A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Getting Ready for PURIM

The Jewish month of Adar is welcomed with two days of Rosh Chodesh, beginning at sundown this Saturday night and continuing through Monday evening. This is a month in which we are commanded to increase our joy and happiness as we get ready to celebrate the holiday of Purim! Purim is one of the most joyful and fun holidays for children and adults alike. We wear costumes and enjoy a festive meal. We eat special treats like hamentaschen and give gifts of food (shalach manot) as well as extra tzedakah (charity) to those in need. One of the most important parts of Purim is hearing the Megillah, a story that recounts the Jews' miraculous deliverance from the wicked rule of Haman in the days of Queen Esther of Persia. While the story is quite graphic and can even be frightening (particularly for young children), we value the importance of teaching it in an age appropriate manner to our children and my very favorite way to teach is through play and hands-on experiences. The day of Purim is one we spend as a family giving out shalach manot to friends and neighbors, attending Megillah readings, parties and festive meals at our local shuls and celebrating with delicious treats and fun costumes. At home, we are already getting into the Purim spirit with some themed playroom set-up.

Purim is holiday that is fun for all ages! Even as a baby, my son loved making noise with graggers...

...and dressing up in costume!

Some of our highlighted activities will include:

delivering shalach manot to neighborhood friends last year

• a dramatic play shalach manot sweets & treats shop
• a field-trip to our post office to send out shalach manot to family members who are not nearby
• learning activities to explore the shape of a triangle--a common theme in Purim related to the shape of Haman's hat and our favorite Purim cookie, hamentaschen!
• invitations to build castles using a variety of mediums and building materials 
• story telling and sequencing using costumes, sensory bins, felt boards, books, puppets and props as well as songs, music and movement
• a science exploration of different sounds and instruments related to the use of graggers (noisemakers) to blot out the wicked Haman's name during the reading of the Megillah
• a cool hands-on science exploration to excavate "treasures" from an ice castle
• some Purim themed gross motor games to get us moving indoors and out
• games and learning activities to build descriptive language for different emotions and recognition of facial expressions
• cooking and baking activities to prepare holiday treats
• plenty of dramatic play and opportunities to wear and create costumes
• process art and project opportunities to make festive decorations and holiday props

 Here's a peek at some of our favorite activities and materials from Purims past! I hope you'll join us over the days to come as we explore some great learning and play activities in our home preschool.

Counting Crowns combines foam crown shapes (Dollar Tree) with numerals and corresponding dots for visual representation along with glass gems (you can use plastic jewels, buttons, sequins or beads) to help teach one-to-one correspondence for younger mathematicians

More advanced mathematicians can begin simple adding activities with the same materials

We love using a variety of props to retell the Purim story. Puppets, costumes, pictures and flannel board sets make story telling and sequencing activities a fun, hands-on experience.

Last year, each of my students (ages 4-5) helped to make their own version of this felt story Megillah using a large rectangle of felt and two Velcro dots for secure closure. We included laminated castles and story characters with Velcro dots as well so that they could enjoy some quiet story telling while the Megillah was read in shul, a time when we are commanded to hear each and every word. As it is so important for children and adults alike to hear the Megillah, we must get creative with ways to include and engage our children while limiting any extraneous noise (other than the important use of graggers and noisemakers to blot out Haman's name!) so that everyone can fulfill this special mitzvah together!

We had a lot of fun dying our own rainbow rice last year for a Purim themed sensory bin!

Small costume props and jewelry, toys and castle shaped buckets made for some great small world play to retell the story of Purim in our sensory bin. This year we are looking forward to adding one more theme-related element to a fresh batch of play rice: a sweet orange scent to remind us of Persia, where the story of Purim took place!

For some additional great ideas and materials, check out this free, printable Purim Activity Pack and 25 Fun Activities for Purim, both provided by the wonderfully talented blogger of A Jewish Homeschool Blog.

If you're looking for a simple, free printable castle coloring page for some Purim story themed artwork, check out this one!

Here are some great free printable photographs of actual castles to inspire your little architect courtesy of the blog "Fun-A-Day."

We bake hamentaschen every year using our favorite family recipe. We also had a lot of fun using this peanut butter playdough recipe to practice shaping (and eating) hamentaschen last year! It's a great one for kids--WARNING: adults may like it, too!

Hope you're feeling as excited for Purim as I am, now and that this will tide you over until my next Purim-themed post. Until then...

 Happy Playing and may we all experience an increase in joy this month!