Pupils at the Weizmann School conduct extensive joint activity with 6 classes at two different schools in Ohio:  The Akiva School in Youngstown and the Lippman School in Akron. 

The various activities take place in the context of special joint programs for each class pair.  The activities are devoted to topics of Jewish interest and to issues of a personal nature.

In preparation for Tu B'Shvat all of the fourth graders at the Akiva School drew trees (without coloring them in or decorating them) on construction paper.  Vered, the fourth-grade teacher, photographed each pupil together with his tree, and sent the pictures of the children and their construction-paper trees to us at the Weizmann School in Akko.

Every fourth-grader at Weizmann received one of the tree-drawings prepared by his partner overseas, as well as the photograph of his partner.  The pupils then glued, colored and decorated the trees.  Aliza, the art teacher, guided the pupils in their work, while the Rachel, the Partnership 2000 coordinator, photographed each pupil with his tree.  The trees and the pictures of the children were then sent back to the Akiva School in Youngstown, where they were hung as ornaments in the school corridor.

Due to the success of this activity, which the children enjoyed greatly and which was accompanied by a feeling of true partnership, it was decided to hold a similar activity in preparation for Passover, this time with seder plates. 
(Yearit, insert pictures of children with the trees here)

As the year drew to a close we sat down with our partners and thought about how we could end the year with an impressive activity.  We decided that we would make gifts for each other, each gift containing a symbol of partnership, a symbol of summer, and a symbol of Judaism.

Each Partnership 2000 class prepared a huge letter with greetings and wishes for the summer vacation.

Every fourth-grader wrote a concluding letter to his partner and decorated a shirt for him/her, on which he/she also wrote a dedication.  The pupils were photographed with their shirts.  The shirts, the letters and the photographs were sent to the partner school, where the pupils received the shirts, were photographed with them, and sent the pictures back to Weizmann via e-mail.

Thus, at year's end, each pupil received from his/her partner abroad an individually-designed shirt.
(Yearit, please insert the pictures of the pupils with the shirts here)

All of the Weizmann fifth and sixth graders wrote concluding letters to their partners and decorated hats for them on which they also wrote dedications.  The hats were sent as end-of-year presents to the twin schools and were distributed to the partners.

At the same time, the Ohio pupils made candlesticks for their partners at the Weizmann School.  The candlesticks were sent to us here in Israel and each set was distributed to the appropriate partner.

The end-of-year presents were presented to the pupils at a morning assembly that served as the concluding assembly for the current Partnership 2000 activity year.