What do the Trees do?

Family reading advice

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 A song that has been turned into an illustrated book gives readers the opportunity to experience it differently, understand it anew, or refamiliarize themselves with it. Therefore, when reading such books for the first time, try not to be tempted to “sing the book”, but instead to read it as you would any other story.

The wonderful children’s author and poet Ayin Hillel (1926–1990) was born and raised in Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek. Although he was a landscape architect by profession, more than anything else he enjoyed writing poems for all ages. David Polonsky is among the most prolific Israeli illustrators. Internationally renowned, he has illustrated well-known children’s books, created film animation, held numerous exhibitions, and is the recipient of many awards.

Time goes by

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Questions stimulate discussion and thinking. You can look at the illustrations in this book and ask: What is the boy doing on each page? What does he look like in the beginning of the book? And what does he look like at the end? You can be inspired by the illustrations to look at old pictures of yourself, seeing how you have grown, and ask questions – What was I doing when I was one year old? And what am I doing now? What have I discovered and learned since then?

What do they do?

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What does a washing machine do? And what does the ceiling do? Following this book, you can walk around your home or outdoors, and ask questions about the things you see around you: “What do they do?” 

Discovering the world

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This book asks many questions and gives a range of amusing answers to them. It invites you and your child too to explore and discover together; you can ask your child – What else do trees do? What else do clouds do? You can even make your own book of questions & answers. Write them down and add some illustrations. Any time a new question comes up, you can add it to your book, and look for the answer.

QR Code

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The music for Ayin Hillel’s well-known and well-loved song was composed by Naomi Shemer, and has since become an Israeli classic. Scan the QR code to listen to it.

Pinterest

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Arts & crafts, songs, and other activities can be found on the Sifriyat Pijama Pinterest page.