The Goodman Initiative - A Land & Its People

Linking Our Individual Moments Together

Aliza Goodman — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 19:40:36 +0000

This activity helps participants delve deeper into components that make up their Jewish identity and make connections with others on a deeper and more personal level. This could be a good evening program on a night that the group is indoors (they need markers, butcher paper, and a flat surface), early in the program to build relationships, or when you want them to explore issues of identity.

Curriculum Themes:

Materials Required:

Program Duration:

Physical Space:

Indoor Space

Number of Campers:

Age of Campers:

Core Learnings:

Each of us is connected in a multitude of ways to each other

Our Israel stories can be used to connect others to their own Israel stories

Explanation:

INSTRUCTIONS:
1.   Place on a table (or on the floor) a large piece of butcher paper.
2.   Give each participant a different colored marker and ask him or her to find a space on the butcher paper.
3.   Instruct them to each draw a circle and write their name in the middle of the circle. Then draw 4 circles around their name –- small enough that they don’t touch (each other or those of another person) but big enough that they can write a word or short phrase in the circle and people will be able to read it.

PROMPTS AND CONNECTIONS:
1.   Then tell them to listen carefully to the following prompts. With each prompt, they are instructed to come up with a word or short phrase that sums up the essence of the prompt and write that word or phrase in a circle.
a.   Who are you named after or what is the meaning of your name?
b.   What is your favorite place at home or what is your favorite place in Israel?
c.   What is a meaningful Jewish moment that you’ve had in your life?
d.   What is a value (or guiding principle or characteristic) that resonates with you (that you care about)?
e.   What connects you to Israel?
2.   Once participants are finished writing their words, ask them to “zoom out” and take a walk around the table to see what other people wrote. Instruct them to pay attention to the words that others have written and try to find connections between themselves (their words) and the words of others.
3.   When they find a connection -– they are to draw a line from their word to the word that connects it -– and along the line, write another word or phrase that describes the connection. Give them ample time for this part (20 minutes). Option: You can use post-it notes rather than writing on the lines.

DEBRIEF:
1.   Find someone who you have connected with and share a story from your circles.
2.   Find someone who you have not connected with and share a story from your circles.
3.   Come back into a circle and ask someone to share a connection that they found. Make sure to get to the Israel story.
4.   You can really take this debrief in a variety of ways.
a.   What surprised you about the connections you made through this activity?
b.   How can our own personal stories help us as educators?
c.   This exercise helps us find a trigger into making connections and finding meaningful stories. Stories are a great way to make connections with and for other people.

Say My Name, Say My Name

JAR — Fri, 05 Dec 2014 17:50:16 +0000

This is an experiential program that invites participants to learn about the geography of Israel through the names of its cities. As in Native American cultures, Hebrew names have meanings. The same is true of Israel's cities. Go on a journey through the identities and histories of Israel's cities. Just don't forget your passport!

Curriculum Themes:

A Land & Its People

Materials Required:

Program Duration:

1 hour

Physical Space:

Large Room (capacity 100+)

Number of Campers:

Age of Campers:

Core Learnings:

City names in Israel

Map of Israel

Explanation:

Program Steps:

Everyone gets a piece of paper and instructions for folding it into a passport.
You will need to fill in the form on the 2nd page of your passport with provided pens.
8 ‘Mayors’ will be preselected (counselors? Older campers? Same age campers?) – each of these people will be given an ‘identity’. That identity comes with a slip of paper. Each slip of paper will include the name of a place in Israel and the etymology of that place’s name (etymology = derivative history of the name). Every ‘Mayor’ gets a marker of a different color and a simple shape they will make as their stamp.
These 8 people will be scattered around the room. The participants will be told to take a tour around the room, to learn about the different places in Israel and to ask for a detailed description of where they are located. They must then draw the places on the map on their passport’s last page without asking others for help. The goal is to collect all 8 ‘stamps’ from the 8 people and to finish with a ‘full’ map.
At the end, there will be one large piece of butcher paper or poster board on the wall and the facilitator will have drawn on it a LARGE blank map of Israel. Each person, once they have achieved all 8 stamps, should take a pen and put where they think each of the places they visited are in Israel. Everyone will be told that they should transcribe their maps exactly, even if it looks different than what someone else (or many someone elses) has already put on the master map.
Once everyone has finished, a 2nd map will be revealed, filled in with the true location of all the places in Israel (or the facilitator will place the places with a marker on the master map for everyone to see at the end.)
Everyone will now sit for a debrief. The facilitator will ask the questions that are on the back page of the passport.

What has changed about how you feel about places in Israel now?
What does a name say about a place?
What does “Yisrael” mean and how does that meaning impact our feeling about the place?
Do you feel differently about YOUR name now? If so, how?
What is your camp's name and how does that name relfect the camp and its mission?

Supplies:

Passports

Pens for every participant

Scissors?

8 markers

1 large piece of butcher paper/poster board

SLIPS OF PAPER FOR ‘MAYORS’

Place Cards In Use:

Jerusalem

Tel Aviv

Yad Vashem

Dead Sea

Negev

Kineret

Haifa

Beer Sheva

JERUSALEM

A city called Rušalim in the Execration texts of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt (c. 19th century BCE) is widely, but not universally, identified as Jerusalem.[24][25] Jerusalem is called Urušalim in the Amarna letters of Abdi-Heba (1330s BCE).[26] The name "Jerusalem" is variously etymologized to mean "foundation (Sumerian yeru, 'settlement'/Semitic yry' 'to found, to lay a cornerstone') of the god Shalem",[27][28] the god Shalem was thus the original tutelary deity of the Bronze Age city.[29] The form Yerushalem or Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) first appears in the Bible, in the book of Joshua. According to a Midrash, the name is a combination of Yhwh Yir'eh ("God will see to it", the name given by Abraham to the place where he began to sacrifice his son) and the town "Shalem".[30] The earliest extra-biblical Hebrew writing of the word Jerusalem is dated to the sixth or seventh century BCE[31][32] and was discovered in Khirbet Beit Lei near Beit Guvrin in 1961. The inscription states: "I am Yahweh thy God, I will accept the cities of Judah and I will redeem Jerusalem",[33][34][35] or as other scholars suggest: "Yahweh is the God of the whole earth. The mountains of Judah belong to him, to the God of Jerusalem".[36][37]

TEL AVIV

Tel Aviv is the Hebrew title of Theodor Herzl's Altneuland ("Old New Land"), translated from German by Nahum Sokolow. Sokolow had adopted the name of a Mesopotamian site near the city of Babylon mentioned in Ezekiel: "Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel Abib, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days."[15] The name was chosen in 1910 from several suggestions, including "Herzliya". It was found fitting as it embraced the idea of a renaissance in the ancient Jewish homeland. Aviv is Hebrew for "spring", symbolizing renewal, and tel is a man-made mound accumulating layers of civilization built one over the other and symbolizing the ancient. Theories vary about the etymology of Jaffa or Yafo in Hebrew. Some believe that the name derives from yafah or yofi, Hebrew for "beautiful" or "beauty". Another tradition is that Japheth, son of Noah, founded the city and that it was named after him.[16]

BE’ER SHEVA

There are several etymologies for the origin of the name "Beersheba": The oath of Abraham and Abimelech (well of the oath) is the one stated in Gen. 21:31. Others include the seven wells dug by Isaac (seven wells), though only three or four have been identified; the oath of Isaac and Abimelech (well of the oath in Gen. 26:33); the seven ewes that sealed Abraham and Abimelech's oath (well of the seven). Be'er is the Hebrew word for well; sheva could mean "seven" or "oath" (from the Hebrew word shvu'a). In this case the meaning is probably "oath", as the ancient Hebrews believed seven to be a lucky number, and the Hebrew "shvu'a" (to take an oath) literally means " to seven oneself".

KINERET

The modern Hebrew name, Kinneret, comes from the Old Testament or Hebrew Tanakh "sea of Kinneret" in Numbers 34:11 andJoshua 13:27, and spelled (Hebrew) כנרות ("Kinnerot") in Joshua 11:2. This name was also found in the scripts of Ugarit, in the Aqhat Epic. Kinneret was listed among the "fenced cities" in Joshua 19:35. The name Kinneret may originate from the Hebrew word kinnor ("harp" or "lyre"), in view of the shape of the lake.[6] All Bible writers use the term "sea" (Hebrew יָם yam, Greek Θαλασσα) except the gospel of Luke, written to Theophilus of Macedonia, where it is called "the lake of Genneseret" in Luke 5:1, from the Greek λίμνη Γεννησαρέτ, (limnē Gennēsaret), the "Grecized form of Chinnereth" according to Easton, who says Genneseret means "a garden of riches".[8] The Babylonian Talmud, as well as Flavius Josephus mention the sea by the name "Sea of Ginosar" after the small fertile plain of Ginosar that lies on its western side.

NEGEV

The origin of the word negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'. In the Bible, the word Negev is also used for the direction 'south'; some English-language translations use the spelling "Negeb". In Arabic, the Negev is known as al-Naqab, though it was not thought of as a distinct region until the demarcation of the Egypt-Ottoman frontier in the 19th century and has no traditional Arabic name. During the British Mandate it was called Beersheba sub-district.[3]

YAM HAMELACH (DEAD SEA)

In Hebrew, the Dead Sea is Yām ha-Melaḥ (ים המלח), meaning "sea of salt" (Genesis 14:3). In the Bible, the Dead Sea is called the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Arabah, and the Eastern Sea. The designation "Dead Sea" never appears in the Bible. In prose sometimes the term Yām ha-Māvet (ים המוות, "sea of death") is used, due to the scarcity of aquatic life there.[8]

YAD VASHEM

The name "Yad Vashem" is taken from a verse in the Book of Isaiah: Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name (yad vashem) better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 56:5). Naming the Holocaust memorial "yad vashem" conveys the idea of establishing a national depository for the names of Jewish victims who have no one to carry their name after death.[1]

HAIFA

The ultimate origin of the name Haifa remains unclear. One theory holds it derives from the name of the high priest Caiaphas. Some Christians believe it was named for Saint Peter, whose Aramaic name was Keiphah.[17] Another theory holds it could be derived from the Hebrew verb root חפה (hafa), meaning to cover or shield, i.e. Mount Carmel covers Haifa;[17] others point to a possible origin in the Hebrew word חוֹף (hof), meaning shore, or חוֹף יָפֶה (hof yafe), meaning beautiful shore.[17][18]

Supporting Materials:

Say My Name Passport Document.doc

JAR_oragami final.docx

CASINO NIGHT: Content Card Blackjack

JAR — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 16:10:48 +0000

Just like blackjack in the casino, but you learn about Israel at the same time!

Curriculum Themes:

A Land & Its People

Materials Required:

Program Duration:

30 minutes

Physical Space:

Indoor Space

Number of Campers:

A Bunk/Cabin/Chug (10-20 campers)

Age of Campers:

Core Learnings:

About the places, people, and innovations of Israel

Israeli money -- the shekel denominations and what they look like (who's on them? what's on them?)

Explanation:

Up to six players and one dealer. The dealer gives each player one card face up and the dealer then gets one card down. The players each then get another card face up, and then the dealer does also (this time face up for the dealer). There is a round where the players try to hit/stay to get as close to 36 as possible without going over. Then the dealer tries to do the same (dealer must hit on 27). ALSO each #11 card (Sharansky, Haifa, Drip Irrigation, Entebbe) can be a 1 or an 11. The betting is accomplished using shekels that are distributed at the beginning of the game and it is a minimum of 10 shekels for each hand/bet.

Variations:

You could limit the cards in the deck so you could play just with the 14 lowest cards in each suit, giving you a true 21 blackjack game.

Supporting Materials:

Curricular Subjects:

Current Events

Ten Cool Ways to Use Israel Resource Cards

Carl Schrag — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 18:14:18 +0000

Here are ten great ways to use the Israel Resource Cards at camp! Feel free to adapt them and add your own ideas. You may download or order your own deck at theicenter.org.

Curriculum Themes:

Materials Required:

Background Cards

Age of Campers:

Core Learnings:

Resource Cards are a great tool for learning countless facts about Israeli history, people, and life

Explanation:

Since they were introduced in 2013, the Israel Resource Cards have become a go-to tool that enhances Israel education at camps and in countless other settings. Check out the ideas listed here, many of which came to us from camp staff across the country. Use any that appeal to you, or let them serve as a springboard for your own excellent ways to put the cards to use.

Designate one day during each session for giving each cabin a Resource Card at breakfast, and task each cabin with finding a way to incorporate something about the person, place, event, or thing into their afternoon rest time programming. At dinner on the same day, after all campers have learned about one card, find a way for campers to share what they have learned. (If campers ever sit with groups other than their cabins for meals, mix up the seating for dinner and ask each camper to share something about the card he or she reviewed at rest hour.)
Hang copies of the resource cards in bathroom stalls around camp. You'll be surprised how many people start to talk about them! (Note: Its great to hang the cards in the stalls, but remember that many campers and staff visit the same stalls time after time. Set a schedule -- nightly, weekly -- to switch the content in the bathrooms around camp so that everyone sees multiple cards.)
Each morning at breakfast, introduce a Resource Card to the campers. You may already have a Hebrew Word of the Day, but a Card of the Day provides opportunities to broaden campers' exposure to important aspects of Israeli history and society. (The Card of the Day can be presented by a shaliach, an American counselor, or even by a rotating group of older campers who prepare their presentations with guidance from the GE or Goodman Fellows.)
Distribute a People card to each camper in your bunk and give them five minutes to learn about the person. Collect the cards and then give the group 10 minutes to engage in a cocktail party round of informal conversation in which each camper must share as much information as possible about his or her character with the other campers. Cabins might want to make a riddle about the People cards part of the nightly bedtime ritual. Units or divisions can have a late-night contest to see which individual camper or team of campers gets the most right answers.
Create a memory game based on the Resource Cards: identify cards that have a parallel in the U.S. (or Canadian) history, such as the David Ben-Gurion card and George Washington, the Knesset card and Congress, Tal Brody and Lebron James, Tel Aviv and New York, the Jordan River and Missisissippi or Colorado river, the Dead Sea and Great Salt Lake, the Negev and Mojave Desert, Hatikvah and the Star Spangled Banner, Israel National Trail and Appalachian Trail, Shekel and Dollar, War of Independence from both countries, Assassination of Rabin and Assassination of JFK, etc. Create cards by gluing the Resource cards, or printouts, onto sheet of construction paper, and gluing images of the parallel North American event to sheets of construction paper also. Start with 30 cards (15 pairs) and have campers gather around the face-down cards to play.
Place Resource Cards at key points on the climbing wall. As campers descend, ask them to share what they learned on their climb.
Go Fish! Played in groups of 2-5 campers, each player selects 7 cards at random. Instruct players to read the information on their cards, and then use their turns to ask other players for specific cards that they think go with their card. For example, a player who is holding the David Ben-Gurion card can ask another player for the Negev card, due to Ben-Gurion's commitment to the sothern region. Each time a player gets a pair, he or she must lay it down and explain the connection.
Place all 80 Resource Cards face-up on the floor and ask campers to do a "gallery walk" and pick two cards that resonate with them. After everyone has picked two cards, campers share their cards and explain why they chose the cards that they did.
Lay out the cards and have people pick one that resonates with them and one that they'd like to learn more about. Go around the circle and let each camper share the cards they picked. The Goodman Educator, Fellows, and/or shlichim can provide nuggets of additional information as people share.
Lay them out and have them pick one from each category (people, events, places, symbols) - have them explain why they chose each and find connections between the cards from the different categories.

Background Cards:

Our Camp's Israel Garden: A Guide to Creating and Programming

JAR — Mon, 10 Nov 2014 18:52:20 +0000

Learn the skills of gardening and the history of Israeli innovation as we create an Israel garden in camp -- full of Israeli fruits, veggies, and herbs that we will harvest and eat together!

Curriculum Themes:

Materials Required:

Program Duration:

Physical Space:

Outdoor Space

Number of Campers:

Age of Campers:

Core Learnings:

How to garden

History of drip irrigation in Israel

What kinds of food grows in Israel

Explanation:

At the beginning of the summer, choose a plot of land to place your garden. The land should have direct sunlight for at least 6 hours each day, and it should be near a water source.

Once you've selected the land, campers can help create the garden. They will need to hoe the dirt, plant guard rails of wood around the garden (laying them down in troughs dug in the ground is an easy way to do this). The point of planting guard rails is to keep the garden dirt firm and in the garden, allowing the garden to be 'boxed in'.

You then need to dig troughs as lines for planting seeds. Determine which items will need to grow where, and how many seeds you want for each item you're planting.

Once planted and watered, there are many interesting ways to integrate Israel into the experience:

Learning about Israeli innovation.
- Start with drip irrigation, one of Israel's claims to fame. You can set up your own drip irrigation system (a long hose with holes in it) or have your campers brainstorm the problem that led to its creation.
- Once you're on the topic of Israeli innovation, learn more about creations that Israel is (and isn't) well known for. Like the cherry tomato strain Israel invented that ripens slowly and stays on the vine, allowing for it to be sold on cluster like grapes, and making shipping easier. (Other examples can be found here: http://www.israel21c.org/technology/israels-top-45-greatest-inventions-o...).
- Have campers look at areas that need innovation in their garden or around camp. How can they use the examples of Israeli innovation to fix their problems? For instance, if the garden is too small for many people to work in it at once, what could they do to maximize the efforts of the whole group? Or if the garden isn't ready to be tended and a group is coming, what could they do with the other campers to help them feel connected to the Israeli garden?
The garden is a great opportunity for campers to learn Hebrew vocabulary. Create Hebrew and English (and transliterated) signage for every kind of plant in the garden. You can even create a poster for a wall near the garden letting everyone see a 'map' of the garden and what is growing where (in Hebrew and English). Also, you can post an enlarged version of the Resource Cards related to Israeli agriculture (Kibbutz, Drip Irrigation) and while you're planting the garden, you can orient the campers to the important role of agriculture in Israel's history.
Talk about argiculture and the landscape of Israel. Part of Ben Gurion's dream was to see the desert bloom. Why did he care about using the desert? Why did Israel spend so much effort in making agriculture work even in the desert? (Hint: The Negev Desert is 60% of the land in Israel).
You can also bring in a lesson about the kibbutz here, discussing with campers the history of the kibbutz movements and its role in agriculture.
You can also learn about the remarkable work of desalination in Israel. Given that much of the water around the desert has high saline content (the Mediterranean Sea), Israel found ways to use the salted water for irrigation of certain crops.

The garden can become the foundation for a wide array of programming (some examples below):

a cabin activity to prune/plant/harvest
a full age group activity to create the garden
an activity to create signage
a cooking class using the harvested foods/herbs
an Israeli meal where campers describe each item using the Hebrew name

Background Cards:

Supporting Images:

Attribution:

Camp Avoda

My Facebook Kotel

JAR — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 17:09:13 +0000

Social Media provides a platform for personal expression and building community, and Israel can be a key component in both of these endeavors. This program offers fun ways to integrate Israel into campers' social media reality.

Curriculum Themes:

A Land & Its People

Materials Required:

Program Duration:

Physical Space:

Number of Campers:

Age of Campers:

Core Learnings:

How to express your opinions appropriately about current events in Israel

Slang and lingo used by Israelis on social media

Israel's history of pioneering advances in technology has played a central role in the global explosion of social media

Explanation:

Our campers are natives to social media technology and it is an integral part of their lives at home. Israel, on the other hand, may seem foreign to them -- certainly as a content piece related to social media. This program aims to bridge that gap and help campers understand the power of social media in helping them keep informed, share their views, and engage in lively respectful discussion about difficult topics.

Opening Game: give each camper a piece of paper and ask them to write a list of words that describe what other people think of them when looking at their Facebook walls. Next, ask them to pick the one word from the list that makes them most uncomfortable, and write it on a label/sticker/nametag that they will affix to their forehead. Now, use a "cocktail party"-style activity in which the group must circulate and interact. Instruct campers to walk the way the word on their label would walk and interact based on the way the word on their label dictates. In essence, campers are asked to become their label for the duration of the exercise.

Debrief: Facilitate a conversation about this opening exercise seeking to encourage campers to begin to think about how their Facbook wall -- much like the labels they were wearing at the cocktail party -- define them and shape how people interact with them. Ask questions such as:

What was your experience?
In what ways does your Facebook wall define you?

After campers have reflected on the experience they just completed, introduce Israel into the conversation: tell the group that they are gong to create a Facebook wall for Israel. Unlike the notes they may have placed in the Western Wall, if they have visited Israel, the messages on this wall are going to be public, just like so many social media posts.

Formulate a list with the group: what are situations that might prompt you to post about Israel? Possible aswers might include:

I saw an Israeli movie
I visited Israel, or want to visit Israel
I heard about an Israeli invention
Something about Israel was on the news
It's an Israeli holiday, or the anniversary of something important in Israeli history

Create an actual Facebook wall for Israel using markers and butcher paper.

Give everyone a chance to think about their own relatinoship to Israel. Encourage them to come up with five ideas of things they might post -- and then to pursue the idea they think is least likely to be repeated by others. Campers can write their posts directly on the Facebook wall, or they can write on slips of paper and then tape them to the wall. As people post their own contributions to the wall, they should be encouraged to comment on other people's messages. You can create small "like" stickers and let campers affix them to any posts or comments that they particularly like.

Variations:

After the conclusion of the activity, hang the paper wall in a public place at camp -- perhaps in the dining hall -- and encourage everyone to add comments and "likes" of their own, This wall can become a physical replica of the virtual world in which campers so frequently express themselves during the year; at camp, it takes on a physical presence, and it focuses primarily on Israel and the camp community's relationship to Israel.

Background Cards:

Supporting Images:

Curricular Subjects:

Attribution:

BB Camp

Someone's in the Kitchen with Golda!

JAR — Fri, 09 May 2014 16:05:59 +0000

Participants will create a presentation of Israel that highlights all 5 senses of the human body.

Curriculum Themes:

Materials Required:

video cameras

Program Duration:

30 minutes

Physical Space:

Open Space

Number of Campers:

Age of Campers:

Core Learnings:

Israel cannot be 'digested' merely as something you hear about, look at pictures of, or watch on tv. It is a multi-dimensional place, with sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and texture, both literally and metaphorically.

Explanation:

Split campers up into groups (with one staff member for each group).

Each group will be given 10 minutes to create a segment of a cooking show. The dish they are cooking is: Israel.

To be clear, this is not a cooking show for an Israeli dish but rather what if the STATE OF ISRAEL was the dish? What would the ingredients be? What would it taste like? Smell like? Feel like in your hands? In your mouth?

Your cooking show must include:

A list of ingredients
Steps for preparing the dish
An anecdote about someone in your group’s personal experience with or in Israel
At least one Hebrew word (not including the word “Shalom”)
A creative title for the show
A special guest chef
Every member of the group must participate in some way in the presentation of the cooking show (be creative with this one – there are no rules to how this is achieved)

After 10 minutes, all groups will be gathered for a quick check in, followed by the next set of instructions:

Using a video-camera or ipad, please film your cooking show. You can spread out to go to a quiet place to film, but you must return to the group in 10 minutes with a finished filmed cooking show segment. Then everyone gathers to watch!

At the end, you can serve Israeli snacks to the campers if you want!

CASINO NIGHT: Content Card POKER

JAR — Thu, 30 Jan 2014 17:06:54 +0000

Content Card Poker is played from a ‘playing’ pack of 52 Goodman Content cards. The cards are ranked (from high to low) Ace, King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. (Ace can be high or low, but is usually high). There are four suits (spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs); however, no suit is higher than another. All poker hands contain five cards, the highest hand wins. So, how do you bet? In Content Card Poker, we use shekels! Not real shekels of course, but paper copies of shekels. This will help participants learn Israeli money. Please see attached shekel images which can be printed and copied.

Curriculum Themes:

A Land & Its People

Program Duration:

1 hour

Physical Space:

Indoor Space

Number of Campers:

Age of Campers:

Explanation:

The Very Basics:

Hands are ranked as follows (from high to low):

Five of a Kind

Straight Flush

Four of a Kind

Full House

Flush

Straight

Three of a Kind

Two Pair

Pair

High Card

Descriptions of Hand Ranks:

Five of a Kind

A five of a kind (which is only possible when using wild cards) is the highest possible hand. If more than one hand has five of a kind, the higher card wins (Five Aces beats five kings, which beat five queens, and so on).

Straight Flush

A straight flush is the best natural hand. A straight flush is a straight (5 cards in order, such as 5-6-7-8-9) that are all of the same suit. As in a regular straight, you can have an ace either high (A-K-Q-J-T) or low (5-4-3-2-1). However, a straight may not 'wraparound'. (Such as K-A-2-3-4, which is not a straight). An Ace high straight-flush is called a Royal Flush and is the highest natural hand.

Four of a Kind

Four of a kind is simply four cards of the same rank. If there are two or more hands that qualify, the hand with the higher-rank four of a kind wins. If, in some bizarre game with many wild cards, there are two four of a kinds with the same rank, then the one with the high card outside the four of the kind wins. General Rule: When hands tie on the rank of a pair, three of a kind, etc, the cards outside break ties following the High Card rules.

Full House

A full house is a three of a kind and a pair, such as K-K-K-5-5. Ties are broken first by the three of a kind, then pair. So K-K-K-2-2 beats Q-Q-Q-A-A, which beats Q-Q-Q-J-J. (Obviously, the three of a kind can only be similiar if wild cards are used.)

Flush

A flush is a hand where all of the cards are the same suit, such as J-8-5-3-2, all of spades. When flushes ties, follow the rules for High Card.

Straight

A straight is 5 cards in order, such as 4-5-6-7-8. An ace may either be high (A-K-Q-J-T) or low (5-4-3-2-1). However, a straight may not 'wraparound'. (Such as Q-K-A-2-3, which is not a straight). When straights tie, the highest straight wins. (AKQJT beats KQJT9 down to 5432A). If two straights have the same value (AKQJT vs AKQJT) they split the pot.

Three of a Kind

Three cards of any rank, matched with two cards that are not a pair (otherwise it would be a Full House . Again, highest three of a kind wins. If both are the same rank, then the compare High Cards.

Two Pair

This is two distinct pairs of card and a 5th card. The highest pair wins ties. If both hands have the same high pair, the second pair wins. If both hands have the same pairs, the high card wins.

Pair

One pair with three distinct cards. High card breaks ties.

High Card

This is any hand which doesn't qualify as any one of the above hands. If nobody has a pair or better, then the highest card wins. If multiple people tie for the highest card, they look at the second highest, then the third highest etc. High card is also used to break ties when the high hands both have the same type of hand (pair, flush, straight, etc).

Supporting Images:

Supporting Materials:

Content Card Playing Deck Description.pdf

CASINO NIGHT: Content Card Bingo

JAR — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 20:53:09 +0000

Come play bingo using the cards of the Goodman deck. It's more than just regular bingo, it's also Israel trivia!

Curriculum Themes:

A Land & Its People

Materials Required:

Background Cards

Program Duration:

30 minutes

Physical Space:

Indoor Space

Number of Campers:

Age of Campers:

Explanation:

The game starts when all the players receive bingo sheets. A bingo sheet is a card/page with a 5x10 grid. 5 columns on the card correspond to 5 letters of the name of Israel in Hebrew "י-ש-ר-א-ל".

24 numbers per each card are random. Each column comes from a different set of cards (save for columns 4 and 5 which both come from People). The center of the card is Star of David that completes a diagonal, horizontal, or vertical line.

When the game begins, the caller selects cards from the Goodman Deck at random and calls them out by biographical information, followed by the name. As soon as the caller describes the picked card, and the players identify which name goes with which number, all the players mark it on their tickets. The winner is determined when one or several of the players complete the winning bingo pattern. The pattern can vary, depending on how hard you want to make the game. It can be vertical, horizontal or diagonal, or a full house (when all the numbers are to be covered).

Variations:

You can make the game harder by not announcing the name of the card, only the biographical facts for the event, person, place, etc.

Supporting Materials:

Bingo Board Template (filled).docx

Bingo Board Template (empty).docx

HOLYLAND SQUARES!

JAR — Sun, 08 Dec 2013 20:40:31 +0000

This is a game based on “Hollywood Squares” that serves as fun Israel trivia with low stakes and many opportunities for learning AND silliness.

Curriculum Themes:

A Land & Its People

Materials Required:

Program Duration:

Physical Space:

Indoor Space

Number of Campers:

Age of Campers:

Core Learnings:

This is broad - everything

Explanation:

The facilitator will select 9 people to sit in the “squares” like a tic-tac-toe box. The best way to achieve this is to have three sit on the floor, three sit behind them in chairs, and three sit behind them on a table (so it’s layered). In each square seat, the person will find a Content Card of a different Israeli personality through Modern Israeli History. While the people in the chairs familiarize themselves with their content card, the facilitator will jump into game-show host mode. The ‘host’ will ask for two volunteer contestants who want to play Holyland Squares. The two contestants will come up and stand to one side of the ‘celebrity panel’ (the squares). The host will ask each contestant their name and a little bit about themselves (have they ever been to Israel? What’s their favorite thing about Israel? etc.). The host will then interview each of the celebrities briefly to find out who they all are.

The way the game works is this:

Each celebrity will be given a piece of paper/poster with an X on one side and an O on the other.
A flip of a coin will decide which contestant goes first.
The first contestant will get to select a square and that celebrity will be asked a question about Israel by the host.
The celebrity can answer the question truthfully or falsely. The contestant has to decide if the answer is true or false. If the contestant is right about the celebrity’s answer, the contestant gets the square and the celebrity turns their paper/poster to the letter (x/o) of the contestant.
If the contestant is wrong about the answer of the celebrity, no X/O is held up and the next contestant gets a turn.
The winner must win the game of tic-tac-toe

Background Cards:

Supporting Materials:

Israel Questions for Holyland Squares.docx

True False Questions about Israel.docx