I loved setting up this simple 2023 Yom Ha’atzmaut Shelfie + Starter Activities to introduce and review the holiday, as well as the country of Israel, with my kiddos! This year Israel turns 75! Happy Birthday Israel!
Yom Ha’atzmaut is the perfect opportunity for not only learning about some fun holiday-related traditions (torch lighting, fireworks, birthday celebrations!) but also about the country of Israel. My children have never visited Israel so doing activities that focus on landmarks, regions, and common activities help them connect with this special place.
What You’ll Need
- Your favorite books about Israel (check out our recommendations here!)–including children’s books but also any informational books you have on the country or any of its regions or culture or even history
- Your favorite Israel arts, crafts, toy sets, and activities that you already own and/or look below to see if any of ours inspire you to create similar ones!
Putting It Together
Here is the list of activities that I set up. Get inspired or grab whatever of your own! I also plan to add new activities as we create them to this Yom Ha’atzmaut Shelfie.
- Yom Ha’atzmaut Book Box + our favorite children’s books about Israel
- Yom Ha’atzmaut Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
- LeeLaaLou Yom Ha’atzmaut worksheets
- PJ Library Trail Game
- PJ Library Memory Game
- Tel Aviv Shuk Stalls
- Kibbutz Farmers Baskets
- Star of David Chunkies
- Israeli Flags
- Lego Western Wall
- Israeli Archeological Dig Brick
- Felt Board with 3 Falafels in my Pita Pieces
Finished & Loving It!
Yom Ha’atzmaut Book Box
I loved gathering our books all about Israel and arranging them in our Yom Ha’atzmaut book box! We have a few books that are actually about the holiday itself, but most are about the country and/or history. I always find this is a convenient time to learn about Israel as we learn about the holiday celebrating its independence.
Yom Ha’atzmaut Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
You know, I always like starting our holiday learning with our 3 Part Cards. Such a simple and concise way of highlighting the history, traditions and celebrations of our holidays.
LeeLaaLou Yom Ha’atzmaut Worksheets
We LOVE LeeLaaLou and are so thrilled they provide a whole set of Yom Ha’atzmaut worksheets—for free! Amazing! These worksheets are such a fun way to learn about the holiday and practice Hebrew!
PJ Library Trail Game
This year PJ Library gifted my kindergartener with this Israel Trail Game. It’s been such a fun way to learn about this activity, as well as about Israel itself. I set it up on the Shelfie to encourage more play, but also just review and learning every time you look at the map!
PJ Library Memory Game
My preschooler is all about memory games right now which made it absolutely perfect that PJ Library sent them a memory game to celebrate Israel and Yom Ha’atzmaut! I love talking about the different names and activities shown in each card.
Tel Aviv Shuk Stalls
Have you shopped at a Tel Aviv market before? Such an amazing experience. I was tempted to turn a whole section of our playroom into a shuk but instead did a mini version on our shelves. It still gave us the opportunity for a range of items and even activities.
I set up a few spices in these beautiful small wooden jars from Woodpeckers Crafts (use WithLoveIma5 for a discount!). The kids smelled and tried to guess what spices they were. We’ve done scent games before and they can be lots of fun!
And, as you may have noticed, these activities can also end up on the floor if you have a three year old 😉 I’m calling it sensory exploration for scent and touch ha!
The wooden bins had a few different options. Scarves for shopping and free imaginative play, pony beads and pipe cleaners for jewelry shopping and creating and shells for free play and counting manipulatives. The beading is a wonderful and simple fine motor activity and the kids loved the bracelets they made with them!
Kibbutz Farmers Baskets
We talked about how Israel has special communities called kibbutz. Many kibbutz are centered around farming so the kids enjoyed talking about the different wooden fruits we had available in our baskets.
We identified the fruits by color, name, then counted each type and lined them up from smallest quantity to largest.
Star of David Chunkies
I was so thrilled to see Woodpeckers Crafts (use WithLoveIma5 for a discount!) add Star of David chunkies to their product line! Aren’t these fantastic and have so many possibilities for creating, decorating and showing off our Jewish pride?
Over the weekend the kids painted their Star of David chunkies. They loved seeing them on the shelves today!
Israeli Flags
I saved these simple Israeli flags the kids made last year because hey, super easy decoration option for me!
Looking for other Israeli flag crafts and activities? Check out these options:
Lego Western Wall
I’ve been putting out many set ups lately with peg dolls so it was fun to change it up with Lego bricks and Lego people. We are BIG Lego fans so the kids were super excited to see this small world Lego set up! I quickly made the western wall and set out some Lego people. We talked about what the Western Wall is and practiced having our Lego people pray. And then of course they got some free play time!
Israeli Archeological Dig Brick
I think this archeological dig brick was the kids’ favorite activity this year! Check out how we made it here!
Felt Board with 3 Falafels in my Pita Pieces
A couple years ago I made felt pieces to correspond to the adorable 3 Falafels in my Pita book because it’s such a fun way to make the story interactive and to practice counting.
Today we read the book together and the kids looked for each item and set them up on the felt board. Such a fun way to learn about a lot of different Israel landmarks/activities/traditions and practice counting at the same time!
Chag Sameach!
We have a whole page dedicated to Yom Ha’atzmaut, our Yom Ha’atzmaut Hub. Check it out! It includes some of the Yom Ha’atzmaut activities we plan to do this year, as well as the activities we’ve done in previous years.
And don’t forget our Yom Ha’atzmaut Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards, a wonderful way to introduce Yom Ha’atzmaut! And, now we also have all 13 Jewish holidays bundled together in A Year of Jewish Holidays 3 Part Cards.
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about this holiday:
Reform Judaism: Yom Ha’atzmaut
Chag Sameach!
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