Some [Last Minute] Lag B'Omer Fun!

Friendship, caves, camping, bonfires, Jewish unity, community and fun! These are just some of the fabulous themes that emerge on the 33rd day of counting the Omer, Lag B'Omer, which we celebrate today. S, who feels a special connection to this day being that he is partially named after one of its most important celebrated and honored historical figures, Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, has already had a bonfire celebration at school today. He was "a little nervous" about the bonfire and quite honestly, I am OK with fire being something that makes him feel "a little nervous." We will all join together this evening with our community for a bonfire and BBQ party but S really wanted to have a "pretend" bonfire in our backyard this afternoon. So while he has been napping (yay) and Y has been repeatedly emerging from his bed and escaping his nap (I have 5391 steps on my pedometer right now from going up and down to put him back in), I have been eagerly setting up some play activities both indoors and outside for our afternoon pre-party!

Out back, we pitched one of our play tents An invitation to build a bonfire with loose parts is set up with fire colored silk scarves, sticks (who knew I'd have a use for the S's growing collection of sticks he must bring home from every place we go), tree blocks and drift wood and other collected natural loose parts. I set our child sized camping chair nearby with a couple of simple DIY "marshmallow" roasting sticks I whipped up this afternoon from cotton balls hot glued to sticks.

Our sensory bin is set out on the ground so both boys can easily reach and it's set up as a Fish, Frog & Flower Pond for the boys to "go fishing." I had some cut flowers in our house that are on the move list after decorating our table for a couple of weeks, and they made such a bright and cheery natural addition to this water table set up. Y in particular has been loving water play lately and with our toasty 90 degree temperatures today, I think both boys will have fun splashing around a bit.

In the theme and spirit of friendship and community, the nature based playgroup I run had a Butterfly Garden Seed Exchange earlier this week. All of our friends went home with a pack of assorted flower seeds to grow and attract butterflies (and other pollinators) at home. I set up a small planting station to sow our seeds this afternoon if we have time, but we may end up getting to this one next week...

We will definitely need to cool off inside before too long, so I have a Squeeze Your Own Lemonade Station set up in our kitchen (that's KID BAIT to get us inside when I get too hot). Then the boys will get to try their hands at marshmallow stamping "fire" onto the letter F. I have some separate marshmallows set aside for snacking so they won't be tempted by the painty ones. If you want to do this activity and not use food, you could make your marshmallow prints using cotton balls glued to a stick rather than actual marshmallows. Alternatively, if you want your entire activity to be edible, use vanilla pudding dyed yellow and orange as paint!

Lag B'Omer is such a fun and festive day. It is a little taste of celebration during the long seven week period between Pesach and Shavuot. Although my activity posting is a bit last minute this year, you can save these in the vault for next year or add them to your summer or camping themed play in the months to come. If you're looking for more ideas about Lag b'Omer activities, check out this post. Don't forget to check out our other Sefiras Ha'Omer posts and, while you're at it, it's not too early to get ready for Shavuot! 

In the late spring and summer, when Shabbos gets a bit long here, we try to incorporate some play and fun into the day. Everyone is very excited to extend the theme of camping into Shabbos this week for a family Living Room Shabbos Camp-In. Stay tuned to see what we're up to! Here's some more camping themed fun to tide you over until then...

Happy Playing!

A Camping We Will Go! And More Lag B'Omer Fun...

Lag B'Omer, literally translated as the 33rd day of the Omer count, marks the anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, author of the Zohar. This great mystic and sage instructed his disciples to mark the day of his death as a day of joy and celebration and indeed, to this day, the 18th day of the Jewish month of Iyar is a day of festivity in Jewish communities worldwide. This day also coincides with the end of a plague that struck Rabbi Akiva's disciples who were mysteriously passing away after quarreling and being disrespectful toward one another. On Lag B'Omer, they ceased to argue and so ended the terrible plague. On Lag B'Omer now, Jewish people celebrate with outings, bonfires, and community wide celebrations of Jewish unity. It is a wonderful time to teach our children about ahavas yisrael (loving their fellow Jew) and to play about the themes of this festive day.


There are many fun play and learning themes in Lag B'Omer. This year, I focused our experience on a camping theme and the idea of friendship/kindness. Join us for some fun dramatic play, a "fireside" singalong, a playful Yoga sequence and a cute craft!

 We began our day by pitching our play tent in the living room. Had we not been experiencing a few rainy, cool days outside, this lesson would have been a fabulous one to take to the yard! My little guy was super excited to play inside! He started by collecting some favorite books to read together inside and then it was time to build our campfire. There are many toys and props that can be used to build a play campfire and if you have a wooded area that is accessible, collecting sticks and twigs can be a lot of fun! It was rather soggy outside, so we used recycled cardboard tubes for logs and kindling and some tissue paper "fire." He had a lot of fun setting up and stacking the "wood" and even created his own little gross motor activity by using his feet to move them from place to place! We sat together around the "campfire" and sang some of our favorite Lag B'Omer and Camping themed songs and action rhymes:

We began with a couple of songs about friendship...
Amar Rabbi Akiva

Amar Rabbi Akiva, amar Rabbi Akiva
V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha (2x)

Shelli shelach, shelach shelach
Shelli shelach, shelach, shelach
Zeh klal gadol batorah!

Rabbi Akiva says, Rabbi Akiva says
To love your friend like yourself (2x)

What's mine is yours, I share with you
If you need me, I'll come through
This is the basis of our Torah!

Make New Friends

Make new friends, but keep the old
One is silver and the other gold!
A circle is round and has no end
That's how long I'd like to be your friend!

Next, we sang a fun little song about camping...

You can sing and adapt your own version of this song
to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell"

This was the perfect segue into our camping themed Yoga sequence. I incorporated some of our favorite Yoga poses into a camping themed story:

We begin in a boat pose [sit in a v-shape balancing on your sit bones with legs and arms raised] and row our boat across the lake. You can sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" as you paddle along. Soon we arrive at our campsite! There are lots of trees [tree pose--stand with one leg balanced against your other shin or thigh and arms out, raised or gathered in the center for balance] and big rocks [child's pose--curl forward over your knees like a little rock] and a place just perfect for pitching our tent [downward dog pose--bend from the waist with feet and hands hip width apart creating a tent shape]. It is already getting dark and the moon [moon pose--stand up with arms raised above head and hands clasped and stretch to one side; repeat on other side] is shining brightly. We must build a campfire so we can cook our dinner! Once the fire is built, we sit around it to roast some hot dogs and sing some camp songs. [Sit in butterfly pose with feet touching or criss-cross and sing a favorite camp song.] Once the hot dogs are done cooking, we sit in chairs [squat in chair position] at a picnic table [begin on back and lift your hips and arms into table pose] and eat our supper. The stars [stand in Warrior Pose with legs wide and arms out to create a "star"] are shining so brightly! Boy are we tired from all the work of getting to and preparing our campsite. It's time to go to our tents [downward dog] and get some rest [lay on back into resting pose--you can invite your young yogis to close their eyes if they are comfortable to play some sounds of nature for them to listen to and see if they can imagine the sounds of the forest].

Well, all of that fun and exercise made us hungry for a snack! The tent was the perfect spot for this and you can even prepare a camping themed snack if you'd like--such as s'mores, or  s'mores trail mix (graham crackers/tea biscuits, mini marshmallows and chocolate chips--I was out of chocolate chips so I substituted pretzels per my son's request).

You might even have some fun singing

The Campfire Pokey
to the tune of "The Hokey Pokey"

You put your marshmallow in
You pull your marshmallow out
You put your marshmallow in and you shake it all about
You do the campfire pokey and you turn yourself around
That's what it's all about!

We love our DIY felt fishing
set for indoor fishing

Fishing is another great outdoor activity related to camping. We had some fun with another little action rhyme and some indoor waterplay and dramatic play. I created a magnetic fishing activity with felt fish that each have a paperclip "mouth." Using a wooden dowel, some yarn, duct tape and a magnet, I created a fishing pole to go with it and we've had fun over the last couple of years going fishing inside with this little activity! If you have a nice day outside or don't mind some waterplay indoors, try out a toy fishing set in a basin of water (or the bathtub) or try your hand at this fun "ice fishing" sensory bin!


As you fish, you can chant this playful action rhyme:

One, two, three, four, five
Once I caught a fish alive!
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let him go again!
Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so!
Which finger did he bite?
The little finger on the right!


 In years past, we've had some fun making Lag B'Omer themed arts and crafts projects. Some of our favorites included painting with marshmallow "paintbrushes" dipped in vanilla pudding dyed with yellow and red food coloring to make a Lag B'Omer bonfire. You can also use regular washable paints and create handprint/footprint bonfires and add cut brown paper for your kindling and logs. One of my favorite arts and crafts projects for Lag B'Omer is one we did last year to create our own little campfire prop that actually lights up!

To make your own, you will need:

• a clear plastic cup
• a paper plate
• brown construction paper, cut into strips for logs/wood
• red, yellow, and orange tissue paper squares/scraps
• a small wooden dowel
• a cotton ball "marshmallow"
• an LED tea light
• glue

To create your own light-up campfire and marshmallow for roasting, begin by gluing on your brown construction paper wood to the paper plate base. For the marshmallow, dip one end of the dowel into glue and stick your cotton ball on top. You will need to pinch it on for a minute to help it stick and then let it dry. Meanwhile, you can create your "fire" by gluing on tissue paper to the outside of the cup. You can crumple the tissue paper or leave it flat for different textures. Once the project is entirely dry, place the cup over top of the LED tea light and turn it on to make your campfire glow. My then younger toddler had SO much fun pretending to roast his marshmallow in the fire! He still uses the project as a little nightlight in his room every once in awhile.




Well, learning and playing about Lag B'Omer and camping has been a lot of fun! We are rained in for a few days but this Sunday, which marks the actual festival is forecast to be warm and sunny. We look forward to celebrating with our friends and community. Until then...


Happy Playing!

For the Love of Letters! (and Numbers...)

Whenever I need a quick and easy to prepare homeschool activity, I know I can count on my toddler's love of letters. We have not exactly done a "letter of the week" this year, but I have introduced alphabet letters, one at a time, over the course of the last several months. I have chosen a specific order of introduction based on studies of child development and early literacy. That said, I do not drill or push worksheets or even have a goal in mind of my toddler being able to recognize letter names and sounds at 2 years old. He does recognize a good number of letters by name and some sounds. Most importantly, however, he loves learning and playing about them! If you've followed our alphabet posts in the past, you'll see how I utilize a multi-sensory approach to introducing both English and Hebrew letters. We do some crafts, some sensory play, some learning activities and a lot of repetition/predictable routine (like the songs we sing when introducing letters or certain materials used to introduce them). Here are a couple of our recent alphabet adventures (along with some of the numbers and counting themed activities we have incorporated as we learn about Sefiras Ha'omer):

Our Munch Monster is a favorite material that I bring out repeatedly for learning new letters. He loves to eat our letter of the week (in magnet form) and proudly displays his favorite "food" in sticky-note form whenever a new letter arrives. 

Mmmm, letter Qq! Quite delicious!

Q-tip painting was a fun (and fine-motor-developing) way to decorate our letter Qq page.

Half of the fun was exploring color mixing, using Q-tips to stir several colors of paint together in an ice cube tray.

Dinosaur collage and plastic dinosaur stamping for letter Dd

We display our letter art for a short while and then it gets saved inside the alphabet book we've been working on inside this binder over the past months. There are many great ways to preserve work like this. You can make your own alphabet book or even laminate your letters for play-dough mats (another great way to practice pre-writing).

Sometimes our letter of the week will incorporate our current theme (we were learning about dinosaurs when these letter Dd projects were made). Other times, I may choose a letter-related theme that my son is particularly interested in. He is right now very interested in zoo animals since we have purchased a membership to our local zoo. That seemed like a great theme to incorporate into learning about the letter Zz this week!

It was the 14th day of the Omer, and we counted 14 zoo animals!

This time, we used a favorite alphabet board book to introduce our letter of the week and my little letter lover immediately found his toy zebra to match the picture on the page!

Even baby brother gets in on the fun and learning with a zoo-themed setup on the activity mat. I recently printed out and laminated the whole alphabet onto colored printer paper to use for just this purpose. Both brothers are enjoying it!

Z stamping and zoo stickers on our letter Zz page. 

Sometimes our letter learning is intentional and at other times it happens naturally. We might point out that zipper begins with our letter of the week as we are zipping up a coat to go outside. While doodling on paper, we might notice a zigzagging line. My greatest feeling of "success" comes when I hear "p-p-p P!" from my little guy who is snacking on potato chips in his car seat and recognized the letter P on the bag! He also loves pointing out letters on signs, trucks, in the grocery store and beyond. As long as he is motivated and interested, I know his love of learning will carry him toward development of literacy skills all in due time. For now, we are learning a lot and happily playing here!

A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Counting the Omer & Numbers/Counting Theme

We counted nine toy cars for the ninth day!

The dust is beginning to settle after the excitement of welcoming home our newest family member and then Pesach. The period between Pesach and Shavuos is a special time as well. Sefiras Ha'Omer, or counting the omer is a way we mark the seven weeks between the two holidays each year. We say special prayers each day as we count and take on certain practices to mark this period of time that will culminate on the 50th day with the sweet holiday of Shavuos--the commemoration of our receiving the Torah. To be quite honest, I had no idea this period of time even existed as a child nor did I even know anything about counting the omer until I was an adult! The deeper meaning behind this time is that we are meant to work on self-refinement as we prepare to renew our special relationship with G-d and His Torah. For young children, it is a great time to introduce both this deeper meaning (at an age appropriate level) while also incorporating the mathematical concepts of counting, one-to-one-correspondence, grouping (seven weeks of seven days) and numbers in general. For very young children, like my toddler, multi-sensory exposure through play is by and far the best way to introduce these developmental concepts. We have set up our play area to incorporate materials that introduce numbers and rudimentary counting activities. We also practice the main bracha (blessing) over the omer each day and introduce a manipulative/small toy in that quantity so he can get a concept through play of what that means.

Our shelf is stocked with some number and counting themed materials, puzzles and games. My toddler especially loves the puzzles (actually a find from our local Dollar Tree). 

A variety of magnetic, foam and felt number manipulatives are great for hands-on exploration, whether it's in a sensory bin, on a magnetic board, in the tub or on our felt wall. 

We found these snap blocks at Target in the fall. Older children can use them to solve simple equations while younger ones can enjoy snapping, building and stacking.

We brought out this learning activity from our previous Community Helpers theme when we learned about teachers. Combining materials like number flashcards (these felt ones are from Target) and mini erasers (these were from Dollar Tree) is a great way to introduce one to one correspondence.

I like to strategically place materials related to our theme all over the place for my little learner to find. He happened to lift up his easel from its tabletop position one afternoon only to discover these little number magnets I'd found at the Dollar Tree.

Eight blocks for the 8th day!

We have incorporated the bracha and counting into our daily davening/circle time routine. My toddler gets quite excited by the element of surprise when I take out this drawstring bag filled with our number of the day and a toy/manipulative. We always enjoy a little time playing with it together and I welcome his desire to add more toys into the mix or work with the material in whatever way interests him. In other words, he need not leave his building limited to 8 woodblocks because it is the eighth day! We do have a couple of other creative ways of tracking our counting on display that you can view below. In addition to counting toys or other small objects, you could also have your child(ren) choose an action to do a number of times to correspond to the number of the day. This allows children to feel that number through whole body learning. Ten jumps on the tenth day is a great way to get on (and off) your feet and just wait until you start creeping up through the thirties--you'll really get your heart rate up then!

At home we use this makeshift abacus to count our seven weeks of seven days. I did this project with my preschoolers last year using cardstock (I couldn't resist the idea of incorporating my fellow number lover, The Count from Sesame Street), yarn and pony beads. The students were able to mostly independently string the beads on of their choice, count their groups of seven and, with assistance, tie off the ends for use at home.

Here is a larger scale abacus using construction paper rings on yarn stapled to a bulletin board. You could create counters in a number of ways, charting one by one with die cuts or paper squares or sticky notes, with a paper chain, on a chart or calendar...

...or with this little DIY tracker using wooden cubes labeled with numbers and the word days. I used 4 cubes and labeled 0-4 on one half and 5-9 on the other. On each cube I wrote the word "days" on the sixth side. You could paint and otherwise decorate them as well. We store and display them on a recycled tin (yes, that's Yoda from Star Wars), though you could also use a match box or simply set them up on any flat surface for display.

Whether you're counting to omer or just looking for ways to incorporate more counting practice into your day, hope you have some fun and inspiration from these simple ideas and activities. We will be back soon with some more fun and learning. Until then...happy playing!