One of my favorite parts of Rosh Hashanah is the ritual of tashlich and you know I am a huge fan of process art so it made perfect sense to combine the two into a Tashlich Process Art activity for my family! Once again, the set up was super simple and easy, the process was fun, there are lots of opportunities for meaningful discussion and learning. And you also end up with a lovely Rosh Hashanah kid-made decoration at the end!
Tashlich is a special High Holiday ritual that usually takes place the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah. We go to a body of water (ideally a body of moving water). There we think about our sins from the last year. As we think about each sin, or mistake or regret, we toss a breadcrumb (now not as popular as we know it’s harmful to wildlife!), rock, stick or leaf to represent that mistake. We cast away the sin as we cast away that physical object that represents it. We also think about all the good actions we will take in the coming year. It’s a beautiful ritual to wash away, to cleanse, one’s regrets from the previous year and start fresh in the new one.
It’s also a big concept so I really like breaking down these big ideas into simpler ones for my kids. I do this through arts, crafts, modeling, and other fun activities, like this Tashlich Process Art activity!
What You’ll Need
- Watercolor paper or cardstock
- Shallow bin
- Water
- Blue food coloring
- Popsicle stick
- Oil
- Pipette
- Small bowl
Putting It Together
- Pour some water into a shallow bin. I let my kids take turns doing this part with a small pitcher so we squeezed in some pouring practice as well! You just need enough water to cover the bin about an inch deep.
- Add blue food coloring to the water; stir to mix with the popsicle stick.
- Pour a little bit of oil into a small bowl.
- Invite your children to use a pipette to transfer some oil to the water. Encourage them to think of something they did last year that they wish they could change and/or something they’d like to do this next year that is kind and loving. Once they think inside their head or share out loud, have them squeeze some oil into the bin.
- Observe how the squirts of oil don’t mix in the water but stay visibly separate.
- Once you have as much oil as you wish in the bin, invite your child to place a piece of watercolor paper or cardstock on the surface of the water and press down. You can do a slight press or even have it go all the way under the water.
- Remove the paper from the water and check out all the different designs the water and oil made. You can even point out some of the oil splotches and review the shared mistakes and plans for the new year or think of new ideas about how to do better in the new year.
- Let your marbled paper dry and then you’ll have a fun Rosh Hashanah decoration to hang up in your house and remind you of tashlich!
Finished & Loving It!
This activity was so quick and simple to set up. I love that it was also easy for my kids to take part in all the set up. Having them pour the water and mix the blue food coloring extended the activity and made sure they got even more out of the experience.
My kids were super excited to add the oil. They love transfer activities and using pipettes! Not only does squeezing the pipette really help strengthen hand muscles and fine tuning the pincher grasp (yay fine motor skills!), it’s always fun to observe whatever is getting transferred. In this case, there was immediate action once the oil hit the water! So awesome!
Since my kids were so fascinated by the transfer, not everyone drop of oil was associated with the casting away of sins. That’s totally ok with me! This was one activity (of many!) that modeled the experience of tashlich. It gave them more and more practice to be ready for the actual tashlich experience. But more importantly, to me, it gave them additional opportunities to think about what changes they’d like to make in the new year. They don’t need to list 613 (Jewish tradition says that’s how many seeds a pomegranate has, another special symbol of Rosh Hashanah!); I just want them to take some time to think of some that feel meaningful to them.
You can continue to add oil or just add more paper and each time the design will be a little different! The first few times the oil spots were much larger. But as the kids stirred the water more, the oil droplets broke apart and gave us this really neat, many dotted marbled paper towards the end! I love how each paper will come out differently–just like how each person’s tashlich experience will be a little bit different (and personal!) too!
Not only did I love the process of this Tashlich Process Art, but I also loved the end result! It can easily be shared in your home as a Rosh Hashanah decoration, reminding your family of the importance and meaning of tashlich. It could also be turned into a Rosh Hashanah card and sent to loved ones to wish them “Shanah Tovah!”, a happy sweet new year!
Tashlich at Turtle Rock is one of our favorite Rosh Hashanah books. It’s a beautiful way to explain tashlich and to think about how to make tashlich a meaningful–and doable!–tradition for your family.
If you want to see the process art meets science meets Rosh Hashanah learning in action, check out our reel on Instagram!
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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