First national season · 2026/27
From the first touch of sand to a stage of their own
Israel's first national season of school sand animation, 2026/27. A ready-to-run school lab: equipment, a 30-lesson program, teacher training, a final performance and a national festival.
First season in numbers
Updated September 29, 2026sample
- first-season schools
- 24
- cities
- 16
- groups
- 60
- lessons held
- 156
- sand works created
- 260
What it is
Permanent learning infrastructure for the entire school year
School Art Lab is neither an equipment sale nor a series of one-off workshops. The school gets a working lab, a year-long program and a trained teacher from its own staff. The work continues all year and culminates in a school premiere and a national festival.
It is not
- A turnkey equipment sale without a curriculum
- One-off workshops by visiting artists
- An after-school club with no path or outcome
It is
A lab inside the school
Seven light tables and a demonstration system in an ordinary classroom.
A year-long program
30 sequential lessons for each age group.
The school's own teacher
Lessons are led by a staff teacher who has completed 12 hours of training.
A stage and a festival
A final performance, a school premiere and a national festival.
Why schools need it
A screen can drain children — or become a way to express themselves
What we see in classrooms
Digital fatigue
Hours in front of screens without any sense of doing something yourself.
Passive consumption
Content arrives ready-made, and the child remains a spectator.
Fragmented attention
Short attention spans make it hard to follow a plot or a sequence.
School anxiety
Fear of mistakes and of the blank page holds children back from trying.
What sand offers
Hands-on contact with a natural material
Hands work with a warm, living material, and attention returns to the body.
Images that keep transforming
One shape flows into another: the child drives the transformation instead of watching it from the sidelines.
Co-creating at the light table
Two children at one station learn to agree, keep a shared pace and continue a partner's drawing.
Sand animation turns the screen from a source of stress into a tool for self-expression and self-regulation.
Try it yourself
Draw something on the light table
This is how every lesson begins: a palm pushes the sand aside, and light shines through. Run your mouse or finger across the table and feel the sand respond.
Press and drag
How it comes together
Seven steps from an empty classroom to a national stage
01
Equip
Light tables and a camera installed
02
Train the teacher
A 12-hour course and lesson cards
03
Form groups
Up to 4 age groups of 12 children
04
Teach 30 lessons
A sequential path through the year
05
Create a performance
A team work by each group
06
School premiere
A show for the school and parents
07
National festival
The highlight of the season
One kit, many students
One kit for the whole school
A single lab serves four age groups throughout the school year.
- age groups
- 4
- children per group
- 12
- students a year
- 48
- group lessons a year
- 120
4 groups × 12 children = up to 48 students
- Grades 1–2
- Grades 3–4
- Grades 5–6
- Grades 7–9
Founding Schools
You can only become part of the network's history once
Schools that join during the first national season, 2026/27, receive the permanent honorary status of Founding School, their own IL number and a place on a map that will, over the years, become the record of how the network began.
You can buy equipment later. You can take a course later. But you can become part of the project's history as a first-season school only once.
24 schools have already joined the first season.sample
Festival
The National School Sand Animation Festival
The highlight of the season. Group team works take the stage — with no individual rankings and no losers.
Age leagues
Junior A
Grades 1–2
Sensorimotor Discovery
Junior B
Grades 3–4
Character and Story
Middle
Grades 5–6
Sand Morphing and Teamwork
Senior
Grades 7–9
Directing and Studio Production
School stories
Case studies and testimonials
This section will grow as the first groups get to work. We publish only real stories, with the schools' consent.
Case study placeholder · 01
A school's story will appear here
The first groups of the 2026/27 season are just getting started.
The first step
Let us run a 20-minute live demo session for your school's core teaching team
We'll show a light table in action, walk through the program and answer the principal's and vice principal's questions. No commitment required.