Note: general recommendations only, not professional advice. You are responsible for checking before use. Take dates from the official school calendar, check facts in reliable sources, and never upload identifying details of students to an AI tool. The full text is at the end.
Who it's for
Homeroom teachers, humanities teachers, social activity coordinators and kindergarten teachers who, every year, prepare lessons, activities and letters for the holidays and special days all over again. The method fits schools in every community and classes with students from several religions and traditions. No technical background is needed. You need an account with Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, your school's holiday calendar and one document where everything is saved.
The problem in three lines
Every holiday arrives "suddenly", and you start searching online for an activity a day or two before. What you find doesn't fit the age, repeats itself every year, and sometimes has factual errors. When you ask an AI tool for "a Hanukkah activity" you get something generic, and on sensitive days like Memorial Day or Holocaust Remembrance Day that can do real harm.
The method in 7 steps
Step 1: A calendar for the year, from the official source
What to do: At the start of the year, build one table of all the holidays and special days relevant to your class, with dates from the official source.
How:
- Take the dates from the Ministry of Education's holiday calendar and from your school's calendar. Don't ask an AI tool for dates, because it can get them wrong, especially for holidays set by the Hebrew or lunar calendar.
- Think about your class: which holidays and days matter to your students? Many classes have Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze or non-religious students. Ask the staff and the parents; don't guess.
- Add the special days your school marks too: Family Day, Good Deeds Day, Rabin Memorial Day, Children's Rights Day and others.
- For each row: name, date, how many lessons it gets, and what kind of day it is (celebration, sensitive day, theme day).
Common mistake: Building the calendar from memory of last year. Dates move every year, and a new class is a new audience.
Step 2: A card for each day
What to do: For each day, write a half-page card. The card is the source for the lesson, the activity and the letter to parents.
How:
- On the card: the name, what is marked in three lines, three key ideas you want students to take away, words and concepts, and the reliable sources you took the information from.
- AI can write a draft (prompt 1), but every fact on the card is checked against a textbook, the site of a recognized institution or a subject teacher. Put the source next to each fact.
- When there are several traditions or interpretations of the same day, write that on the card instead of choosing one for everyone.
- For holidays of traditions you don't know well, ask a teacher, parent or staff member from that tradition to read the card.
Common mistake: Trusting the AI's explanation. AI tools can mix up customs of different communities, invent sources and describe one community's custom as if it were everyone's.
Step 3: Sensitive days get their own procedure
What to do: For days like Memorial Day for Israel's fallen soldiers and victims of terror, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and days linked to mourning or painful events, set a separate procedure in advance.
How:
- Coordinate the plan for these days with the school counselor, the homeroom teacher and the school management. Schools usually already have a framework, and the Ministry of Education publishes age-appropriate materials.
- AI helps here only with technical work: organizing ideas you already decided on, suggesting age-appropriate discussion questions, or simplifying a text you chose. It does not write personal stories, invent testimonies or put words in the mouths of real people.
- Think ahead about students for whom the day is personal, and coordinate with the counselor how to prepare. Never upload these details to any tool.
- Every text used in a ceremony or lesson is read aloud beforehand, by at least two people.
Common mistake: Asking AI for "a moving story for the Memorial Day ceremony". It can invent a fallen soldier, a testimony or a historical detail that never happened, which hurts families and breaks trust.
Step 4: A short lesson plan for each day
What to do: For each celebration or theme day, build a one-lesson plan from the card, with an opening, a main activity and a wrap-up.
How:
- Ask the tool for an outline only, with timings (prompt 2). Read it, fix it, and only then fill in each part.
- The opening: a question, an object or a picture you bring to class, not a long video.
- The activity: something the students do, not only listen to. Pair discussion, a game, making something, interviewing a family member.
- The wrap-up: one question that checks whether the key idea came through.
- When students from different traditions are in the class, invite them to share if they want to, and never ask anyone to "represent" their community.
Common mistake: A lesson that is all lecture about the history of the holiday. Students remember what they did, not what they heard.
Step 5: An activity in three levels and a worksheet
What to do: For each day, prepare one activity or worksheet in three levels: basic, intermediate and challenge.
How:
- All versions check the same key idea from the card (prompt 3).
- The basic version has more support: a word bank, an example, a picture. The challenge version has an open question that asks for comparison, taking a position or a link to the student's own life.
- Don't upload copyrighted songs, stories or illustrations to the tool, and don't ask it to reproduce them. If you want a song, bring it yourself from a legal source and use it in class under your school's rules.
- In kindergarten and the lower grades, the activity is mostly movement, making things and talking. Students don't work with AI tools themselves, and under the Ministry of Education's guidelines generative AI tools are not used with students in the lowest grades.
Common mistake: A "challenge version" that is just more questions. A good challenge asks for a different kind of thinking, not more of the same.
Step 6: A letter to parents and coordination with staff
What to do: For every day with a special activity, costume, food or parent participation, send a short letter to parents in advance.
How:
- The letter is written from the card and the plan (prompt 4): what you'll do, when, what to bring, and what students who don't celebrate the holiday or can't take part will do.
- When food is involved, ask parents to tell you about allergies and dietary or kosher restrictions, and don't collect that information through an AI tool.
- Send it at least a week ahead, in plain language, and in the languages the class parents speak if needed.
- Coordinate with the other teachers in the grade so not everyone does the same activity in the same week.
Common mistake: Assuming every family celebrates the same holiday the same way. One line in the letter about an alternative gives every child a place.
Step 7: A library of days that grows every year
What to do: Save everything you prepared in one folder, by day, so next year you start from the card and not from zero.
How:
- For each day, a folder with the card, the plan, the activity, the letter to parents and one line on what worked and what didn't.
- At the start of next year, update only the dates from the official calendar, and improve based on the notes.
- Share the library with the staff. When several teachers contribute, within a year the school has a full library.
Common mistake: Keeping the materials inside chats with an AI tool. After a month you can't find them, and you don't know what was checked and what wasn't.
Templates
Replace whatever is in square brackets.
Day | Date (official calendar) | Type (celebration / sensitive / theme) | Lessons | Owner | Status
[name] | [date] | [type] | [number] | [name] | [draft / checked / ready]
Day: [name] Date: [from the official calendar] Type: [celebration / sensitive / theme]
What is marked, in three lines: [text]
Three key ideas for students: [1] [2] [3]
Words and concepts: [list]
Different traditions and customs: [if any]
Sources checked: [source name, link or page]
Reviewed by: [name, role]
Dear parents,
On [day and date] we will mark [name of the day] in class.
What we'll do: [one-sentence activity].
What to bring: [if anything].
Students who don't celebrate this day or can't take part are welcome to [alternative].
If there is an allergy, a dietary or kosher restriction, or anything else we should know, please write to me by [date].
Thank you, [name], [role]
Day: [name] What worked: [sentence] What to change next year: [sentence]
Ready-made prompts
Never paste student names, family details or information about students for whom a day is personal into an AI tool. Never use dates, historical facts or quotes from the tool without checking them at the source.
I am a [homeroom teacher / teacher] in [grade]. The class includes students from [traditions and backgrounds, no identifying details].
Write a draft card for [name of the day]: what is marked in three lines, three age-appropriate key ideas, words and concepts.
If there are different traditions or interpretations, mention them and don't choose one.
Mark every fact that needs checking at the source. Don't write dates. Don't invent sources or quotes.
Here is the day card: [paste card].
Build an outline for a [number]-minute lesson for [grade]: opening, main activity and wrap-up. For each part, say what happens, how many minutes it takes and what kind of activity it is (pairs, groups, whole class).
No video in the opening. The main activity is something the students do. Up to 15 lines. Don't write the content itself yet.
Prepare an activity or worksheet on the key idea: [idea from the card], for [grade].
Three versions:
1. Basic: 3-4 tasks, a word bank and one example.
2. Intermediate: 4 tasks, no example.
3. Challenge: 2-3 tasks, one of them open, asking for comparison, taking a position or a link to the student's life.
Don't include songs, stories or copyrighted texts. Only facts from the card I gave.
Write a short letter to the parents of [grade] ahead of [name of the day], up to 120 words, simple and warm.
What we'll do: [activity]. When: [day and date]. What to bring: [if anything].
Add a line about an alternative for students who don't celebrate the day or can't take part, and a line asking parents to tell us about allergies or dietary restrictions.
No superlatives, and don't assume every family celebrates the same way.
Here is the key idea we chose for a class conversation around [name of the day]: [idea].
Write 5 open discussion questions for [grade], from easy to deep. The questions must not require any student to share personal or family information. No new facts I didn't give.
Go through the following lesson plan and activity and mark every fact, date, name, custom or quote that needs checking in a reliable source.
Don't fix anything yourself. Just write a numbered list of what to check and why.
[paste plan and activity]
One-page checklist
At the start of the year
- A calendar from the official Ministry of Education and school calendars
- You checked with staff and parents which days matter to the students in your class
- A procedure agreed with the counselor and management for sensitive days
Before each day
- A day card, with a source next to every fact
- Someone who knows the tradition reviewed the card
- A plan with an opening, an activity the students do, and a wrap-up
- An activity in three levels that check the same idea
- No copyrighted songs, stories or illustrations and no identifying student details were uploaded to the tool
- A letter to parents, a week ahead, with an alternative and a question about allergies
After each day
- A wrap-up line: what worked and what to change
- All materials saved in the day's folder
How you know it works
Write down where you are today, and measure from there:
- Preparation time: how long preparing for a holiday takes, before and after.
- Lead time: how many days before the day the materials are ready.
- Errors: whether a factual error from AI reached the class.
- Engagement: how many students take part in the activity, not just listen.
- Parents: how many last-minute questions from parents arrive, compared with last year.
- Library: how many days are already in the school's library.
Disclaimer
The content here is general recommendations only, and not professional, legal, accounting or tax advice. Every school, class and community is different. Holiday and special day dates are set in the official calendars, and must be checked in the Ministry of Education's holiday calendar and in your school's calendar. Facts, customs and sources must be checked in reliable sources, and for holidays of different traditions it is best to ask people who know them well. The Israeli Ministry of Education publishes guidelines on using AI tools in the education system and updates them from time to time. Among other things, the guidelines forbid sharing personal or identifying information about students with AI tools and limit students' own use of the tools by age. Check the current guidelines and your school's policy before use. Coordinate sensitive days with the school counselor and management. AI tools can make mistakes and invent facts, customs and sources, so you are responsible for checking the templates, the prompts and any material written with AI before it reaches the class or the parents. Do not upload copyrighted material to AI tools. Tools and the terms of external services change, so check them at the source.
The content, prompts and templates are provided as is (AS IS), with no promise that they fit a particular purpose or are free of errors. Gindi Innovation and Aviad Gindi accept no liability for any damage, direct or indirect, caused by using or relying on them, including outputs of AI tools. Use is subject to the site terms.
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