Noa Hadar proudly showed a visitor her terrarium made out of a water bottle.
“It’s growing,” she said in Hebrew, pointing to a tiny sprout visible amid the dirt.
For the past two weeks, the pre-kindergarten class at the South Peninsula Hebrew Day School in Sunnyvale has been immersed in a class about Tu B’Shevat, learning about ways to preserve the environment.
In one corner of the classroom, trash bins were separated into aluminum, paper and plastic categories. The students had to bring in recyclables from home to deposit them in the right place.
“You should bring the plastic spoon you used yesterday,” said Oren Merry, “because if you throw it away, you can’t make stuff out of it.”
Last week, the students made their own paper. With the help of their teachers Elaine Harris, Tamy Bublil and Susan Gavens, the 4-year-olds watched newsprint soaked in hot water being ground up in a food processor. Then, they took the pulp in their hands and pressed the water out of it using a mesh screen placed inside a hard plastic box, which flattened it into paper. They then decorated it with glitter and Stars of David.
Emma Vainish explained how they sprouted beans inside plastic bags using moistened cotton. “You have to put in water,” she explained.
Barbara Goldstein, director of early childhood education, said it’s not too early to begin teaching the children tikkun olam and other such values.
“Just in the everyday things that children do, we use the Hebrew term,” she said. “For example, respect others is kavod. Recycling is tikkun olam.”
Many of the children have a head start. The class is at least half bilingual, sons and daughters of Israeli transplants.