Tu bishvat in Linda Pereg’s Gan in Ramat Bet Hakerem, Jerusalem With special thanks to Margalit Kavenstock For taking the photos!

This is the supermarket in Bet Hakerem Jerusalem in honor of Tu Bishvat

On Rosh Chodesh Shvat (the beginning of the Hebrew month of Shvat) the children in Linda’s gan have a special meal in honor of the day.

This year, Linda and the children are learning about medicinal herbs that grow in Israel and that were used in the Torah. They examine the plants, hear stories and learn about how each plant can be used to make you feel better. This is a display of all the different kinds of herbs the children are studying.

The children crush herbs with a mortar and pestle and make mixtures that can be eaten or used to make your skin feel better or to heal a cut.

The children crushed the spices with a mortar and pestle and made a tasty spread from Olive oil and zaatar – a spice called hyssop that grows in Israel. When they finished they ate bread and zaatar for their morning snack.

The oil that comes from some of the herbs is very nice for a massage! Linda, the teacher knows how to give massages. The children signed up, made tickets and stood in line to get a massage. Linda used Aloe Vera gel that the children made. After everyone got a massage, they volunteered to give Linda a massage.

This shelf is right when you walk Into the gan. On each shelf is a different kind of leave or spice. On the top shelf are aley dafna – Bay leaves, on the second shelf cloves. The children and parents touched and smelled the spices and leaves and wrote down what it reminded them of. On the bottom shelf is a placemat made with leaves that were collected in the neighborhood.

Another thing the children did was to make shekadiyot – almond trees from popcorn!

Every child has an individual garden outside in the play yard. Together with their parents, they planned and planted the mini gardens.