To prepare for all things Tu B’Shevat, we created our Tu B’Shevat Shelfie filled with books, activities and toys related to the holiday. Can you guess how each object connects to the birthday of the trees?
We printed out our Tu B’Shevat Reading Challenge Bingo and brought out our Tu B’Shevat Book Box from last year, filled with our favorite Tu B’Shevat books. This is such a fun way to read the holiday books with some easy, organic feeling targeted learning and review points!
And, we couldn’t not enjoy a tasty treat while we read and started exploring our starter activities: Tu B’Shevat trail mix made from some of our favorite Nuts.com treats! See the recipe below (it’s super easy and flexible!).
What You’ll Need
- Find what you already have around the house that will work! See my description for each activity below.
Putting It Together
Tu B’Shevat books
PJ Library has a wonderful collection of sweet Tu B’Shevat books. If you haven’t signed your child up for this free program, do so now! Check out our Tu B’Shevat recommends book list from Bookshop.org.
If you have other books about trees and nature, gather those too. I love exploring how wonderful trees are, and scientific information about trees, plants and nature, during this holiday as well.
Thank You Trees Collage
The kids and I worked on this beautiful collage today and I absolutely love it! Not only was it fun to make (and out of recycled materials!!), but it allowed us to brainstorm many ways that trees help our world and why we should be thankful for them.
Using recycled materials is totally in line with the holiday of Tu B’Shevat. The board is old scrap wood my husband found in the garage. Don’t have scrap wood? Not a problem! Cut up an old cardboard box and use a section of that instead!
The tissue paper scraps were left over from our Pop Studio hamsa kit. I love using leftover craft materials whenever possible!
We made the trunk from recycled packing paper.
And yes, I did use my Cricut to make the letters which is totally not recycling but I am having so much fun with this new equipment!
Counting Tree Posting Activity
Expose, practice and/or review numbers and counting while engaging your kiddo in a fun Tu B’Shevat posting game! It’s also super simple to make, always a win for me. We painted the box brown to represent the ground or dirt. Then I cut 10 slots, two rows of 5, in the top to make a ten frame. I used my Cricut to cut out the ten tree tops (here is the image if you want to use it with your Cricut too!). I added our LeeLaaLou number stickers and made corresponding numerical dots, then glued the tree tops to popsicle sticks.
Tree toys
Gather any tree figurines you have in your toy bins. Don’t have any? You can always make some from toilet paper rolls and green construction paper. We love the ones we got from Woodpeckers Crafts. This was one of the kids’ Hanukkah gifts (small world play theme) and they loved painting them and now playing with them in all kinds of imaginative ways.
Tu B’Shevat play foods
Find any fruit or nut or seven species play food you have in your play kitchen for some open-ended Tu B’Shevat cooking play!
Tu B’Shevat Montessori 3-Part Cards
This is a little sneak peek, I’ll be sharing these with my kids, and officially you!, tomorrow 😉 But if you are super excited and want to purchase them now, they are available in the With Love Ima Shop.
Tu B’Shevat Seven Species Cards
I made these seven species cards to help review the seven species. You can print your copy here!
Tree dwelling animal stuffies and figurines
One of the Tu B’Shevat threads I love discussing with my kids is how helpful trees are to animals. I made this little poster to remind them of the connection and we pulled out all our tree dwelling animal stuffies and figurines. So many opportunities for fun play! And, I couldn’t believe we don’t have any bird figurines! This will need to remedied!
Egg Matching Activity
In line with animals and trees, I set out this adorable egg matching activity to remind the kids how birds often use trees for their nests and shelter and for the kids to practice some fine motor skills. The eggs and holders are from Woodpeckers Crafts.
Games about trees and nature
Do you have any games or puzzles about trees, tree dwelling animals or nature? We pulled out the ones we have and look forward to some game night fun!
Seven Species Tree DIY Puzzles
I made these super simple seven species (plus almond) tree DIY popsicle stick puzzles. Just print out this PDF and glue popsicle sticks next to each other on the back. Once the glue has dried, use a utility knife to carefully cut and separate the sticks. You now have a vertical DIY puzzle!
Birthday Cake
Do you have a pretend play good birthday cake? If so, such a fun way to remind the kids that we are celebrating the birthday of the trees! And if not, you can always make one out of cardboard. Or make cupcakes—Woodpeckers Crafts has the most adorable wooden cupcakes that kids can paint and decorate!
Pom Pom Tree Posting Activity
We made this DIY pom pom tree color matching posting activity last year and redid it for this year. So easy to make and lots of fun.
Treehouse
We have this adorable treehouse playhouse so of course it was perfect to pull it out and let the kids have some open ended fun with it. You could always make a treehouse out of a cardboard box!
Tu B’Shevat Blessing
We always read this sweet blessing when we plant our new tree or plant each Tu B’Shevat. I added it to our shelf so the kids can remember this tradition. And now it will be very handy to grab when we are ready to plant!
Tu B’Shevat Trail Mix
There are so many tasty treats to experience during Tu B’Shevat and this Tu B’Shevat Trail Mix is an easy way to incorporate a lot of the seven species and fruit and nut categories. Really, use whatever you have in your pantry. Trail mix is so easy and forgiving! The meaningful part will be linking each item to either a seven species and/or a Tu B’Shevat food category.
We bought all our goodies from Nuts.com.
Finished & Loving It!
This Tu B’Shevat Shelfie was so fun to put together and my kids’ eyes lit up when they saw it! We all immediately started playing with the various activities and it was a really lovely way to play, think, and talk about Tu B’Shevat.
I took a quick break to make our Tu B’Shevat Trail Mix, then returned so we could read from our Tu B’Shevat Book Box and play our Tu B’Shevat Reading Bingo Challenge. The kids love reading and finding the matching categories on the bingo sheet.
I let them explore the activities in their own time and there was already so much creative and imaginative play, as well as so meaningful targeted play that reviewed Tu B’Shevat concepts and developed skills like fine motor skills, counting and matching.
I can’t wait to see how they enjoy their Tu B’Shevat play these next few weeks!
Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram for up to date posts and pin our Tu B’Shevat Hub where we will post all the new activities!
Check out our recommended books from our Bookshop.org Shop
The following sites are amazing resources for learning more about this beautiful holiday:
Chag Sameach!!
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[…] 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 […]