Teaching, Trees, Tu B'Shevat and a Theater Exercise

Authors Peninnah Schram and Rachayl Eckstein Davis have created a wonderful free guide to their new book The Apple Tree's Discovery. The guide includes many topics relevant to Tu B'Shevat like the Jewish perspective on trees, plus many excellent activities for educators that provoke thought and excite the imagination.

Here is a sample Theater Exercise from the guide, which you can download here:

Teacher gives instructions and gets the children to act according to the instructions:

“Pretend you are a seed. Get as tiny as you can. Pretend you are snuggling deep into the ground. But now imagine the kind of seed you are and what kind of tree/flower/bush/plant you will become. What will you look like? What kind of colors will you have for your leaves and/or flowers? What kind of shape and size will you grow into?

The season is winter and the ground turns cold and hard, but you are protected below the surface of the earth. Then the warmth of the spring sun begins to thaw the earth. The rains fall. The seed begins to push through the earth. It’s hard for a little seed to push through, but as it grows, it pushes harder and soon breaks through.
 

Now feel the sun; the wind; the rain; the wind. And the seed grows and grows. And soon it is a full size tree or flower or bush or plant. And now you celebrate because you have your leaves or flowers or fruit. Sway with the wind. Dance with the sun. Show your love of the world.”

illustration by Wendy W. Lee, from The Apple Tree's Discovery