"Mar'ot - Looking at Israeli Art" is a program designed to help young children observe and explore the work of noted Israeli artists. Through the study of the the artworks, children learn about the artist, the media, Israel and themselves. The word Mar'ot means both "sights" and "mirrors."

Mar'ot is a co-production of the Preschool Division of Israel's Ministry of Education and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The kit contains a teacher's guidebook and fifteen poster sized reproductions of works that are part of the permanent collections of Israel's museums.

Sheryl Gilman, Pre-school Director and Co-ordinator at the Solomon Schechter Academy Preschool Department in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, writes to us about the Mar'ot program and its implementation in her school. Sheryl first learned about Mar'ot at the First International Conference for Jewish Early Childhood Educators held in Jerusalem in 1997 to her name.

"We have been slowly adopting the Reggio Emilia philosophy in our school and it has been a truly wonderful growing experience for myself and for the staff. Good discussions, outstanding professional collaboration, small group work, attentive listening, open-ended questioning and loads of documentation have been the essential parts of the plan.

"See the works of over 80 famous young new artists!"

One of the most successful areas, and most challenging, was teaching Israel through the children's questions and explorations. We used the Ma'rot program as one of our tools. Investigations ran deep as the children learned about the artist and the Israeli landscape through the artist's eyes. Eventually it became through the children's eyes! From there, we moved on to the children's interests, presenting new Hebrew vocabulary and expanding our study to include additional aspects of the land of Israel.

Creating an Israeli museum culminated our exploration. Parents, grandparents and other family members visited over two evenings and our *vernissage was a great success! The children were the tour guides and led their families through the museum. A guest book was signed and family members expressed their delight as well as appreciation for all the information the children had acquired. Every class attempted a different project, which not only added variety, but the children learned from each other too!