This Happy Birthday World! Sensory Bin is a super fun way to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, since birthday-related themes, decorations and activities acknowledge that Rosh Hashanah is the birthday of the world in a way kids can understand and, of course, have a great time with.
What You’ll Need
- Flour
- Oil
- Sprinkles
- Number candles (5783 for this year!)
- Cupcake liners or tins
- Scoops
Putting It Together
- Make your birthday sprinkle cloud dough by combining flour, sprinkles and oil and mixing it together until it can stick together but is not wet or liquidy.
- Add the number candles for the new year. This year is 5783!
- Add cupcake liners or tins.
- Add an ice cream scoop and/or other scoops.
- Invite your children to play and explore the Happy Birthday World! Sensory Bin. We also read a favorite Rosh Hashanah book, Today is the Birthday of the World, and sang happy birthday in both English and Hebrew.
Finished & Loving It!
We kicked off this birthday activity reading one of our favorite books, Today is the Birthday of the World. If you haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend it. It has a sweet message of being the best you can be. It also reviews that Rosh Hashanah celebrates the world’s birth. And it has very special illustrations that my kids can’t get enough of.
Making your own cloud dough is one of the easiest sensory fillers to put together. And my children always love it! It feels different from playdough and cannot hold form the same way. But it is a fun texture to explore and is great for molding and scooping.
Adding the number candles is a fun way to remind the children what the upcoming new year is. If your children are like mine, they won’t hear the new Hebrew year in their secular school. It makes it even more important to discuss and review at home. We use number candles like this for our own birthdays so it feels special and appropriate to use them to celebrate the birthday of the world.
I found these silicone cupcake liners and love them for sensory play. They are not rigid so allow for some malleability. They also require a steady enough hand so the filler doesn’t fall out. This helps the kiddo practice focus and coordinator to hold the liner in one hand and pour the filler with the other.
This ice cream scoop is from the Dollar Tree and is so much fun to use with cloud dough. It scoops well and is a change from our regular wooden scoops.
Do you know how to sing Happy Birthday in Hebrew? Here is a short video that can teach you. Or you can just play it while the kids played. We had fun singing in both English and Hebrew. This repetition with a song they recognize as being about birthdays again helps them understand that this holiday is a special birthday one.
We have a whole page dedicated to the High Holidays, our High Holidays Hub. Check it out! It includes some of the High Holidays activities we do this year, as well as the activities we’ve done in previous years.
And don’t forget our Rosh Hashanah Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards, our Yom Kippur Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards, or the High Holidays Montessori-Style 3 Part Card Bundle, all a wonderful way to introduce High Holidays! 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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