High Holiday Crafts, Activities & More for Kiddos
by Elianna Mentzer
Make your Jewish High Holiday experience accessible and meaningful for everyone in your family or classroom! Browse and download free High Holiday resources for children and teens with disabilities and diverse learning needs, prepared by Gateways’ experienced special education teachers.
High Holiday Blessings
Illustrating each word of the blessing with a symbol makes it more accessible and understandable for pre-readers and those with disabilities and diverse learning needs. Use these downloadable blessing printouts to learn a blessing’s meaning, follow along, and recite the blessing.
The blessings are written out here in three ways: large print Hebrew text, an English transliteration accompanied by Picture Communication Symbols®, and a simple English translation.
Blessing for Lighting the Candles
Blessing for Apples and Other Fruit
Blessing for Hearing the Shofar
Kiddush — Blessing over Wine
Shehecheyanu — Blessing for New Things
Build Your Own High Holiday Social Story
Customize your very own High Holiday social story by printing out sections that are of interest and assembling them into a single book or a little library of short stories. You may also want to add in some of our general going-to-temple social stories.
Blowing the Shofar
What to Think and Do if the Shofar Sounds Too Loud
Going to High Holiday Services Online
We Go to Temple on Rosh Hashanah
People Say “Shanah Tovah” on Rosh Hashanah
High Holiday Activities
High Holiday Services Bingo
Staying engaged during High Holiday services might be even more difficult for children when services are online. Help them to stay focused with these fun High Holiday bingo cards! Whenever they hear a word on their boards, they can cross it off or cover it with a pre-cut square of paper.
Apple and Honey Pattern Activity
Students complete patterns of apples and jars of honey, helping them learn to associate these tasty snacks with the High Holidays.
Shofar Puzzle
In this activity, students put together all of the pieces to complete a picture of a shofar, helping them to become more familiar with this object we use on the High Holidays.
Weighing Our Deeds Activity
In this activity, students sort out the mitzvot and good deeds from the things that we apologize for doing.
High Holiday Crafts
Apple Print Rosh Hashanah Cards
This fun, tactile activity helps children associate Rosh Hashanah with its traditional snack of apples.
Write Your Rosh Hashanah Messages
Writing Rosh Hashanah cards can be an excellent opportunity for children to practice communicating with their friends and family. Children who are pre-readers, non-verbal, or have physical disabilities are empowered to compose a holiday message with the help of the Tobii Dynavox Picture Communication Symbols®.
