IssieRoots Activities for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur

A series of three screenshots. Left with green border and clipart of honey and wine and apples in middle. text reads The High Holidays. Middle: multicolored border in fall colors, two characters on the screen one sitting in a wheelchair and one standing. text reads Greeting Cards for Rosh Hashana. Right: blue border. two characters on the screen, one sitting in a wheelchair and one standing. text reads Yom Kippur Asking for forgiveness.

IssieRoots activities for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. Left: The High Holidays. Middle: Greeting cards for Rosh Hashana. Right: Yom Kippur: Asking for Forgiveness

IssieRoots is a collection of interactive educational activities for Jewish and Muslim holidays, designed by the staff of Beit Issie Shapiro and for the enrichment and enjoyment of children of varying abilities. All activities are offered in English and in either Hebrew or Arabic so they can be enjoyed by Jewish and Muslim children in Israel and around the world.

The High Holidays

In this activity, students explore three of the Tishrei Holidays, Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. They will learn about various customs for each holiday, hear traditional holiday music and test themselves on their new knowledge.

You can find The High Holidays on the Jigzi website, using this link:

https://jigzi.org/asset/play/jig/64d614f2-2bc5-11ee-bb29-838a9d5dff7a?direction=ltr&display_score=false&track_assessments=false&drag_assist=false&is_student=false&draft_or_live=live

Here is a sneak peek at some of the pages:

an artistic image of the jewish holiay calendar with months arranged in a circular way and artistic images for each.

Can you find Tishrei on the Jewish calendar?

page with green and yellow border. images of the three holidays. left: rosh hashana, middle: yom kippur, right: sukkot

Choose which holiday you’d like to learn more about

Greeting Cards for Rosh Hashana

In this typing activity, students learn how to make greeting cards for the holiday. They will be prompted to think about who to write a card to, and what they would like to write in it and then they will practice typing those words. Students have the opportunity to choose between two different typing difficulties, copying from an example or typing after hearing the word.

You can find Greeting Cards for Rosh Hashana on the Ji Tap website or in the app, using this link:

https://jitap.net/activities/gfiu/play/greeting-cards-for-rosh-hashana

Here is a sneak peek at some of the pages:

page with beige border. two characters one on each side. One in a wheelchair and one standing. two circles in the middle of the page with green borders. Left with image of girl sitting at a desk and writing. text reads what to write. right circle: image of girl thinking with text who to write to.

Choose what you want to practice: who to write to, or what to write.

page with beige border. charcter on bottom left sitting in a wheelchair. two squares with green borders in center of page. left: level2, right level 1

Choose your typing difficulty

Yom Kippur: Asking for Forgiveness

In this social story, children explore the ideas of self-reflection and forgiveness as central themes to the observance of Yom Kippur. They are encouraged to reflect on what these concepts mean and how they relate to their own lives. The story can be read one on one or in a classroom setting encouraging meaningful discussion.

You can find Yom Kippur: Asking for Forgiveness on the Jigzi website, using this link:

Yom Kippur – Asking for Forgiveness by Beit Issie Shapiro – School – on Jigzi

Here is a sneak peek at some of the pages:

two characters with thought bubbles. one is using a guide dog and a cane, one is a young girl. each is asking what have I done, how have i behaved

Exploring the idea of self-reflection

slide is divided into 4 quartes around a central circle. in each quarter are animated characters. each quarter is titled, friends, family, anyone we hurt, teachers. central text: Who can we ask forgiveness from?

Exploring the idea of asking for forgiveness

Ideas for Use in the Classroom:

One of the pages takes a look at the calendar and emphasizes the 10 days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
- Use this page to take the opportunity to look at the Jewish calendar for this time of the year, and identify all the holidays that take place.
- Incorporate into a math lesson. Print the page or another calendar page and have students work on counting to ten with 1:1 correspondence and place stickers on each of the 10 days between the holidays.
Read the story together in class and have discussions exploring the different themes.
- Self-reflection – explore good deeds we have done and things we may need to change or ask forgiveness for, what it means to hurt or offend someone, forgiving another person.
- Have students pull scenarios out of a hat to act out between students, to explore different feelings and ways to resolve situations.
- Use animations or clips from children’s shows for students to analyze and discuss the themes of disrespect, hurting someone’s feelings, doing something questionable…and how it gets resolved.

For a wonderful Rosh Hashana activity specially designed for younger children check out “Rosh Hashana is Coming!” Click on the photo to play the activity on the Ji Tap website or in the app.

page with red border. central image of clanedar reading Rosh Hashana and stick figure blowing the shofar

IssieRoots activity: Rosh Hashana is Coming!

Happy New Year and G’mar Hatimah Tova!

*Explore our other IssieRoots activities by searching for IssieRoots in the search window.

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