“Our continued exploration with Sammy. Each class was encouraged to make a center piece for our School-wide Community Passover Experience. Gan Shalom wanted to make one with Sammy, so they fashioned a spiderweb using two paper towel holders and some yarn and perched Sammy on top. Many of them also…
Read MoreFun Things to do at Home and at School with Sammy Spider
Sammy Spider’s First Rosh Hashanah (focus on sizes to reinforce holiday symbols as you teach size relationships, small, middle-sized, and large). Use a picture of Sammy Spider or a spider puppet. Ask children to help Sammy Spider find the smallest apple, the middle-sized challah, the biggest bowl of honey, the…
Read MoreGifts of Love, an Original Story
“Gifts of Love” is a heart-warming story about the friendship that develops between two children from diverse cultures. They share an optimistic view of the world, and while one struggles with illness, the other strives to help her friend in a very personal way. Parents may want to read…
Read MoreBut, You Promised!
“Parents use promises for a variety of reasons—to bribe their child into doing what they want, to avoid a possible confrontation with their child, to spare their child from disappointment, to create hope in their child,” I wrote in an article for Glo online magazine in 2013. “But children are…
Read MoreListen to Podcast on Diversity in Jewish KidLit
January 27, 2015 was Multicultural Children’s Book Day. It seems like good timing to share some thoughts on diversity within Jewish children’s literature. Sylvia Rouss, Mira Reisberg, Joni Sussman and Ann Stampler spoke at the 2014 Association of Jewish Libraries conference on a panel responding to the Pew study “A Portrait of…
Read MoreWays to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with Young Children
[quote text_size=”small” author=”From Fun With Jewish Holiday Rhymes by Sylvia Rouss, UAHC Press, 1992″] Rosh Hashanah will soon be here. It’s the beginning of the year.We go to temple and listen to the shofar’s sound. We eat a special challah –its shape is round.We eat apples dipped in honey sweet. They…
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