It’s so exciting to start a brand new calendar year with learning about and preparing for one of my favorite holidays, Tu B’Shevat, and this 2023 Tu B’Shevat Shelfie + Starter Activities was the perfect way to have fun while engaging in meaningful Tu B’Shevat learning and play!
Tu B’Shevat is the New Year of the Trees. It’s also known as the Birthday of the Trees. Trees and nature are celebrated during this joyous holiday. We also have a Tu B’Shevat seder where special foods, including the seven species, are eaten. It is also a special time to think about our relationship with nature and the earth and how we have a responsibility to take care of the environment. I highlighted many of these symbols and traditions in our 2023 Tu B’Shevat Shelfie + Starter Activities experience and look forward to showcasing more of them during this next month. For more information on Tu B’Shevat, and easy access to our past Tu B’Shevat activities, check out our Tu B’Shevat Hub!
What You’ll Need
- Your favorite Tu B’Shevat books (check out our recommendations here!)
- Your favorite Tu B’Shevat 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 to this Tu B’Shevat Shelfie as we create them.
- Tu B’Shevat Activities Packet for Early Learners
- Tu B’Shevat Book Box + Tu B’Shevat Reading Challenge Bingo
- Tu B’Shevat Montessori 3-Part Cards
- Thank You Trees Collage
- Nature Frames + Thank You Tree Signs
- Wooden Tree Collages
- Nature Cutting Basket
- Counting Tree Posting Activity
- Tu B’Shevat Clothespin Letter Match
- Tu B’Shevat Count & Clip
- Tu B’Shevat Size Sort
- Tu B’Shevat Small World Play: Lincoln Log House + Peg Dolls
- Tu B’Shevat Small World Play: Wooden Trees and Woodland Creatures
- Ladybugs on Leaf Tray
- Acorns on Tree Tray
- Tu B’Shevat Seven Species Cards
- Seven Species Felt Pieces
- Basket of Wooden Fruit
- Tu B’Shevat Nature Spindle Box
- Blessing Sticks
Finished & Loving It!
Tu B’Shevat Activities Packet for Early Learners
After receiving so much positive feedback about my Hanukkah Activities Packet for Early Learners, I decided to create a similar one for Tu B’Shevat! There are so many amazing literacy, math, fine motor and play activities in this Tu B’Shevat Activities Packet for Early Learners! I used some of the activities for this Tu B’Shevat shelfie, but stay tuned as I share more throughout the month!
Tu B’Shevat Book Box + Tu B’Shevat Reading Challenge Bingo
We love the sweet Tu B’Shevat Book Box we made years ago. The kids used multiple techniques to paint the different shaped trees to remind us that there are so many different types of wonderful trees in the world!
I also included books about oak trees, our favorite type of tree, and woodland creatures. I love focusing on all the wonderful things we use and thank trees for during Tu B’Shevat.
Want a fun way to explore the books and challenge your kids to look for important holiday symbols and traditions? Print out our free Tu B’Shevat Reading Challenge Bingo and see how many books it takes you to find all the items! And if you need to add more books to your Tu B’Shevat collection, check out our recommendations on Bookshop.org.
Tu B’Shevat Montessori 3-Part Cards
Of course I set out our Tu B’Shevat Montessori 3-Part Cards as I love introducing each holiday with these cards. It’s a great way to introduce or review the holiday. It also challenges the children to match the correct cards, which they can do by image or by reading, depending on their development level.
Thank You Trees Collage
We made this beautiful Thank You Trees Collage last year and I absolutely love it. I also love using the same items year to year. I obviously don’t do that with everything we make, but I try to keep the really special items. The kids love seeing their work come out again. And they also enjoy remembering the experience from the previous year(s).
Nature Frames + Thank You Tree Signs
I love focusing on the many ways trees help us and the world. I also love these super simple stick frames we made to hold our thank you tree signs. The frame is quick and easy to make. Find an old cardboard box and cut it into sheets of cardboard. Take a nature walk with your kids and collect sticks. Glue the sticks to the perimeter of the frame. Ta-da!
The frame could totally be used to showcase some Tu B’Shevat artwork (like the handprint trees we made last year!) but I love that by attaching our thank you trees signs to these frames, it signals to the kids their importance of each of these gratitude messages.
Wooden Tree Collages
Last year we made these beautiful collage wooden cut out trees as our Tu B’Shevat seder plates. I look forward to setting them out on our table for our seder this year, but until then they function as a lovely reminder that yes, we do indeed love trees!, as well as a review of the different categories of food that we eat from during the Tu B’Shevat seder.
These wooden cut outs are from Woodpeckers Crafts and are so inexpensive and versatile. I of course love them as our seder plates but they would work so well as a Tu B’Shevat tree backdrop. Or even just for a simple art exploration for your kids after school one day!
Nature Cutting Basket
My younger two are still very much working on their cutting skills. And even if your child has mastered that skill, it’s still great practice (and more fun!) to present different types of cutting invitations.
A nature cutting basket is such an easy and simple choice. Not only do the kids get to see and manipulate different types of nature, the textures of the pine needles and leaves really do make a great practice for early learners as they are sturdy and offer some resistance so they aren’t just flopping around.
Counting Tree Posting Activity
This Counting Tree Posting Activity is another activity I made last year and saved in our Tu B’Shevat storage bin to bring out again this year. My kindergartener is all about the numbers and counting right now so not only was this a good practice for him, but a fun one!
And if you have kids too young to practice counting and identifying and sequencing numbers, that’s ok! This activity is a wonderful fine motor skill, concentration and cause and effect practice, perfect for all ages. Even younger kiddos will get wonderful exposure to numbers and the idea of counting while having fun posting the tree “trunks” into the base!
Tu B’Shevat Clothespin Letter Match
We love using clothespins to practice our fine motor skills and it’s often really easy to combine some literacy and/or math learning at the same time. This tree clothespin letter clip can be found in our Tu B’Shevat Activities Packet for Early Learners and is such a simple way to practice matching letters. I keep a set of lettered clothespins and bring them out to use with different bases (we did multiple for Hanukkah!).
Today, my kindergartener was so excited to be the teacher and show his younger brother each letter on a clothespin and its match. When he got all letters matched, he then sang the alphabet as he pointed to each letter. So much learning and fun happening here!
Tu B’Shevat Count & Clip
Here’s another option for using clothespins as fine motor practice, this time with a math twist! These Tu B’Shevat Count & Clip cards are a great way for the kids to practice counting, using their fine motor skills to open and close the clothespin, review number identification, and expose them to Tu B’Shevat symbols. Yay! And yes, you guessed it, these cards are available in our Tu B’Shevat Activities Packet for Early Learners!
Tu B’Shevat Size Sort
Another simple activity found in our Tu B’Shevat Activities Packet for Early Learners is this Tu B’Shevat Size Sort (there’s a leaf version in the packet too!). This is an easy way for the kids to practice size comparison and another chance for them to connect the holiday of Tu B’Shevat with trees!
Tu B’Shevat Small World Play: Lincoln Log House + Peg Dolls
Were you a Lincoln log fan as a child? I loved them and was so happy when my mom passed them down to me and my children (yes, she saved everything!). I set up a quick invitation to play by building a little Lincoln log house—a fun way to visualize how trees give us so many things, including materials to build shelter! As you can see, the kiddos quickly destroyed my version to build their own! Imaginative, creative, and STEM play in action!
Tu B’Shevat Small World Play: Wooden Trees and Woodland Creatures
We love our wooden trees from Woodpeckers Crafts (use WithLoveIma5 for a discount!) and use them all the time. They are a wonderful small world addition for Tu B’Shevat play. I added some of the woodland creature figurines we have for an invitation for open-ended, imaginative play and let the kids decide where it went!
Ladybugs on Leaf Tray
We are huge ladybug fans here and I was so happy to gift my kiddos for Hanukkah this leaf tray with the ten wooden ladybugs. I set it up on the Shelfie because I like how it reminds us of the many animals that use trees and nature for shelter and food. It’s also an opportunity for some creative and open-ended play that the kids took full advantage of!
Where did I get the ladybugs you might be asking? From from Woodpeckers Crafts (use WithLoveIma5 for a discount!) of course! You can then paint or decorate them however you want. I added the dots to correspond from 1-5 so we can do some number and counting fun with them as well as color matching.
Acorns on Tree Tray
These acorns and the tree tray were another beloved Hanukkah gift. Have no fear, they will pop up again (and again and again!) in sensory bins, but for now I set it on the Shelfie to symbolize one of our favorite trees: the oak tree.
Matt’s Hebrew name means oak tree, as does the middle name of our youngest child. We love walking in the Oak Grove in our community. And we love collecting acorns!
Setting this out on the Shelfie allowed the kids to play as they wished, counting the total number, finding the color matches, lining them up, adding the to the tree. I also paired it with a book about Oak Trees in California so we could do some additional learning.
The wooden acorns are from Woodpeckers Crafts (use WithLoveIma5 for a discount!) and I painted them so I could have matching colors. So many possibilities for fun creativity in how you decorate and use these!
Tu B’Shevat Seven Species Cards
Last year I created these Tu B’Shevat Seven Species Cards as a simple way for to introduce and review the seven species that are mentioned in the Torah and that have significance during Tu B’Shevat. They are available as a free printable on their own here, or as part of the Tu B’Shevat Activities Packet for Early Learners.
Seven Species Felt Pieces
I made these Seven Species Felt Pieces last year and they are a lovely option for some felt board play. I set them out on our Shelfie and invited the kids to use our Seven Species Cards, which use real photos of the foods, and these felt pieces, to try to match the correct foods. It was such a great practice in identification! It was also a happy little bonus sensory opportunity and of course, a wonderful way to review the seven species.
Basket of Wooden Fruit
We have a lot of beautiful wooden fruit from Woodpeckers Crafts (you can get them pre-painted or paint yourself, so fun!). Setting them up in a basket invites the kids to engage in open-ended, pretend and imaginary play. It’s also a simple and beautiful way to showcase how trees help give us food to eat.
During this first exploration, the kids dumped out all the fruit and then sorted them by color. Not only was this a great way to practice color sorting and matching, but I encouraged my preschooler to say each color as he sorted it so he could work on his speech therapy goals of identification and articulation.
Tu B’Shevat Nature Spindle Box
We made this Tu B’Shevat Nature Spindle Box last year, mostly focused on my now-kindergartener and his interest and needs, but all the kids actually really enjoy using the sticks as manipulatives. It’s super easy to make and is a wonderful way for them to practice one-to-one correspondence, counting, and visualizing and understanding quantities. And it’s an awesome way to use all the sticks your kiddos gather on nature walks!
Blessing Sticks
I set out our collection of blessing sticks on the Shelfie. This collection has appeared time and again since we first made it many many many Shabbats ago. It most recently was one of our Hanukkah centerpieces. I actually left the Star of David decorations on it so the kids could remember that sweet Hanukkah experience.
The blessings sticks are 100 sticks to remind us of the Jewish tradition of 100 daily blessings. It’s another wonderful way to use the sticks children gather. They also loved painting them. They can be used as counting manipulatives or just as a reminder of the many blessings we have to be thankful for.
Getting in the mood …
This year Tu B’Shevat starts Sunday, February 5th and ends at sundown Monday, February 6th. That means we have a whole month to learn, review, explore, and play with all things Tu B’Shevat. I always like having a long time to explore the holidays with my family so that our learning doesn’t feel rushed.
I hope you found some inspiration from our 2023 Tu B’Shevat Shelfie + Starter Activities for beginning your Tu B’Shevat 2023 adventures! Continue with us, either here and/or on Instagram, as we explore trees, nature, the seven species, birthday celebrations and all things we feel grateful for with this beautiful earth as we prepare for and celebrate Tu B’Shevat!
Chag Tu B’Shevat Sameach!
We have a whole page dedicated to Tu B’Shevat, our Tu B’Shevat Hub. Check it out! It includes some of the Tu B’Shevat activities we plan to do this year, as well as the activities we’ve done in previous years.
And don’t forget our Tu B’Shevat Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards, a wonderful way to introduce Tu B’Shevat! And, now we also have all 13 Jewish holidays bundled together in A Year of Jewish Holidays 3 Part Cards.
If you want to have a ton of Tu B’Shevat early learner activities ready at your fingertips, try our Tu B’Shevat Activities Packet for Early Learners! I am so excited about all the Tu B’Shevat-themed literacy, fine motor skills, math, and play fun!
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about this holiday:
Chag Sameach!
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[…] as all the fine motor skills they practiced. And I of course love adding their new crafts to our Tu B’Shevat Shelfie for continued reminders about this wonderful holiday celebrating trees and […]