Shavuot is the Jewish holiday commemorating the anniversary of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. This post is a collection of Shavuot activities for kids. Shavuot is a spring holiday that usually takes place in May. It is celebrated exactly fifty days after the first Passover seder. Traditionally, it is celebrated with a dairy meal and spring flowers.
Shavuot Recipes to Cook With Kids
Shavuot is celebrated by eating dairy. Blintzes are the most traditional Shavuot food. Cheese blintzes of course, although I have friends who insist that chocolate blintzes are the best kind. While I have little ones, froze blintzes are the only ones happening at my house (and I’ll probably be the only one who eats them). Here are some Shavuot recipes that you should be able to cook with your kids, and maybe they’ll even eat them!
My kids have been begging to make ice cream in a bag ever since they saw this video on Go Noodle! The basics are: put milk, sugar, and vanilla in a sandwich bag. Place that bag inside a larger bag that’s filled with ice and rock salt (or ice cream salt). Then SHAKE IT!
Many Friday nights, our Shabbat dinner consists of challah and butter. It’s usually the best dinner I have all week. This week the kids can make the butter! Put heavy cream in a jar and shake, and shake, and shake. Yep. That’s it.
Ice Cream Pie, Ice Cream Sandwiches and Cheesecake Dip
Ice cream pie and ice cream sandwiches are both easy ways dress up a dessert you know your kids will love. Ice cream pie is a pre-made Oreo pie crust with softened ice cream scooped in. Ice cream sandwiches are more about assembling than cooking. The final recipe in this video is one for cheesecake dip. It’s insanely good! My kids love dips. There’s something so fun about having an interactive element to dessert.
Platters are all the rage these days. My kids will have fun arranging all of the ingredients and I love that a kid friendly cheese board like this will give my kids a chance to try a variety of things. I’m also very happy with the idea that the leftovers will definitely get used up long after Shavuot is over.
Shavuot Crafts
Shavuot is our spring holiday, so themes focus on flowers and the outdoors as well as the Ten Commandments themselves. I’m always looking for holiday crafts that we can do with things we already have in our house. If my kids can do the craft all on their own, even better.
These flowers are so sweet and they’re made from streamers. I have a pile of various colored streamers that I’ve collected over the year, but you can also buy them cheap almost anywhere. It’s such a vibrant way to decorate the house for the holiday.
Torah scrolls are all hand written by scribes and contain no errors. This activity is a chance to try writing Hebrew letters with the beautiful tagim (crowns) that some of the letters have in the Torah. Could you do this with English letters too?
This is a new one! Scraping away at bars of soup with a chop stick to write the numbers of the Ten Commandment.
More Shavuot Fun…..
PJ Library is a service that sends FREE Jewish children’s books to your house every month. They also offer local activities and have a fantastic podcast.
“Have I Got A Story For You” Podcast – Rita Toomey’s favorite holiday, Shavuot, is coming up — but her trusty audio engineer Al, doesn’t know much about it. Listen in as Rita and Al get together via video chat for a cheesecake baking session and a quick run-down of Shavuot history and traditions.
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