You can choose one, a few, or all of the activities to try. Some will require an element of prep-work. Use what you have on hand and don't drive yourself crazy trying to set up games and activities while preparing for a three day yom tov. Feel free to adapt activities to work for you and your kids. And have fun!
To start, you'll want to visit A Jewish Homeschool Blog to gather your free Rosh Hashanah printables. I've adapted several of them as you will see below to use in our Rosh Hashanah Invitation Stations. You will see that I've laminated many of the items or used dry-erase sleeves for more-than-one-time use, but you do not need to do that. You can easily just print the activity packs or selections of materials you like and use them as is. You can also engage your children who are independent with scissors in preparing activities and games--that's an activity in and of itself! You may also want to print out this free Counting Apples Book from Fun a Day.
Some additional materials you may want to use if you have on hand include:
- markers, crayons, colored pencils, pencils
- glue, scissors
- apple stickers, bee stickers
- solid white gift bags or brown paper bags
- blank note cards & envelopes
- clip art or cut outs of apples (even made from recycled doodles and paintings)
- playdough (check out this recipe for cinnamon scented playdough!) or store bought
- artificial leaves, apples, stems, dried black beans (for parts of an apple)
- dried oats, shredded paper, scoops, tongs, recycled containers for sensory bins
- toy bees, toy apples
- wooden craft sticks, clothes pins
Invitation to Play with Playdough:
This is a favorite of ours, worth repeating! This invitation to create an apple with play dough is so much fun. Here I used cinnamon playdough, artificial leaves, dried beans, cinnamon sticks and some toy apples for reference (along with a library book that shows the life cycle of an apple tree).
Invitation to Play: Sensory Bins
We've had two favorite sensory bins this season:
 |
| Parts of an Apple Sensory Bin: we used dried oats, cinnamon sticks, artificial leaves, toy apples, scoops and containers |
 |
| Busy as a Bee Sensory Bin: we used shredded paper in yellow and black (from the party supply section of Dollar Tree), artificial flowers, a magnifying glass, tons and containers for filling, some toy bees (you might need that magnifying glass to actually spot them!) and I also set out some bee themed artwork/graphics and a set of bumble bee wings (also from Dollar Tree) to inspire play! |
Invitation to Create: Rosh Hashanah Cards and Gift Bags
This is a great one if you have greetings to send out or packages to deliver to friends, family and teachers this time of year:
 |
| I set out a variety of art materials, stickers, some sentence strips to inspire even pre-writers (who still are gathering the concept that letters make words and words can make messages!)...this is an activity that is sure to keep little hands busy! |
Invitation to Play Games:
Here are a variety of Rosh Hashanah games prepared from the free printables linked above. Younger ones may need an older child or adult play partner.
 |
| Rosh Hashanah Parts of a Whole |
 |
| Rosh Hashanah Hebrew Word Match-it |
 |
| Clothes Pin Counting Cards |
 |
| They come in Hebrew Letter Cards, too! If you don't have clothes pins at home, you can use a paper clip, a penny, a mini eraser or small loose part or even use these un-laminated and have the children use bingo dabbers or circle the correct answer for one-time use. |
 |
| Counting apples game: Little ones won't even notice they're doing math as they use tongs to pick the correct number of apples from the basket to correspond to the number on these apple cards (printable also from the link above) |
Speaking of Counting...Invitation to Create a Counting Book:
This one is great to create a fun keepsake your early reader will love to read again and again after decorating!
 |
| We used red circle stickers for our "apples" but you can use red ink and fingerprints, stickers, bingo dabbers or even provide loose parts (like pom poms) to use with the book (printable linked above) |
Invitation to Decorate a Tzedakah Box
 |
| Here's another printable from the activity pack linked above. I subbed in yellow circle stickers for the yellow circles that came with the coloring sheet. Your little artist can have fun decorating the tzedakah box and adding in the sticker "coins" as we recall that this is an auspicious time of year to be extra charitable. |
This is one of the first toys I made when S was about Y's age! For smaller babies you can use baby food jar lids as your coins. I like using plastic coins from the Dollar Tree in ours. All you need to make it is a recycled plastic container with a lid (I like the ones from Hershey's brand cocoa powder) and an exacto knife to cut the slot at the top. With the Hershey's container, the "Hershey's" insignia is just the right size for your opening! Very little ones will love putting the coins inside, shaking it and as they get older, emptying it out and doing it again! S actually still loves to play with this.
Do keep an eye on little ones with small pieces that could present a choking hazard and make sure your "tzedakah" is not too small for tiny mouths!
To add an element of challenge for older toddlers, use two different colored containers and corresponding colors of bottle caps or poker chips for a tzedakah sorting game. (For example, cut a slot in the top of a couple of those take and toss plastic storage containers in red and blue and save your milk caps or applesauce pouch caps for the coins!)
And for more baby/young toddler friendly Rosh Hashanah play activities, check out this post!
For more fine motor fun, here's a lovely holiday themed lacing activity also available from the link above:
Alternatively, you can cut individual Rosh Hashanah themed shapes from cardboard or cardstock and hole punch the perimeter for a set of holiday lacing shapes.
I love using props with songs and action rhymes. With this playful counting rhyme, your little one will also be learning mathematical concepts like counting, division, and, with the addition of props, one-to-one correspondence!
Ten Red Apples
Ten red apples grew up in a tree
Five for you and five for me!
Let us shake the tree just so
And then red apples will fall below!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!
 |
| This was another creation from S's baby days. We upcycled (and laminated) some of his paintings into apples for counting along with this playful rhyme. It's also a great activity to go along with the book Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss. |
 |
| Invite your little engineer to build apple trees using recycled cardboard tubes, green craft sticks (you can paint/color plain ones green or purchase colored craft sticks) and apple colored pom poms. How many craft sticks and pom poms can you balance on top before it topples? Add an element of sorting by designating one tree for each apple color if you wish! |
 |
| Help this busy bee build his hive using craft sticks to trace the hexagon. |
I hope this inspires some fun and play in your household as holiday preparations take off. May we all be blessed with a sweet, healthy, happy and playful new year!
From our family to you and yours, shanah tova u'mesukah!
No comments:
Post a Comment