In the middle of the Omer we celebrate the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer and since it’s almost that time already, I set up a Lag Ba’Omer Shelfie + Starter Activities for the kids to explore and enjoy the holiday!
I’ve been needing super simple activities this May and this Lag Ba’Omer Shelfie is no different. I used items around the house, some activities from last Lag Ba’Omer, and others that were easy to put together. It isn’t overflowing and that’s ok. There was more than enough to interest and engage the children. And definitely to learn about the holiday of Lag Ba’Omer and its traditions and customs.
What You’ll Need
- Your favorite Lag Ba’Omer books (check out our recommendations here!)
- Your favorite Lag Ba’Omer 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 Lag Ba’Omer Shelfie.
- Favorite Lag Ba’Omer Books
- Lag Ba’Omer Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
- Pretend Campfire Set Up + How To Make S’mores Tray
- Peg Doll Wedding With Chuppah
- Color Toy Scavenger Hunt
- Lag Ba’Omer Tic Tac Toe
- Felt Bonfire Tray
- Stick Spindle Box
- Lag Ba’Omer Bonfire Sensory Tray
- Toilet Paper Roll Hair Cutting
Finished & Loving It!
Favorite Lag Ba’Omer Books
So I only have … two Lag Ba’Omer books! I can’t believe it. Normally I make a book box to store each holiday’s themed books but there wasn’t a need for only two books. If you have more in your collection that I should add to mine, let me know!
Lag Ba’Omer Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
Last Lag Ba’Omer was the first holiday I created Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards for. Which means we now have an entire year’s worth of a Jewish holiday Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards available! I’m nerding out because that is really exciting to me!
I started off our holiday review with reading, then having the kids match the cards for the Lag Ba’Omer Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards set. It’s such a short and simple way to review the main themes, traditions, symbols and customs of the holiday.
Pretend Campfire Set Up + How To Make S’mores Tray
Last year we used the red, orange and yellow scarves to set up a pretend campfire (yes, with pretend s’mores too of course!) so I had these available again for the kids to engage in imaginary and creative play.
My daughter instantly noticed the How To Make S’mores Tray. She read off the instructions and then followed them, creating s’mores from felt Graham crackers, felt chocolate, and the cotton ball marshmallow she had happily pretended to roast.
After some pretend play with this set up, I invited my preschooler to cut along the dotted lines of the How To Make S’mores sheet. He’s currently working on his cutting skills so this was easy and fun practice. I made sure to print the sheet on cardstock since it’s sturdier to work with for beginning cutters rather than regular flimsy printer paper. He loved making his own How To Make S’mores book! And pretending to eat the s’mores too of course.
Peg Doll Wedding With Chuppah
One of the special traditions of Lag Ba’Omer is having a wedding! I made a chuppah (similar to the tinker tray I provided the kids when we learned about Jewish weddings last year) and set up the peg dolls so the kids could visualize a Jewish wedding and then creatively play however they wish.
Peg dolls are such amazing open ended toys. Even when there are background prompts, there is so much freedom, creativity and imagination that goes into the play.
Color Toy Scavenger Hunt
It’s fun for us to focus on the bonfire tradition of Lag Ba’Omer. I thought this would be a great opportunity to break down the bonfire into its main colors (red, orange and yellow) and focus on color identification, articulation and matching. This practice is for my toddler, but the other kids really loved the Color Toy Scavenger Hunt I set up to work on these skills so it was a win for everyone!
Color Toy Scavenger Hunts are such a simple activity to set up. All you need is different colored papers (or baskets) and invite your kids to find items that match those colors. I added the color names to our baskets for more letter and word exposure. Each time someone brought a new item I would say the name of the color and point to the color for added emphasis for the toddler.
Lag Ba’Omer Tic Tac Toe
This is another super easy set up—I grabbed red paper (glued it to cardboard to make it more sturdy), drew a tic tac toe grid on it, then added some of the yellow and orange flame loose parts I’m using later in the week for a different activity. My preschooler is super into tic tac toe lately so this was a fun way to practice and connect it to the holiday! All the big kids were interested and pretty competitive.
Felt Bonfire Tray
I set up a super simple Felt Bonfire Tray for exploration, creation and play. I plan to use these in another activity later in the week but it also works on its own: children can set up their bonfire, or fires, however they wish.
It’s also a great opportunity for more color talk, naming each color as the child uses it.
Stick Spindle Box
We made this Stick Spindle Box for this last Tu B’Shevat. It is such an easy craft and becomes a really useful hands-on way to practice counting, and quantity recognition. And I love that it can tie into both holidays!
Lag Ba’Omer Bonfire Sensory Tray
I saved this Lag Ba’Omer Bonfire Sensory Tray from last year. Later in the week I’ll set it up with the correlating colored sensory filler but for today it functioned perfectly as a Lag Ba’Omer decoration!
Toilet Paper Roll Hair Cutting
This Lag Ba’Omer Toilet Paper Roll Hair Cutting was another favorite from last year. And is so incredibly easy to set up! Just make snips 3/4 of the way down the top of the roll all along the roll. Add a face with a sharpie and invite your kids to trim the toilet paper rolls’ hair. It’s such a fun and easy way to connect to the custom of cutting hair on Lag Ba’Omer.
Just the beginning …
We had such a great time with all these starter activities! And these are truly starter activities, just the beginning of our learning about the traditions and celebrations that relate to Lag Ba’Omer.
I have lots of ideas planned for the next couple weeks so make sure to check back (or subscribe!!) but so much learning already happened just in this afternoon and with these few shelves!
We have a whole page dedicated to Lag Ba’Omer, our Lag Ba’Omer Hub. Check it out! It will include some of the Lag Ba’Omer activities we do this year, as well as the activities we’ve done in previous years.
And don’t forget our Lag Ba’Omer Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards, a wonderful way to introduce the holiday!
Check out our recommended Lag Ba’Omer books from our Bookshop.org Shop!
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about this holiday:
Chag Sameach!!
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[…] the house. We used rocks, red gems and the orange and yellow wooden flames I had leftover from our Lag Ba’Omer tic tac toe from last year! Set up on a tray and let your child do the […]