Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, is only a few days away so we have got to get our learning + exploring + celebrating on, starting with our 2024 Yom Ha’atzmaut Shelfie + Starter Activities!
This year the Israel as a modern state turns 76 years old. As I discussed with my class and my children, we of course know Israel is much much much older—we learn about Torah stories that take place there from thousands of years ago. But it is very special to mark the time when Israel became an official country. Since we live outside of Israel, this also provides us with a great opportunity to learn more about the modern country of Israel and the holiday, all through meaningful play and developmentally appropriate activities that practice fine motor skills, coordination, focus, matching, and so much more!
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
- Yom Ha’atzmaut 3 Part Cards
- Blue and White Beading Invitation
- Simple Yom Ha’atzmaut Hats
- Lee Laa Lou Yom Ha’atzmaut Worksheet
- Happy Birthday Israel Cupcake Do a Dot
- Blue and White Star of David Sensory Bin
- Popsicle Stick Star of David Decorations
- Israeli Flag Collage
- PJ Library Israel Game
- Kibbutz Farm Animal Unwrap + Match
- Happy 76th Birthday Israel Roll and Cover
- Camel Count
- Star of David Chunkies
Finished & Loving It!
Yom Ha’atzmaut Book Box
We have a really lovely collection of Israel-themed books thanks to PJ Library. Cuddling together and reading about Israel is such a simple and wonderful activity. And if that’s all that can get done in the month of May (why is May so crazy?!!), then that’s already truly amazing!
Yom Ha’atzmaut 3 Part Cards
Our Yom Ha’atzmaut Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards are a simple and helpful activity to introduce the holiday and jumpstart some discussion about common ways to celebrate.
Blue and White Beading Invitation
I absolutely love beading invitations. They are a great way to practice fine motor skills and create beautiful keepsakes that children actually like to wear.
You can also bead with so many different materials–beads, of course, penne pasta, and cut up straws like I used here. When I saw these adorable blue and white straws I knew they’d be perfect for this activity!
I had to add tape to the end of the yarn to stop unraveling and to be able to stick it through the paper straws. But once we did that the kids were able to thread the string through themselves and made sweet bracelets and necklaces, yay!
Simple Yom Ha’atzmaut Hats
These hats were another sweet and simple activity that brought smiles to the kids’ faces. I cut strips of blue paper and white Stars of David. The children glued on the stars and I stapled the ends to make a hat.
You could add more work for the kids if you wanted it to be a longer activity. They could practice their cutting skills, practice using a stapler, add stickers or draw with crayons.
Lee Laa Lou Yom Ha’atzmaut Worksheet
I love Lee Laa Lou’s resources and they have so many free ones, like this Yom Ha’atzmaut Worksheet! It’s part of a set and I know my maze-obsessed first grader will love completing the maze sheet later in the week. They update the worksheet each year and it’s a wonderful way to learn about the holiday and practice Hebrew!
Happy Birthday Israel Cupcake Do a Dot
Can’t celebrate Israel’s birthday without at least one birthday activity! This Cupcake Do a Dot is simple but a great fine motor activity. Use dot stickers like us, dot markers, or glue on pom poms. You could also invite the kids to count the dots (don’t worry, I knew I couldn’t fit 76 on there ;-)) to practice some math skills at the same time.
Print your free Happy Birthday Israel Cupcake Do a Dot printable here!
Blue and White Star of David Sensory Bin
This is a great reminder that sensory bins don’t have to be fancy! I themed this one blue and white to match the Israeli flag (and our theme for the shelfie, of course!). I grabbed sensory filler that matched that color scheme then went around the playroom grabbing blue and white objects. I cut some Stars of David out of felt from each color and also challenged the kids to sort the items into baskets corresponding to the colors.
Easy peasy but still a lovely sensory feedback sensation, good matching and sorting practice, and open ended play after the challenge was met. Yay!
Popsicle Stick Star of David Decorations
Have to highlight these super simple and sweet Stars of David the kids made earlier in the week! I prepped them (but you could have your kids do that work too) and they decorated them with blue dot stickers and crayons. They loved seeing them as decorations on the shelves!
Israeli Flag Collage
This is an oldie but goodie that I’ve done many times. I actually did it for my religious school session on Yom Ha’atzmaut just this past Sunday. It’s just such a great opportunity for creativity and children’s choice. Each flag will be unique but they will all be so beautiful.
Grab whatever blue materials you have easy at hand–tissue paper, pom poms, crayons, markers, stickers, buttons, fabric, construction paper, whatever!
PJ Library Israel Game
PJ Library sent out this Israel game last year. I really like how you learn about different people who live in Israel, as well as different landmarks, customs and activities. And some Hebrew too of course!
I’m a visual learner so seeing Israel displayed as a map is always helpful to my learning and organizing my brain so I feel closer to Israel. I love giving my kids this same opportunity too!
Kibbutz Farm Animal Unwrap + Match
For our kibbutz learning on this Shelfie, we talked about farm animals that might live on an agricultural kibbutz. To make it a little more fun, I wrapped up the puzzle pieces in foil so the kids had the added challenge of using those fine motor skills to unwrap before matching the puzzle piece to its home. Simple good fun!
Happy 76th Birthday Israel Roll and Cover
My first grader really enjoyed our Passover Roll and Cover activity so I did the same idea again for this holiday. It’s such a simple concept but is a really great way to practice counting and one to one correspondence. Roll a die, then count the number on the die and then count that same number on the sheet, marking off that number with a sticker, a marker, or a crayon.
Print your free Happy 76th Birthday Israel Roll and Cover printable here!
Camel Count
I absolutely love these adorable camel rocks that I made years ago. This year I added a ten frame and made Camel Counting Cards to change it up a bit. And yes, practice those math skills for my two boys who absolutely love numbers! Look at the camel card and read or count the number, then move that number of camel rocks to the ten frame.
Print your free Camel Counting Cards printable here!
Star of David Chunkies
I love Woodpeckers Crafts chunkies and use them whenever I can. I absolutely love love love that they have JEWISH chunkies and other wooden cut outs. These just aren’t easy to find, especially for an affordable price. We decorated these years ago, but I love bringing them out as some added Jewish joy!
If you place an order with Woodepeckers Crafts, make sure to use code WithLoveIma5 for a discount!
Just the beginning …
We had such a great time with all these starter activities! And these are truly starter activities, just the beginning of our learning about so many different regions, cultures, food, and celebrations that relate to Israel and Yom Ha’atzmaut.
This year Yom Ha’atzmaut starts at sundown Monday, May 13th to sundown Tuesday, May 14th. That only gives us a few days (May has been hard!) and I’m hoping to do more activities with the kids, but even if that doesn’t happen, I feel really good knowing so much learning already happened with today’s Shelfie activities!
We have a whole page dedicated to Yom Ha’atzmaut, our Yom Ha’atzmaut Hub. Check it out! It will include some of the Yom Ha’atzmaut activities we 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 the holiday!
Check out our recommended Yom Ha’atzmaut books from our Bookshop.org Shop!
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about this holiday:
Reform Judaism: Yom Ha’atzmaut
Chag Sameach!!
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