Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah starts on September 18th this year and it's never too early to start making plans for how you'll celebrate.  Little kids can help with the festivities too.  They can make cards for the people in their families. When choosing a story for preschool children, you need a story with bold pictures and a storyline they can follow.  Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah has both.

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Author's Summary

Sammy Spider wants to taste the golden honey the Shapiros set out for a sweet New Year. Mom tells him to stick to spinning webs, but will curious Sammy listen?

🍎 Title: Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah
🍎 Author: Sylvia Rouss
🍎 Illustrator: Katherine Janus Kahn
🍎 Publisher: Kar-Ben Publishing
🍎 Date: January 1, 2014
🍎 Pages: 32

Language Arts Lesson

When I taught preschool years ago, I tried to keep my lessons short and sweet. Little children have little attention spans, you know! My preschool lessons often followed the same pattern:

• a short, age-appropriate story
• focus lesson and class discussion
• center time with one center dedicated to a follow-up craft or activity

Reading Sammy the Spider's First Rosh Hashanah

Note to self... add a paragraph here

Focus Lesson and Class Discussion

After reading Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah with the children, it was time for our focus lesson.  What did I want my students to learn about Rosh Hashanah?  For this particular lesson, I wanted the children to learn that apples dipped in honey are a traditional food of Rosh Hashanah.  We looked back at the pages on which Sammy had tasted apples and honey and wondered aloud what apples dipped in honey would taste like.  We talked about the colors-- apples are red and honey is yellow-- and that apples and honey are very sweet.  Of course, at snack time, we sampled some apples dipped in honey.  Yum!

Making Rosh Hashanah Cards

When working with young children, sometimes simple projects can be the most effective.  As a follow-up to reading Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah, we made cards. These cards were extremely simple to make and the parents and grandparents adored them!

You Will Need:

• paper to draw on
• marker to write down what the children say
• a variety of yellow crayons (Yellow is for honey.)
• a variety of red crayons (Red is for apples.)
• a variety of red and yellow pom poms, ribbons, buttons, etc.
• glue

Directions:

1. Let the children draw on the papers.  Do not interfere with their drawings.  Talk to them about the story and what they learned.
2. Ask the children:  Who the card is for?  What do they want it to say?  Write down the exact words they say.
3. Help the children embellish their cards with pom poms, buttons, ribbons, etc.  Help them put the glue on the objects, but let them decide where the objects go.
4. When done, talk about the card as if it were a masterpiece!  Praise the color choices.  Repeat the mantra Yellow is for honey.  Red is for apples.  
5. Set aside to dry, then send home.

What other books about Rosh Hashanah would you recommend?  Share them in the comment section below?

(Next article: When the Chickens Went on Strike: A Rosh Hashana Tale by Erica Silverman)