Sheep and Shepherds in the Torah Transfer Activity

Starting with the Torah story of Cain and Abel, sheep and shepherds feature throughout the Torah which is why it was fun to focus on learning a little bit more about these connections with this Sheep and Shepherds in the Torah Transfer Activity. This is a super easy activity to set up, it practices fine motor skills and literacy, and is a neutral activity to supplement learning about Cain and Abel, which has been the Torah story my family has focused on this week.

What You’ll Need

• Sheep and Shepherds in the Torah free printout
• Cotton Balls
• Tongs (optional)
• Dot marker
• Crayon
• Sheep figurine (optional)

Putting It Together

1. Print the Sheep and Shepherds in the Torah free printout and put it on your work surface.
2. Put cotton balls and tongs, if using, on the work surface. If you don’t have or want to use tongs, your child can easily use their fingers.
3. Put a dot marker, crayon, and sheep figuring (if using) on the work surface.
4. Invite your child to learn about sheep and shepherds in the Torah.
5. Read the Sheep and Shepherds in the Torah summary page.
6. Invite your child to dot each circle in the letter “S” with their dot marker. You can also practice the /s/ sound and trace the “S” with your finger to promote learning how to say and write this letter.
7. Invite your child to color in the word sheep. We identified each letter one by one, then colored them in. You could also trace and practice saying each sound.
8. Invite your child to transfer the cotton balls to the sheep outline one by one with tongs or their fingers.
9. If using a sheep figurine, you can talk about what the sheep looks like, how it might feel or sound like too.

Finished & Loving It!

This is the first year I’ve ever taught the story of Cain and Abel, either with my students or my own children. I was initially a little nervous about how to approach this intense and heavy story. After introducing the story with my Cain and Abel Montessori-style 3 Part Cards, I decided to break the learning into smaller, specific, and pretty neutral learning focuses. I think this worked really well. It was lovely to revisit our Family Peace Table yesterday and the kids found learning about sheep and shepherds pretty interesting today.

I also loved how easy the set up for this Sheep and Shepherds in the Torah Transfer Activity was. A quick bit of learning about the subject of shepherds and sheep, which really does come up frequently in Torah stories. I love that they now will have a foundation of this understanding they can reference as we continue learning and reviewing Torah stories that include shepherds, like Jacob, Joseph and Moses.

This activity was really great for my pre-literate preschooler so he can continue to receive exposure to letters and words in fun and engaging ways. It’s always a bonus to work on this learning with art and activities that also develop fine motor skills, like the dot marker and crayon.

While I used this activity to supplement our Cain and Abel story learning, it could easily be used as a stand alone activity, or one that introduces the concept of shepherds and sheep and their importance in the Torah in general terms, or you could even work it into a farm animal exploration activity and add some Hebrew words for a fun Hebrew activity as well!!

I’m just starting to add our Torah story activities to the blog, but check out the ones I’ve posted so far:

• How to Welcome Guests Social Story
• Adam and Eve Pom Pom Posting Tree
• How to Create a Family Peace Table
• Torah Activity: Eliezer Finds a Wife for Isaac Coloring Book
• Rivkah’s Jewelry
• Abraham and Sarah Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Abraham and Sarah’s Journey Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Tower of Babel Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Noah’s Ark Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Cain and Abel Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Adam and Eve Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• The Creation Story Montessori-Style 3 Part Cards
• Rainbow Challah Hack
• Creation Story Sequencing Sensory Bin

There are many more on my Instagram account!

And for more learning about Torah stories in kid-friendly (as much as there can be!) ways, check out these resources:

• The Children’s Illustrated Jewish Bible

• PJ Library Torah Story Books
• BimBam: Torah and Texts

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