In SK, the שקדיה shkeidia (almond) tree has bloomed!

The SK students sang the song השקדיה פורחת (HaShkeidia Porachat)—The Almond Tree is Blooming—in preparation to celebrate ט"ו בשבט Tu B’Shevat—the birthday of the trees. The song tells us that when the almond tree has bloomed, it signifies that Tu B’Shevat has arrived.

The students prepared for the birthday of the trees by focusing on the importance of trees and why we need to take care of our environment. Recyclable materials, scrap paper, and backs of papers were used for the projects during our study. They built trees from items rescued from the recycling bin and made collages from magazine pictures of beautiful things that G-d created. They built trees using their bodies, blocks, Magna-Tiles, legos, clay, and KEVA planks.

The students learned about the seven species of foods that are mentioned in the Torah: wheat, barley, pomegranates, dates, figs, olives, & grapes (vines) and tasted all but barley at our Tu B’Shevat seder. Additionally, they decorated pots and planted parsley that should be ready in time for our Pesach seder (especially since there are two months of Adar this year)! We had a great time celebrating all of the wonderful things that trees bring to the world!

The students said it best in their own words:

• “I want to take care of all of the trees and plants in the world because they are beautiful!” -Maya

• “You can take care of plants even if you don’t have a backyard!” -Rory

• “You can pick up trash even if you didn’t make the mess because that helps clean the world up.” -Nate

• “When I think of the special things that grow from the ground, I know that we are lucky.” -Stevie