Tu B'Shevat Orchard Number Match

I always love putting a Jewish twist on developmentally appropriate learning skills and this Tu B’Shevat Orchard Number Match not only helped my kids review the holiday of Tu B’Shevat, but also helped them practice counting and fine motor skills!

What You’ll Need

Box
Brown paint
Paintbrush
Exacto knife
Sharpie
Green paper
Scissors
Red mini pom-poms
Glue gun
Popsicle sticks
Sensory bin (optional)
Sensory base (optional)

Putting It Together

Paint the box brown.
Once the box has dried, cut ten slits in the top with an exacto knife. We did a row of five slits at the top, then another row of five at the bottom (like a ten frame).
With a sharpie, write each number 1-10 below the corresponding slit.
Cut ten tree tops from green paper.
Glue 1-10 red mini pom-poms on these tree tops; 1 on one of the tree tops, 2 on the second, and so forth so that you have ten tree tops with 1 through 10 pom-poms on them.
Glue each tree top to a popsicle stick.
If desired, set up the posting activity in a sensory bin by placing it in the bin then adding sensory filler around it.
Mix up the order of the tree tops and set them out near the box.
Invite your child to match the corresponding number of red pom-poms (symbolizing the fruit, either apples or pomegranates!) on each tree top to the correct written numbered slit, pushing the popsicle stick trunk into the slit to create a Tu B’Shevat Orchard Number Match!

Finished & Loving It!

We did a similar Tu B’Shevat counting and posting activity last year and the kids loved it so I thought they’d enjoy this version as well. This time I wanted to encourage them to count each pom-pom, the “fruit,” in order to understand the quantity the tree represented before matching it on the box. This invitation let them practice one to one correspondence in a fun and hands-on way.

My kindergartener jumped right in and was really excited to do this activity. He could easily subitize the smaller numbers of fruit tree tops, but he did have to count out the larger ones. This allowed him to practice both subitization and one to one correspondence.

It also helped him to recognize that when counting objects, they won’t always be in two neat rows in a ten frame. I often set up our invitations and materials in that way since he is an early learner, but the pom poms would not fit on the tree tops in rows. This offered that added bonus of really having to figure out how to count each pom pom when they weren’t lined up as he was used to.

My guy decided the fruit would be apples but of course you could call them pomegranates and add why that fruit is special for Tu B’Shevat. I love how this activity can easily be symbolic and useful for both Tu B’Shevat and Rosh Hashanah. You guessed it, it will be stored away and come out again in fall!

Whichever fruit you decide, it’s also an opportunity to discuss the importance of fruit trees in connection to Tu B’Shevat. Historically, Tu B’Shevat started as a way to mark a fruit tree’s third birthday since we were not supposed to harvest fruit until after that time. I love making these big concepts seem more approachable and understandable through play.

And after my guy finished the counting and posting part of the activity, creating his special Tu B’Shevat Orchard Number Match, I added our wooden fruit to the sensory bin and let him and his brother have some open-ended exploration fun! They loved scooping and dumping the oat sensory base, stacking the wooden fruit (and knocking them down), and even sorting out the colors. So many amazing learning, play and fun opportunities in one activity!