Montessori Inspired Activities for Shavuot

One of the things that I absolutely just love about the Montessori method is how the children are encouraged to use all five senses to explore their little world. Here are some Montessori inspired activities that we have done/are going to do in preparation for Shavout which do just that~

Remember, when your kids are little (under 6) it is not about feeding them content and information about the holiday (teaching your 4 year old to memorize the different names of Shavuot!) - its about letting them discover the holiday through their own five senses, looking at pictures, tasting the foods, preparing the foods, feeling things that connect to the holiday, smelling things that connect to the holidays and listening to things that connect to the holiday.

In Shir Hashirim, the Torah is compared to the sweetness of "milk and honey under your tongue".

Set out a tray with milk for the kids to pour into a cup to drink with a straw. Then have the kids pour some honey into a small bowl and taste it with a small spoon. 

 Here are some wonderful books to read for Shavuot:

A Dozen Daizies for Raizy - A little girl giving out her daisies that she bought for Shavuot

 When the World was Quiet - How the entire world was completely quiet when the Torah was given on Har Sinai

Shavuos with Binah, Benny and Chagai Hayonah - this is for older kids, filled with lots of information and stories about Shavuot

Dovid the Little Shepherd - Since David Hamelech's birthday is on Shavuot, it is an appropriate time to read the story of David as a young shepherd and how he took such good care of his sheep.

We learned that at Matan Torah you could HEAR the lightening and SEE the thunder. Take out books from the library and learn about thunder and lightening.

Flowers bloomed all over Har Sinai. Have the children arrange flowers in a vase. Fill it with water then cut the flowers off the stems to arrange in the vase. You can use these for Shavuot.

Go outside with a scissors and cut flowers from the garden to put in a vase.

Plant flower seeds. Get a small pot, have the children fill it with dirt from outside, plant the seeds and water it every day. The kids will be so excited as they watch their little seed turn into a little bud, then into beautiful flowers.

 Collect a bunch of flowers and smell each flower. Divide them into two groups- flowers that have a smell and flowers that don't.

Using Playdo (Click here for the recipe- I just added 1/2 cup cocoa to make it brown) let the kids shape it into a mountain and decorate it with pretty stones and flowers. Have little people that they can set up as the Jews around the mountain. This was a BIG hit, the kids LOVED doing this!

I drew a flower pot and my daughter decorated it with feathers, pom poms, glitter and colored it in.

 I got this idea from Pinterest (Click here to check it out) but my kids wanted to do it their own way. My daughter actually collected real flowers and glued them onto her plant. My son decided to collect real flowers and draw each flower onto paper, cut them out and glue them on. He is four and did this all by himself.

 Classic Montessori puzzle- learning the parts of the flower.

\

We eat dairy on Shavuot. Have the kids scoop their own ice cream into a bowl, then eat it!

Make your own ice cream:

Pour the following into a small ziploc bag-

1 cup of milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 Tbs. honey

Place the bag into a large ziploc bag that is filled with ice and 6 Tbs. salt.

Seal it well and throw the bag around for about 10 minutes. It should turn into ice cream.

Shavuot means weeks. There are SEVEN weeks between Pesach and Shavuot. There are SEVEN days in a week. Using fruit counters count to seven.

 Practice writing the number seven using sandpaper numbers and write it in sand. 

 Talk about Shavuot. Using miniatures, have the kids hold them as you discuss the different things. Talk about how we learn Torah all night on Shavuot, and if they plan on staying up to learn too. Talk about dairy foods and what other foods are made of milk. Where does milk come from? Have some miniature cows available. Whatever little things you have, use when talking about them. 

Here are some great products I use for Shavuot~

So there you have it- I hope its helpful!
Wishing you all a wonderful week,

Always,

Parshas Yisro- The Luchos

Okay... I'm back with my baby wipes caps:)

This time, we made our own Luchos (tablets with the 10 Commandments)-

Here's what we did:

Took a piece of thick cardboard and covered it with this funky scrap-booking paper that the kiddos picked out.

Then glue gunned the wipe covers to the cardboard, 5 on each side:

Kiddos then decided what colors they wanted the cover of each cover should be and settled on a red and white pattern- their own unique creation.

My big guy then wrote Alef-Yud (for each commandment) on each paper and we glued them onto each cover.

Using 2 pages listing the 10 commandments from Parshas Yisro in My Parshah Reader, I made 1 copy of each. We cut out each one (one in English, one in Hebrew) and glued it inside the correct letter.

The kids really love opening and closing each one. Its great for discussions on each mitzvah. We might get more creative over the week and maybe add a picture in each one... but you can really add your own twist on this project.

And here's just a very cool thing we did that I wanted to share-

Using the tea cans from Starbucks, I covered them with different colored card stock, made a label, stuck it on and voila... some great quality storage bins that look really cute all lined up next to each other.

Just like the baby wipes, we have lots of these tea cans (we are tea drinkers in this house:) and they are so cute and so sturdy. Go us for saving the environment!

On a blog roll, so until next time~

Torah, Torah, I Love You...

"Little Torah, Little Torah, Let me hold you tight!

Teach me, Teach me, all your mitzvot so I can do them right!

The Torah teaches every Jew, Torah, Torah, I Love You!"

Simchat Torah is such a fabulous Holiday- the reading of the Torah goes on portion by portion throughout the year, throughout the ages, in everlasting cycles. The Torah is concluded on Simchat Torah, but it is also immediately started again from the beginning. This shows that there is no end to the Torah and that it must be read and studied constantly, over and over again.

And so here are a few things we have been doing~ preparing for the great celebration!

We spoke about how a Torah is written on Parchment using a Quill and ink... then we used a feather and paint to create our own "quill and ink" experience:

Then, what started out as this project which I got from Chabad.org to make your own stuffed Torah from felt...

...turned into the most adorable Torah puppets- thanks to my 2 year old who found the Torahs drying on the table with the bottom part not yet sealed... he stuck his chubby little hands in and before we knew it, everyone had their own Torah puppet! It was such a hit- they made a whole puppet show singing all the Torah songs they know. So much for the little stuffed Torahs, but I guess there's always next year:)

Of course, we made Simchat Torah flags... and being the Montessori inspired mom that I am, I gave each munchkin a piece of white card-stock with a glue stick and put a box filled with all types of goodies in the middle of the table giving them the freedom to make their very own original creations...

Once completed, they went outside and each found a strong branch to use as the stick for the flag. We taped it on with strong packing tape and are keeping it on the wall until Simchat Torah.

Here's a little game that the munchkins actually made themselves. We used a paper plate and cut it into a smaller circle. Using a marker and a ruler (my big guy LOVES using rulers), we divided the circle into 6 sections. My big guy stuck little Torah Stickers in each section numbering 1-6. We then took paper clips and stuck the numbers 1-6 onto each one:

He then gave it to his little sister and explained to her how to clip the correct number on the paper clip to the correct amount of Torah's on the chart:

Good job kiddo!

Here are a few other toys and books we have been using in connection to Simchat Torah:

This is also a great link to adorable songs on each Parshah- and since we are starting at the very beginning next week, I thought some of you might enjoy using it as you teach each weeks Parshah to your little ones.

So hope you have a wonderful and happy Holiday,

Always,

Happy Shavuot!

Some projects we've been busy with~

The mountains fighting over who will get to be the mountain where the Torah is received... a Tall one, Wide one and little Har Sinai with flowers on:)


A flower collage by my 3 year old... just cut out some flowers from tissue paper and gave her glue- those are the luchos in red... a red card with Alef Bet stickers...


Jello Torahs... pour jello on a cookie sheet, leave it for a bit in the fridge and using Torah cookie cutters and a spatula, make little Torahs!


Torah lacing- Using construction paper, put a rectangle, sticks and a crown and use a hole puncher to make holes. Attach a piece of string for lacing~


Torah collages: I had a Jewish toys catalogue, cut out all the Torahs I could find and gave them glue and paper to make their own designs~

We have these dye cut Torahs in all colors, divide the color erasers amongst the colored Torahs~

Happy Shavuot to everyone!
Mommzy~

My Shavuot Activity pack for Preschoolers

My Shavuot Activity pack for Preschoolers

Don't eat too much cheesecake:)

Shavuot Arts 'n Crafts and Books to read

Some fabulous Jewish books to read with a connection to Shavuot:

A Dozen Daizies for Raizy- A Shavuos Story by Rebecca Kempner

When the World was Quiet by Phyllis Nutkis

The Dancing Shul by Chaim Folgelman

Five Alive by Dina Rosenveld

We also listened to Uncle Moishy - Around the Jewish Year while doing our arts 'n crafts

Our Own Torah's

We made our own Torahs, everyone put something from the Torah inside their scroll and then decorated a cover. We used foam Alef Bet letters and shapes and sequins

Our Own Har Sinai

We used a foam half circle as Har Sinai and used plastic flowers to push in all around it. We then made Luchos out of scrapbooking paper and stuck Alef Bet stickers on them

Time to Count the Omer!

OK, I admit we were 15 days late in making our Sefirah chart, but better late then never, right:)

So I took a bulletin board and put green constunction paper on the bottom for the grass, blue on the top for the sky and a brown mountain for Har Sinai in the middle.

We layed it down on the floor in middle of the room so the munchins (age 4 and 2.5) had complete access to the entire board.

We talked about how there was a fence around the mountain, flowers on the mountain, lighting in the sky, how we eat dairy on Shavuos etc.

I then gave them the goods:

• popsicle sticks to make a fence
• stickers of flowers, ice-cream, kids, butterflies and a few other stickers (they love stickers)
• a pre-cut Torah to stick on the top of the mountain with Alef Bais letters to stick on the Torah
• pieces of thin paper to make lightning with
• glue and tape

The kids did all the work, by themselves. They glued on the fence, stuck on the stickers, the Torah, the lightning. I helped them make a sign that says "Sefirat HaOmer" and a countdown chart on the mountain that we put a shiny star of David sticker on every day to count.

I used a permanent marker to write a number on each sticker so we can keep track of where we are up to.

We hung it up in our playroom and the munchkins are so proud of it!