As flowers blossom all around us, it feels so exciting to start our learning of the joyful holiday of Shavuot with our 2023 Shavuot Shelfie+ Starter Activities!
Shavuot is a fun holiday to celebrate with children. There’s learning about the Ten Commandments and the Torah, many opportunities for flower and nature play and crafts, and, of course, delicious dairy eating!
What You’ll Need
- Your favorite books about Shavuot (check out our recommendations here!)
- Your favorite Shavuot arts, crafts, toy sets, and activities that you already own and/or look below to see if any of ours inspire you to create similar ones!
Putting It Together
Here is the list of activities that I set up. Get inspired or grab whatever of your own! I also plan to add new activities as we create them to this Shavuot Shelfie.
- Shavuot Book Box
- Shavuot Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
- 10 Commandments Tablet Art
- 10 Commandments 3 Part Cards
- Felt Flower Mount Sinai Sensory Tray
- Ice Cream Pretend Play and Transfer Practice
- Lee Laa Lou Shavuot Activity Book
- Flower Cutting Practice
- Book of Ruth 3 Part Cards
- Ruth Tracing Card
- Shavuot Counting Tray
- Torah Stuffie
- Torah Lacing
- Shavuot Playdough Mat Signs
Finished & Loving It!
Shavuot Book Box
We love gathering our holiday books in book boxes. We made this one from coffee filter process art flowers a few years ago. Not only is it a great way to store our holiday books for the season, but it is also a lovely reminder of how Mount Sinai bloomed with flowers after the Torah was received. Super easy to make too!
Shavuot Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
You know me and my love for holiday 3 part cards! I find they are such a quick and simple way to introduce or review a holiday. And then, of course, there are so many opportunities for extension activities based on the cards as a whole, or by taking each card one by one and delving deeper into the historical information, symbols, traditions or customs.
My daughter read out the Shavuot 3 Part Cards–so amazing to sit back and watch her be the educator 🙂
10 Commandments Tablet Process Art
We made new 10 Commandments Tablet Process Art for our Shelfie this year! This 10 Commandments art is so simple, but also meaningful. I actually prepped it for the preschool as well. It’s a great process art opportunity, then an easy introduction or review of the 10 Commandments in language a young child can understand (and remember!).
To make the tablets, cut out the tablet shapes from white cardstock. Give your kiddo a piece of foil and invite them to scrunch it up into a loose ball. Then have them use the foil ball to press into gray paint (on a tray) then stamp onto the tablets. Let dry, then glue or write on the 10 Commandments.
10 Commandments 3 Part Cards
For additional 10 Commandments learning we have our 10 Commandments 3 Part Cards! These are another simple way to read off the commandments in kid-friendly language. The images help them identify and remember the commandments.
Wheat Bouquet
Okay, we were so absolutely lucky to have a field trip at a local organic farm last week where the kids harvested wheat stalks! Of course I saved them and made them into a beautiful Shavuot bouquet. So wonderfully perfect for this Shelfie and as we celebrate this holiday!
The wheat represents Shavuot’s historic roots in a harvest festival, as well as the story of Ruth and how she gleaned the leftover wheat and barley from Boaz’s fields upon her and Naomi’s return to Judah. I love how simple images and items can turn into such powerful learning instruments!
Felt Flower Mount Sinai Sensory Tray
I love this sensory tray! It’s so easy to make and the kids had lots of fun with the open-ended nature of the peg dolls and felt flower decoration. See how we made and enjoyed this sensory experience here!
Ice Cream Pretend Play and Transfer Practice
Here is another super simple set up that can lead to lots of fine motor and pretend play opportunities! I set out jumbo pom poms on some ice cream trays and invited the kids to practice transferring the pom poms into the cupcake liners with an ice cream scoop. There was also lots of imaginary ice cream shop play.
On Shavuot it’s customary to eat dairy foods that reminds us that the land of Israel, and the Torah, are sweet like milk and honey.
Lee Laa Lou Shavuot Activity Book
Looking for a really well-done Shavuot activity book? We love the one from Lee Laa Lou! Learn about the holiday, practice some Hebrew, and have fun while doing so!
Flower Cutting Practice
I set up this simple flower cutting practice to let my kiddos practice those important fine motor cutting skills and also to connect the symbol of flowers with the holiday. All you need is to cut circles out of cardstock, glue them to popsicle sticks and draw lines on the circles. Invite your child to cut along the lines. You can see my youngest did not want to stick to that instruction and just enjoyed, actually really enthusiastically, cutting and snipping. Which is so great! The whole idea is to have my children comfortable using scissors. As they develop these skills, they will be better able to stick to the lines, like my kindergartener modeled.
Using cardstock is easier for early scissor learning because it doesn’t flop around as much as printer or construction paper.
Looking for other Shavuot-themed cutting opportunities? We have these simple cutting strips that are great for scissor practice and could also then be used to glue onto paper as a Shavuot decoration!
10 Commandments Cutting Strips
Book of Ruth 3 Part Cards
I have been planning on creating Book of Ruth 3 Part Cards for years and finally, this year it happened! The Book of Ruth is traditionally read during services on Shavuot. Whether or not your family attends services on Shavuot, using these Book of Ruth 3 Part Cards are a simple way to introduce or review the story of Ruth with your child.
And again, these cards can always be jumping off points for extension activities and exploration. In the past we’ve done activities that focus on wheat which would be so applicable here. Activities on love, friendship and family would also be beautiful to explore. Geography lessons to learn where Judah and Moab were would also be great!
Ruth Tracing Card
The Ruth Tracing Card I made took two minutes and is a great example of how easy you can incorporate Jewish learning with the secular skills your child is working on. My kindergartener now knows all his letters but continued practice on how to form them is always helpful. I thought this card would also be great exposure for my preschooler who is not yet familiar with his letters. Tracing letters and understanding their shapes and how they are formed and what they look like is the beginning to learning how to identify and then draw them.
I made the letters out of barley to connect it with the story of Ruth. Such a simple way to remind the kids why barley is important to this story, and by extension, this holiday!
Shavuot Counting Tray
Years ago I made multiple Shavuot-themed counting cards and this year it was a fun opportunity to set them up on a tray AND invite the kids to use manipulates to practice their counting. I set up our ten frame sensory bin insert, as well as a basket of barley. The kids transferred the barley grains grain by grain to match the card. Number identification, counting practice, one to one correspondence, and fine motor skills (those barley grains are so small!) were all so wonderfully practiced with this one tray!
10 Commandments Counting Cards
If you’re looking for other fun counting-style Shavuot options, check out our Count & Clip Cards!
10 Commandments Count & Clip Cards
Torah Stuffie
Does your kiddo have a Torah stuffie yet? They are a sweet and simple way to incorporate Jewish love and learning into your home!
Torah Lacing
I made these Torah lacing cards to remind us of what Shavuot is all about–receiving the Torah! Cut a rectangle of cardstock, glue popsicle sticks to the sides, hole punch around, then tie on a length of yarn and invite your kids to lace! Such great fine motor practice and a fun Torah decoration perfect for Shavuot!
Shavuot Playdough Mat Signs
I dug using the playdough mats for our Lag Ba’Omer Shelfie because they are such simple ways to display the symbols that I want my kids to learn about the holiday. I repeated it here for Shavuot. Instantly, we can see these main symbols and themes–the 10 Commandments, flowers, Mount Sinai, and the Torah. Sweet and simple. And obviously perfect for Shelfie signage or their original and beloved purpose, Shavuot Playdough Play!
Chag Sameach!
We have a whole page dedicated to Shavuot, our Shavuot Hub. Check it out! It includes some of the Shavuot activities we plan to do this year, as well as the activities we’ve done in previous years.
And don’t forget our Shavuot Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards, a wonderful way to introduce Shavuot! And, now we also have all 13 Jewish holidays bundled together in A Year of Jewish Holidays 3 Part Cards.
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about this holiday:
Chag Sameach!
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