In just a week we will be celebrating Purim in all its colorful glory; carnivals, costumes, and more…Purim is a very special holiday with unique customs that everyone, especially children, love to take part in. In this spirit, Beit Issie Shapiro hosted an exciting event, a sort of costume make-a-thon, where children who use wheelchairs and walkers can come and have teams of volunteers design creative costumes for them.
At Beit Issie Shapiro’s Early Intervention Center and School for Special Education, we have been preparing for the holiday with a variety of holiday activities, both high- and low-tech. Here are a few of the things we have done:
The staff of the Early Intervention Center created a communication board to support participation in holiday preparations and events. The boards were created using Touch Chat and whoever has the app can download and use the boards, and of course adjust or adapt them to the user’s needs.
Purim board
In the main board you will find boards for two levels of communication, holiday custom riddles, an activity to create a clown, and a costume board. For the costume board it is recommended that you personalize the board with costumes from the children in your class. To download the board, click here. Look at the picture below for further instruction.
To download the board, click on the link, and then click on the “download” button (circled in red).
Another great activity to get into the Purim spirit is to get creative with Ji Tap, an open platform app for creating personalized games and activities with Jewish content. It has a variety of Purim creation packs for creating fun engaging activities.
Made using Ji Tap
Below are some of our ideas from past posts:
Explain Everything
One of our kindergarten teachers created a wonderful how-to-video using the app Explain Everything, teaching the children how to create a clown, putting the parts of his face and body in the right places. The app can be played together in circle time and the group can even create a video together as they use the game.
“Let’s make a clown!”
Dressing up is one of the favorite Purim activities and there are many great photo apps out there that allow you to “dress up” your photos and make some funny characters.
Mojo Masks (iTunes)
Mojo Masks adds face makeup to your photo. The makeup fits perfectly on the face in the photo and stays on the face as the face moves, allowing you to even record short videos. The free version includes a few fun samples but there are many in-app purchases to choose from.
Classroom tip: If you have access to an Apple TV, you can create an album of funny photos and have the kids enjoy a slideshow. They can even try to guess who is hiding under all those fun stickers. Make sure to take a screenshot of the accessory page in each app to help create symbols or choice boards for children that need some extra help to choose what they would like on their photo.
Doodle Bomb – InstaBlend (iTunes)
T
his app is a classic photo editing app with many cartoon accessories to choose from.
Picturizr (iTunes or GooglePlay)
In 
all of these apps the photos can be saved and printed. Be sure to make funny photos of the staff as well and hang the photos around the class. It’s a great opportunity to encourage conversation and laughter amongst the children. The photos can also be used in other apps creating fun “guess who?” type games.
“Where’s the teacher?” ( created using Doodle Bomb and used in a Tiny Tap game)
Be sure to check out the galleries in Ji Tap, Tiny Tap and Bitsboard, there are sure to be many Purim activities already waiting to play.
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