants willingness to "dig deeply" on all fronts that mattered. People came from as far as Seattle,North Carolina, Texas, Boston and Worcester, Florida and New York as well as from nearby Virgina, Pennsylvania,New Jersey and of course Baltimore. There were nature specialists, ece directors, teachers, a rabbi and a great mix of ages and persuasions. There were the gardeners and the wannabes and together we weeded, worked on the farm, engaged with the farm animals at a distance of our choice and got to see red wiggler worms up close and personal. There were sessions on nutrition and healthy eating, and great meals for our own sustenance.
There was an ongoing discussion of what makes the garden 'Jewish' and how to bring the very young into this endeavor.
As the 'green bubbie' I gave the opening keynote, trying my best to weave together Richard Louv's wonderful book, "The Last Child in the Woods" with Jewish Identity and Inspiration from the Garden- For those of you not there, I used my actual weaving expertise to invite those present to image the 'warp' of the loom as Torah and the weft as the experiences in the natural world. The warp of the loom is the backbone and strength of the fabric..Sometimes that warp is invisible, and sometimes given the design of the pattern it becomes obvious and beautifully woven together- that's what create the design of the fabric. So too, if the foundation of what we do in the garden comes from our growing and continual study of what the Torah teaches us, that is the foundation of what we teach, of who we are, and what we do we the children. The stronger the warp, the stronger the fabric we create.
And just in case anyone thinks young children are too young,not so. There is no better example that the song, "Yom Rishon Avodah, Yom Sheni Avodah….Yom Shabbat Menucha" (with the hand motions of course) that demonstrates that even the youngest of children can participate in our Torah based tradition- 6 days of work, and on Shabbat we rest"
just like it says in the Torah!
So, as we prepare for Shabbos, let's try to think of all the work we've done all week- in and out of the garden- how we finish it, and rest on the coming Shabbat.
My hope is that this was only the first Jewish Early Childhood Gardening Conference- There is no way I can convey the extraordinary interplay of the parallel sessions of the Ashville JCCs' Early Childhood Cur brilliantly conveyed and shared by LAEL and JILL along with the workshops given by the incredibly knowledgeable staff of Kayam Farm. They live the life they are aspiring to and it is inspiring to work and learn along side of them.
I look forward to the next gathering and learning and bringing our field to new heights,
as together we dig deeply into our Jewish Tradition and into the earth from which G-d created us all.

Remember the Rainbow Covenant on Shabbat Noach, Shabbat Behar and Rainbow Day!

Celebrate Rainbow Day and the Rainbow Covenant with all life!

In the Rainbow Day curriculum, you’ll find Torah, prayers and liturgies, midrashim about rainbows, lesson plans about seed-saving, learning from Hoshea and Ezekiel, Kabbalah and midrash, and project ideas—40 in all—that you can use to celebrate the Rainbow covenant onShabbat Behar and on Rainbow Day (both fall on the same day this year outside of Israel, May 15-16, 2015), and on Shabbat Noach (Oct 16-17 in 2015), and every week. The Rainbow Covenant with all life is the first covenant of the Torah. (You can download in-depth study sheets on the connection between the Rainbow covenant and the Sinai/Shmitah covenant with the land that is found in that week’s parshah here. Go to the Shmita Project to learn more about Shmita.)

Download the Rainbow Day curriculum. It includes: Rainbow and Shmitah covenant Torah texts, poetry for kids, liturgy and midrash, frogs, mikveh, the dangers of triclosan (found in anti-bacterial soap), hydrofracking in Israel, and much more. A table of contents with a list of all 40 modules, along with the ages each is appropriate for, can be found below. Many individual modules have study sheets, articles, and lesson plans that you can download directly below. You can add your ideas to this curriculum too: write to R’ David Seidenberg of neohasid.org (rebduvid86 at gmail.com). Every year we add a link to one of the issues found in the curriculum here: Learn about fracking in Israel. New to this year’s download: all the url’s are live links that you can click. Lastly, don’t leave this page without listening to the Brit/Hoshea song — scroll to the very bottom and hit the play button!

What is Rainbow Day?

On the 27th day of the second month, Noah, his family, and all the animals that were with them left the ark (Genesis 8). Exactly one lunar year and ten days before—one complete solar year—the flood began on the 17th of the second month, the day before Lag B’Omer. When Noah, the animals and his family went out from the ark, God made a covenant, with all the animals and the people, that there would never be again be a flood of water to destroy life on Earth. Rainbow Day is always the 42nd day of the Omer, the day after Yom Yerushalayim. Other days connected the Rainbow Covenant include Shabbat Noach and Shabbat Behar.

Why is the Rainbow Covenant important?

The Rainbow Covenant is a time to celebrate the diversity of life on Earth, and to remember our role in God’s covenant with all Creation. It is a time to remember that the first covenant was not with human beings but with all living creatures. It is a chance to reflect on the deep spiritual and religious meaning of diversity, creation, and our role as part of creation and partners with God.

What is the message of the Rainbow Covenant?

The Torah teaches that God has promised never to flood the Earth again. But that doesn’t mean humanity can’t “flood the Earth” and harm life. We live in a time when many species have gone extinct or are threatened with extinction. Our civilization is using so much of the world’s land and resources that we don’t always leave room for the other creatures. And the climate is changing. As the African-American spiritual goes, “God gave Noah the Rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time!” The story of Noah and the Flood teaches us that we have a responsibility to care for all creation and all creatures, and that caring for all species is a mark of righteousness.

What can you do to celebrate the Rainbow Covenant?

The resources here will include ideas for teachers and educators, for kids and adults, for rabbis and prayer leaders, gardeners and meditators, for Torah study, science study, and for action. Find a venue where you can make a difference and use one of these modules. We suggest that you leave a few moments after whatever activity you use for teaching the traditional blessing for seeing a rainbow:

Blessed be You YHVH, our God. . .who remembers the covenant.

Barukh atah Adonai Eloheinu melekh ha`olam zokher et habrit.

You can use also these materials on Shabbat Noach, Shabbat Beh!r, or other days!

Download the Rainbow Day curriculum!

You can also incorporate ideas you’ll find here into the observance of Yom Yerushalayim, or as part of Lag B’Omer or for anytime of the Omer, etc. Or use them in religious schools in the week following Shabbat Behar or anytime. Whether you do something in a group, a synagogue, with friends or on your own, make Rainbow Day special.

Here is a prayer that you can use for Rainbow Day (longer version with vowels is found below, and this version with vowels is found in the curriculum as well):

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אל מלא רחמים God full of compassion,

זכור בריתך עמ כל החיים remember Your covenant with all life,

ברית מי נח the covenant of the waters of Noah.

ופרוש סכת רחמיםושלום Spread a Sukkah of compassion & peace

עלינו ועל כל מיני החייםover us, over all Life’s species.

הקיף כלם יוחסינו Surround all our relations

בזיו השכינה with Shekhinah’s radiance,

בנחל עדניך תשקם Water them with Your river of delights

בכל מושבותהם in all of their habitats.

ואז ישוב עץ החיים Then the Tree of Life will be restored

לאיתנו הראשון to its original strength,

ונראתה הקשת בענן and ‘the bow will appear in the cloud’

שש ומתפאר בגוונין joyful and beautified with its colors,

ותזכנו אנחנו וצאצינו so that we and our descendants may merit

לישב ימים רבים על האדמה to live many days on Earth,

כימי שמים על הארץ like days of the Skies over the Land.

More thoughts on the Rainbow Covenant:

According to Kabbalah, Rainbow Day is also the day of Malkhut in Yesod, a unity of masculine and feminine that represents a milestone on the way to the revelation of Shavuot. For us, it can represent a chance to commit ourselves to the rainbow covenant, to turn from actions that destroy the earth, to turn our lives away from unraveling earth’s climate and the web of life, from diminishing earth’s abundance.

The rainbow signified a new covenant between God and the land. It’s time for us to imagine a new covenant between humanity and the Earth, including the land and the seas, one that we start to live by as we change our lifestyles and habits. We can use the covenantal vision of the Shmitah year in Leviticus 25 to help guide our steps. And maybe next year it will be time to celebrate that new covenant.

Rainbow Day is pregnant with ritual possibilities related to the elements, to the midpoint between equinox and solstice, to the time between the fire of Lag B’Omer and the fire of Sinai, to global warming, to healing the waters, to the growing wheat crop in the land of Israel, and to all the meanings related to the journey from freedom to revelation. And rainbows are a symbol of diversity: the diversity of colors, of people, and of all life.

♦ Here are some of the organizations that have contributed resources (starred organizations are members of the Green Hevra):

neohasid.org* The Shalom Center* The Teva Learning Alliance* Jewish Farm School* Kayam Farm* Religious Action Center*Green Zionist Alliance*

Thanks also to: Isabella Freedman Retreat Center* Jewish Reconstructionist Movement* Eden Village Camp* Organic Torah Tikkun Schechter Day School Network EcoJews of the Bay Green Zionist Alliance* Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life* Jewish Greening Fellowship* Hazon* Urban Adamah* Wilderness Torah* Adamah*

The beautiful illustration below is “Noah & Naamah” ©1998 by Ilene Winn-Lederer; Prints may be ordered at: http://www.winnlederer.com/finearts/prints2/noah.html or via email to: ilene@winnlederer.com

♦ Jewish Lights is offering a 20% discount on the two versions of Sandy Eisenberg Sasso’s book about Naamah. Naamah, Noah’s Wife, ages 0-4 and Noah’s Wife: The Story of Naamah, ages 4 and up.

Download the Rainbow Day Curriculum!

⇒ Curriculum Table of Contents:Contents (version 4.2):

The Rainbow Blessing

1. Teach the Rainbow blessing and blessing for the trees

Texts from Tanakh

2. The Rainbow covenant in Genesis
3. A Tale of Two Covenants: Rainbow and Shmita
4. Hoshea 2:20 and the Messianic covenant

Songs:

5. A song for Hoshea 2:20

More Texts from Tanakh
6. Ezekiel, and a Kabbalistic interpretation of the rainbow

Midrashim: interpretations of the rainbow sign

7. Noah and environmental responsibility
8. Flood, Ark and Rainbow, R. Arthur Waskow (also for Lag B’Omer)
9. Human responsibility, R. Shlomo Riskin
10. The diversity and unity of all life, R. Shimshon Rafael Hirsch
11. On human moral development, R. Avraham Yitzhak Kook (link)

Biodiversity

12. Learn about biodiversity (link)
13. Pick a rainbow!
14. Study endangered species (focus on frogs)

Science, Culture and Art

15. How many colors are in a rainbow?
16. Do other animals see colors the way we do?
17. Colors and dyes
18. The science of rainbows
19. Art projects
20. Poetry!

Liturgues and Prayers

21. Rainbow prayer for creation, R. David Seidenberg
22. Between the Fires, R. Arthur Waskow
23. Council of All Beings (link)
24. A mikveh meditation, Carol Rose

Current Issues

25. Climate change
26. Keystone XL Pipeline
27. Hydrofracking
28. Fracking in Israel
29. Get active on the Farm Bill!
30. Don’t use triclosan!
31. Tzedakah and justice

Seed Saving, Harvests and Gardens

32. Seed saving and Naamah
33. Read Naamah: Noah’s Wife by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso
34. For the Omer: plant a “grainbow”!
35. Eli Rogosa’s story about finding an ancient wheat
36. “L’Dor V’Dor” seed saving workshops (link)
37. Plant a rainbow garden (link)
38. Count the omer! (link)

The Seven Noachide Laws

39. The seven colors of the rainbow and the seven laws
40. More study — articles by Rabbi Everett Gendler and Calvin DeWitt

The words from the song video are from Hoshea 2:20 (refresh the page if you can’t see it). They are about the messianic rainbow covenant that is yet to come:

V’kharati lahem brit bayom hahu im chayat hasadeh v’im of hashamayim v’remes ha’adamah v’keshet v’cherev umilchamah eshbor min ha’aretz v’hishkavtim lavetach

On that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts and the birds, with all creatures that walk on the Earth, that bow and sword and battle will disappear from the land, so that all may safely rest.

You can also hear another exquisite version of this song by Amen (Gaby Meyer and Amir Paiss) here!

The children will give thanks to Hashem for the beautiful, interesting and useful things in nature and make a “Thankful Tree.” They will also sample the fruits of the seven species of Israel and other traditional Tu B’Shevat fruits.

Tu B’Shevat and Nature Discussion
Instructors tell the children that the holiday of Tu B’Shevat is coming.. Explain that Tu B’Shevat is the “New Year of the Trees” so it is a good time to talk about nature and the things in nature that we appreciate that Hashem gives us.

Show pictures of nature (seee Nature Images and/or cut out pictures from a nature magazine like National Geographic) or take a “Nature Walk” outdoors and ask the children what things they like and find beautiful in nature. Encourage children to see colors, shapes and use their five senses when appreciating nature. Give a few examples for children to follow (i.e. I like the smell of the brown falling leaves. Baruch Hashem for the circle acorns so squirrels have food to eat. Thank you G-d for the beautiful white and gray clouds that give us rain.) Write down the children’s ideas (with names) on a chalk board, white board or chart paper to refer back to later. Children can practice reading the ideas after they are written.

Tree Creation
Depending on the age and ability of the children, either trace or have them trace their own (or a friend’s) hand onto multi-colored construction paper. Cut out the hand and write (or children copy) their thankful ideas onto the hand. Use one idea per hand.

Draw or paint a tree trunk with branches onto mural paper or poster board. Attach “leaves” to the tree. You will need a lot of leaves for your tree so make sure each child gives several HaKaras HaTov ideas.

Another option is to have children collect leaves on their “Nature Walk” to use in making crayon leaf rubbings (see instructions from Earth911.com). Children (or adults) cut out their rubbings in the shape of the actual leaves and then write their ideas on these “leaves.” Make sure to use light crayon colors for the rubbings so the written ideas can be seen. If the weather does not permit a group “Nature Walk,” instructors can bring leaves into the classroom to use in the rubbings and children select the ones they like.

Tu B’Shevat Fruit Sampling
Discuss the seven species of Israel and traditional Tu B’Shvat fruits and have children sample the fruits. Children say brachot on the fruits and say a Shehechiyanu on any new fruits. (Explain when saying Shehechiyanu is appropriate.) It is customary on Tu B’Shvat to eat a new fruit so try to provide a few exotic fruits for the children to sample. Click here for the actual bracha in Hebrew, English and transliterated Hebrew. You may want to print out this bracha so the children can read it when they say it.

Thanks to Stephanie Frumkin for preparing this program for Canfei Nesharim.

“Using Canfei Nesharim’s Materials this Tu b'Shevat? Please fill out a simple form to tell us about your participation, and (if you choose) your community will be listed on our partners list.”

This content originated at Canfei Nesharim.org/.

Instructions for Discussion Group Leader
Intended audience: Children 3-6

View print version l View activity sheets

Lesson Format:

• Song
• Craft Activity
• Additional Resources

I. Singing

Song is sung to the tune of “The wheels on the bus go round and round”

NOTE: the words “ON” and “OFF” can be accompanied with:
- hand motions – opening and closing the palm of the hand
- a flashlight being turned on and off
- a table lamp being turned on and off
- holding up a picture or drawing of a light bulb that is on, alternated with a bulb that is off.

Other words/phrases in the song can also be mimed, such as “sleep”, “read a book”, “leave room”, etc. If there are older children in the group, they can be “helpers”, turning off the overhead light, turning on the flashlight, holding up the pictures, etc.

The lights in the house go ON and OFF, ON and OFF, ON and OFF,
The lights in the house go ON and OFF, We save the lights that way.

When it’s dark outside, the lights go ON, the lights go ON, the lights go ON,
When it’s dark outside, the lights go ON, We save the lights that way.

When we go to sleep, the lights go OFF, the lights OFF, the lights go OFF,
When we go to sleep, the lights go OFF, We save the lights that way.

When we read a book, the lights go ON, the lights go ON, the lights go ON,
Etc.

When we leave a room, the lights go OFF, the lights go OFF, the lights go OFF,
Etc.,

When it’s dark in the room, the lights go ON, the lights go ON, the lights go ON,
Etc.,

<You can add your own ideas or have the kids suggest their own.>

Final verse:
The lights in the house go ON and OFF, ON and OFF, ON and OFF,
The lights in the house go ON and OFF, We save the lights that way.

II. Crafts Project

The goal of this project is to have the children create a poster board sign with a decorated border/frame, to put on the refrigerator or to hang on the wall near light switches. While one could achieve this with simple stickers or decals, the benefit of having children make the sign is that they will learn from the process and take ownership of the light switches. Also, parents are more likely to use and obey signs their children make.

Materials needed:

General:

• drop-cloths or newspapers to work on the table or floor
• small, safe, scissors
• poster board
• glue suitable for paper and glitter
• washable crayons and/or markers, including black (for bulbs that are “off”)
• colored pencils, including black
• glitter – gold (and black?)
• small magnets and/or small binder clips
• white,” Full Sheet Size Labels”, Avery 8165, if possible, to preclude the need for using glue for the graphics)
• (Optional) Catalogues and magazines with electrical appliances in them

From Canfei Nesharim:

• Canfei Nesharim stickers and/or magnets on saving energy (for order – discounted prices!)
• Graphic Printouts (Click or scroll down to the Resources section for full-sheet references about energy efficient electrical plugs, incandescent and CFL light bulbs, and small electrical appliances)

Variation #1

1. Paste a Canfei Nesharim magnet, or place a Canfei Nesharim sticker, in the middle of a poster board cut to desired size.
2. Cut and paste (or cut and stick, if on label sheets) the other images in any pattern around the edges to create a “frame”
3. Color with crayons, pencils or markers; Sprinkle glue with glitter for lit bulbs, if desired.
4. Use the magnet or another small magnet to place the sign of the refrigerator, or attach a small binder clip on top and hang from a nail.

Variation #2
Write one of the suggested slogans (see below) from the attached graphics sheets, and surround with desired images; color as desired. Sprinkle glue with glitter for lit bulbs, if desired. Use magnets or binder clips to hang.

Make sure not to waste materials! Recycle what you can.

Lesson Resources:
These printable resource sheets can be printed on label paper to make them easy to stick, or can be printed on regular paper and glued onto posterboard by the children.

• Printable Version of this Activity
• Unplug me: smiling plugs, to remind you to unplug electronics when not in use.
• Turn it off: incandescent light-bulbs with rays, reminding you to turn them off.
• Make the change: CFL light-bulbs.
• Make the change 2: incandescent and CFL light-bulbs side by side.

Much thanks to Judy Adler Sheer for preparing these resources.

This content originated at Canfei Nesharim.org.

Learning Objectives:

· The connection between Sukkot and water and that water is a gift from Hashem

· The importance of water in our lives and our responsibility to help conserve water

Materials:

· Foods or objects that relate to water or plants like Swedish fish, fruits and vegetables, fruit flavored/shaped candy, paper, wood carvings, etc.

Facilitator Notes:

· The following activities each have suggested time limits, but understand that this is flexible depending on the group. You may choose to extend one activity or a piece of one activity and shorten another. If the children have ideas of their own that are pertinent to the topic, feel free to let them guide the conversation. As long as they walk away with the understandings listed above, it’s okay to skip or adapt.

· If your children are younger (PreK-1):

o You may want to spend longer on the movement activity than the debrief section.

o It may be advisable to share information in the debrief section, rather than ask the questions, to facilitate the discussion. If you decide to use the questions as prompts, you will most likely need to use the detailed prompts in italics as well.

o Try to make the questions in the debrief section interactive (e.g. ask a child to point to or hold up the object to which they are referring).

· If you have a wide age range:

o In the debrief section, you may choose to call on children specifically and ask a question, rather than asking the group as a whole. This way, you avoid younger children feeling intimidated by older children in the group.

Movement Activity (6-7 minutes)

Goal: To help kids think about how water impacts them in everyday life.

· Have the children stand up and make sure they have a little room to move around. Explain they are going to do an activity that will require them to act things out.

· Following are a variety of prompts for this movement activity. For each prompt, let the children act it out for a few seconds and then ask them to “freeze,” then call on one or two people and have them describe their pose. You can repeat this multiple times for each prompt and use as many prompts as time allows. (Note: You may have to help some children describe by offering a prompt or observation about their pose such as “You look like you are ____…)

o Imagine it’s really hot outside; the sun is shining down and you’ve been playing outside for the whole afternoon. How do you feel?

§ If someone has trouble acting this out, offer a more detailed prompt like: "Would you be tired? Thirsty? What would it look like?"

o Mime something you can do with water.

§ If someone has trouble acting this out, offer a more detailed prompt like: “Can you go swimming in water?” “Can you water the grass?” or “Can you splash in puddles after it rains?”

o Imagine you are a tree or a flower. How would you look if you are very thirsty?

§ If someone has trouble acting this out, offer a more detailed prompt like: “Would a flower be standing tall and straight, or wilting and bending over?”

o On Sukkot, we celebrate Hashem giving us water. How would you look if you were celebrating or very happy?

§ If someone has trouble acting this out, offer a more detailed prompt like: “Would you dance at a celebration? Would you have a big smile?”

Debrief (6-7 minutes)

Goal: To help children understand the connection between water and Sukkot, to emphasize the preciousness of water, and to discuss ways to conserve and protect water.

· Ask: Why is water so important?

o If nobody shares, offer a prompt like: “Can we live without water?” or “Can plants and trees live without water?”

· Ask: Is water something we will always have? Is it possible to run out of clean water?

o Note: This might take some explanation about clean water, how only a small percentage of water on Earth is fresh water (as opposed to salt water), and that it is expensive to treat water to clean it.

· Ask: If we ran out of clean water, what would we lose? Can you think of something, or is there something you see on the table we wouldn’t have without water?

o If nobody shares, offer a prompt like: “Plants and trees would die without water; if that happened, what things from trees do we eat or use every day that we wouldn’t have anymore?”

· Share: In the times of the beit hamikdash (temple), there was a great celebration on Sukkot called a simchat beit hashoeva. In a grand ceremony, water would be poured from a golden pitcher in silver bowls, and the Jewish people would spend the nights of Sukkot dancing, singing and celebrating. The Jewish people recognized that water was a precious gift from Hashem, and they used it for the greatest and most joyous celebration of the year. We no longer have the beit hamikdash, but during Sukkot, we still have this celebration with water because we have never forgotten how important this gift of water is.

o Note: Feel free to be “over the top” when you describe this—you want to give the impression that it was grandiose. You can also have the children act out a simchat beit hashoeva as you are sharing the information. For example, have someone mime pouring water from a pitcher into bowls while everyone else dances around. If you like and you think the children know it, sing “u’shavtem mayim b’sason.”

o If time allows: Share that at the end of Sukkot, we say tefilat geshem, a special tefilah(prayer) to Hashem to give us good rain so that our wheat will grow tall in the fields and the oranges will grow big and juicy in the groves, and not bad rain like hurricanes that destroy.

· Share: As Jews, it is our responsibility to take care of the precious water that Hashem gives to us. It is especially important because pollution and wasting of water is harmful to Israel—a lot of water in Israel is contaminated, which means it is dangerous to drink because you could get sick. During the year, it’s important for us to think about conserving (not wasting) water, and making sure we help keep water clean. What are some ways we can do that?

o Don’t let the water run while you are brushing your teeth, wash dishes in a basin instead of letting the water run, use a watering can instead of a hose to water plants, take a shorter shower, don’t throw trash on the ground because it can end up in the water, recycle so trash does not end up in the ocean, etc.

Thanks to Rella Kaplowitz for creating this activity.

This content originated at Canfei Nesharim.org/.