Playing About Purim: Part 3

Excitement about Purim is definitely building here as we count down the days and sleeps until the holiday begins after Shabbat this week. My son is already so excited to hear the Megillah on Saturday night and to deliver shalach manos on Sunday. He spends a good part of his days in some semblance of a costume, cheerfully singing Purim songs and playing along with his graggers and toy instruments. (My house is anything but quiet right now and it appears we may be raising a young Ringo Starr!) As we are counting down, it seemed only fitting to include some activities into our learning and play routine that involve counting!

One of my son's favorite Purim books for the last two years has been One, Two, Three Purim! by Naomi Shulman, illustrated by Nora Hilb. This was a book we received through PJLibrary when a couple of years ago and through it's adorable illustrations and simple, repetitive text, it captures the main mitzvos and customs of the Purim holiday in a way young children can really grasp and appreciate. I honestly think my son knows more about what to expect on Purim because of this little board book than any of the other ways we have taught him! PJLibrary's website also offers some great articles and ideas of ways to celebrate Purim in your home.

Counting has been a favorite activity of my son's for quite some time. So often these days as we are eating a snack or climbing stairs or even walking through the neighborhood, he will stop to say "Mommy, let's count!" And together we will count his pretzels or the steps as we climb or the number of trucks we see parked on the street. His verbal/auditory awareness of counting are ahead of the game of his numeric recognition and one-to-one correspondence for now, but since he does show an interest in such activities, I include math materials in our play area for him to explore and manipulate. I work with him on these activities and we play as long as he is interested. I do not push beyond that point--he has PLENTY of time to gain math skills as he grows!

He enjoyed sitting together with this material I created using a page of this great free printable Purim activity pack. With young learners like my son, it's helpful to show them the hamentaschen in the baskets and that this is what we are counting! A large felt rectangle makes for the perfect work space when you laminate each part and add a dot of Velcro to the back. Older learners can use materials like this more independently and they are great for quiet times!

After we finished working with the previous activity, he wanted to do more counting! I pulled out our tray of Counting Crowns for some hands on practice with one-to-one-correspondence. Recognizing written numerals and even quantities of dots can be still challenging for early learners. Manipulating small parts (like these glass gems from the Dollar Tree) helps them really get a feel for each number as they count. Including multiple sensory areas in a learning activity (like the fine motor/touch, visual recognition, auditory/verbal skills called upon in this material) helps to address all styles of learning as a child works to develop a skill. As an added bonus, anything shiny and treasure-like is a big hit right now with this little guy!

Songs and music are also a great way to reinforce key concepts of the holiday. My son is especially fond of singing the popular Hebrew song, Chag Purim. He likes to sing it in both Hebrew and English! Some of the songs we sing together are older, traditional songs and others are newer ones. One song he particularly likes is this one:

P-U-R-I-M!
t.t.t.o. "Bingo Was His Name-O"
There is a special holiday
And Purim is it's name, oh!
P-U-R-I-M, P-U-R-I-M, P-U-R-I-M
And Purim is it's name, oh!

He especially enjoys it because it's the exact tune I've used to teach him the spelling of his own name and he also loved using magnet letters on his easel to go through the song. He really got a kick out of me hiding one more letter each time we sang until all of them were gone and then putting them back in order at the end! We used a plastic magic wand from his dress up to point to the letters as we sang and I was actually quite impressed with his letter recognition at this point.

Speaking of letters, it was time to learn another new one this week, and the letter Pp is a perfect candidate. We got out the glue and some small pom-poms for this project:

And speaking of things we love that begin with the letter Pp, we hadn't made playdough in a while! I set out the step stool for this kitchen activity and invited my son to join me in pouring in ingredients and carefully stirring our favorite stove-top playdough recipe.

He loves hindering helping in the kitchen these days! It takes an added dose of patience (and sometimes clean-up), so I try to see it an investment plan that he will be able to do things more independently as he gets older and be as useful in a kitchen as my husband is (who does more than half of the cooking here right now) when he grows up!

Welcome to our Playdough Hamentaschen Bakery! Our finished playdough, some round cookie cutters, a rolling pin and pom-poms for "jelly" made the perfect accessories to this activity and I think having a hand in making the playdough added to his enjoyment of the experience at large.

As always, play is a huge part of our process right now. This orange scented "Persian Rice" Purim themed sensory bin has been a real winner here. He seems to find some new way to play and explore in it each time we get it out! On this occasion, he was using the small plastic goblets to "make kiddush" and the tiny spoon and tea set to practice transferring the rice. During other play sessions, he enjoys engaging in dramatic play with the horses and "feeding them" or dressing up in the costume jewelry!

With just a few days left until Purim begins, it's time to pack up our shalach manos for delivery. Join us next time for a peek into our Shalach Manos Shoppe! Until then...

Table Time on this particular morning was an Invitation to Decorate Masks. He loved gluing on a variety of sequins, rhinestones and pom-poms--and as you can see, costumes are a big part of our holiday fun!

Happy Playing!