The past two summers we’ve spent learning about Torah stories and I’m happy to do that again this summer, but first we needed to do a little review and our Torah Stories + Starter Activities Shelfie was the perfect way to remind us about the stories we’ve learned about!
What You’ll Need
- Your favorite books about Torah stories (check out our recommendations here!)
- Your favorite Torah Stories 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 Torah Stories Shelfie.
- Torah Stories 3 Part Cards
- Torah Story Puppets
- Rainbow Transfer
- Rainbow Tracer
- Abraham and Sarah’s Tent STEM Challenge
- Sheep Transfer Invitation
- Shepherds Hook Threading
- Wheat Threading
- Wheat Kernel Smash
- DIY Camel Puzzle
- Adam and Eve Sensory Tree + Snake
- Jacob’s Lentil Soup Sensory Invitation
Finished & Loving It!
Torah Stories 3 Part Cards
Did you know there are not many books about individual torah stories? I gathered the ones we have and put them on the shelf. We only have a few and they are mostly about Noah’s Ark! That’s why I started making 3 part cards for each of the Torah stories we learn about. These are not the same as the weekly parsha but instead tell the stories we are familiar (and maybe not so familiar!) with.
The Torah stories 3 part cards can all be found in the With Love, Ima Shop. As we learn new stories and I make new 3 part cards for them, I’ll add them to the shop!
We’ve found that the 3 part cards are the best way for me to introduce the stories to my kiddos. And I love that they can engage in the learning through matching the cards! For today, I asked the kiddos to grab a few of the bags randomly and we set up the 3 part cards and reviewed the stories they described.
Torah Story Puppets
During the first year of the pandemic, our religious school went virtual and I taught my K/1 class on zoom. The students colored their puppets at home while my madrichim and I used our puppets to tell the Torah story we were learning about. My daughter was in my class and absolutely loved these puppets. We’ve used them many times since—for Shavuot, Lag Ba’Omer and more!
Today my son grabbed the Noah’s ark and the snake (from Adam and Eve but I didn’t mind!) and excitedly told me how he was designing a play and at the end he was going to throw the colored pom poms from the rainbow transfer activity into the air. You go kid!
DIY puppets like this are such great ways to review the Torah stories and practice story telling. They really involve the kids in the retelling and let their creativity and acting skills shine!
Rainbow Transfer
We love this rainbow transfer! It’s such a simple fine motor skill transfer activity but it’s colorful and the kids really enjoy it. Any kind of rainbow activity is a great symbol for Noah’s Ark.
Rainbow Tracer
I pulled out our rainbow tracer as another symbol of Noah’s Ark and also because it’s another simple activity the kids can enjoy. And a meditative one! We bought this rainbow tracer from Meadowbrook Playschool. They have such a lovely curated collection of toys. If you decide to take a peek, you can use the code WithLoveIma20 for a 20% discount!
Abraham and Sarah’s Tent STEM Challenge
I challenged the kids to build their own tent for Abraham and Sarah. We’ve done numerous variations on STEM building challenges. My favorite was Do You Want To Build a Chuppah? You can provide whatever materials you have around the house. The goal is to allow them the time and space to creatively come up with some kind of build.
In my daughter’s case she had to try a few different ways to get the sticks to stand upright when taped. But once she got it, she was able to add the Kleenex and even invite peg dolls to the tent—a wonderful reminder of hachnasat orchim, the value of welcoming guests, that Abraham and Sarah are known for!
Like STEM Challenges? Check out some of the others we’ve tried:
Build Jacob’s Ladder Tinker Tray
Sheep Transfer Invitation
We have done so many sheep and shepherd activities when learning about the different Torah stories because shepherds feature so often! I loved this sheep transfer invitation and it was very easy to set up again. And now a new kiddo was excited to do it! Last time he was too young but this year he was all about it!
Shepherds Hook Threading
Threading cheerios to make a shepherd’s hook was another tried and true activity that the kids loved and they were excited to do it, then eat it, once again!
Wheat Threading
Another activity that they’ve done before but were up for trying again was the wheat threading. This takes some concentration to have the thread going in the correct directions and it has such a soft and silky feel. It’s a beautiful sensory and fine motor activity.
Wheat also features prominently in many torah stories so it’s an easy and applicable symbol to use in torah story activities.
Wheat Kernel Smash
We still had our real wheat bouquet that we were lucky enough to have made during a school field trip, and used on our Shavuot Shelfie, so not only did I bring it out again but I also invited the kids to carefully take off some of the kernels. My plan was for them to practice counting them but my daughter wanted to smash them like our ancestors would have done so we got out the mortar and pestle and she gave it a try! Always follow the child when you can!
DIY Camel Puzzle
I made this super simple DIY camel puzzle for another torah story years ago and of course it still works today! My incoming first grader put it together so quickly this time—it really showed me how much he has grown and how neat it is to pull out activities they’ve done before because it’s always a little different when they’ve hit new developmental stages.
Adam and Eve Sensory Tree + Snake
I set up a super simple sensory invitation for Adam and Eve with our tree tray and green salt and oatmeal. The kids transferred the fillers to create the tree. And yes, our snake from Passover works well as the snake from the Garden of Eden!
The salt could easily be used as a salt tracing tray. You could suggest words or letters that represent the biblical story. My kids were not interested in that option today and just wanted to pour and smoosh around.
Jacob’s Lentil Soup Sensory Invitation
I set up this simple Jacob’s Lentil Soup Sensory Invitation for the kids to enjoy a little sensory exploration. Each bowl contained a different type of lentil. They were free to explore, mix, create, whatever and however they wished!
See anything you might like to try yourself? Our Torah Stories Shelfie was a random assortment of Torah stories review so that the kids could start thinking and remembering all the stories we’ve covered so far. I look forward to introducing new stories in the coming weeks!
We created a whole page dedicated to Torah Stories, our Torah Stories page. Check it out! It includes some of the Torah Stories activities we plan to do this unit, as well as the activities we’ve done in previous years.
And don’t forget that we introduce each torah story with a set of 3 Part Cards. All the cards are available in our With, Love, Ima Shop.
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about Jewish torah stories:
*This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission, at no cost to you, if you make a purchase through a link!*
