Rosh Hashanah activities for kids: crafts, foods and coloring

The easiest Rosh Hashanah activities for young kids are the ones built into the holiday itself: dipping apples in honey, tearing and tasting a round challah, listening for the shofar, saying "shanah tovah", and, if you have water nearby, tossing crumbs for tashlich. Add one simple craft and one picture book and a toddler or preschooler has had a full holiday. The next Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on Friday, October 1, 2027 and ends at nightfall on Sunday, October 3, 2027, according to Hebcal, which gives you plenty of time to plan.

What Rosh Hashanah is, in kid-sized words

ReformJudaism.org describes Rosh HaShanah, literally "head of the year", as the Jewish New Year, a time of prayer, self-reflection and t'shuvah (repentance). It falls on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, in September or October, and begins the ten Days of Awe that end with Yom Kippur. The same page names the customs families know best: sounding the shofar, sharing round challah, and eating apples with honey for a sweet new year.

For a three-year-old, that can shrink to: "It's the Jewish New Year. We eat sweet things because we hope the year will be sweet, we hear the shofar, and we think about how to be kind this year." For a five-year-old you can add the idea of saying sorry and starting fresh. My Jewish Learning calls it both a time of rejoicing and of serious introspection, and young kids can hold both: a party, and a moment to think about what they want to do better.

Every family and community does the holiday a little differently, so treat the ideas below as a menu, not a checklist.

Foods kids can help with

The food is where small children join in most easily.

Apples and honey. Slice apples, set out a small bowl of honey, and let each child dip. My Jewish Learning notes that the challah is traditionally dipped in honey too, and apples are made even sweeter with honey, both for hopes of a sweet new year. One safety note: the AAP says do not give honey to a baby younger than 12 months because of botulism risk. Babies can have plain apple; toddlers 1 and up can dip.

Round challah. Instead of the usual braided challah, many families serve round challah, symbolizing the cycle of the year, sometimes with raisins or honey added. If you bake, give a preschooler a piece of dough to roll into a snake and coil into a spiral. If you buy one, let them carry it to the table.

Simanim, the symbolic foods. Many families add other foods that stand for wishes. My Jewish Learning lists pomegranates for abundance, carrots cut into coins, and fish heads or heads of lettuce for the wish to be "a head and not a tail". In many Sephardic families, a Rosh Hashanah seder with pomegranate, date, string bean, beet, pumpkin, leek and fish head comes before the meal. Cutting carrot coins (with a grown-up holding the knife) or picking a few pomegranate seeds is a good job for small hands.

Crafts and play for toddlers and preschoolers

None of these need more than paper, paint and things in your kitchen.

• Apple stamps. Cut an apple in half across the middle so the seeds make a star, dip it in red or green paint, and stamp. Toddlers love the star.
• Paper-plate shofar. Cut a curved horn shape from a paper plate or card, let your child color it, and practice the "toot" sounds together. If someone in your family or synagogue blows a real shofar, a short listen beforehand helps a sound-sensitive toddler know it is coming.
• Honey pot. Color a paper cup yellow, add a paper bee, and use it to hold the apple slices at dinner.
• New Year cards. Fold paper in half, stamp or draw an apple, and write the greeting for them. ReformJudaism.org gives the greetings: "shanah tovah umtukah", a good and sweet new year, or simply "shanah tovah". Mail one to a grandparent.
• Tashlich walk. On the afternoon of the first day, many people throw crumbs or pieces of bread, symbolizing their sins, into flowing water. Rabbi Danielle Upbin writes that tashlich at a park, river or the ocean is a much more accessible experience for children than sitting in synagogue, and that some people toss leaves or twigs instead of bread. With a preschooler, each throw can be "something I want to do better", said out loud.

Coloring page ideas you can draw in five minutes

You do not need a printable. Draw simple outlines with a black marker and let them color:

Page	What to draw	Talking point
Apples and honey	Two apples, a honey jar, a bee	Why we want a sweet year
Round challah	A spiral loaf on a plate	The year goes round and starts again
Shofar	A curved horn with a few sound lines	Listening carefully
Pomegranate	A round fruit split open with seeds	Wishing for lots of good things
Tashlich	Kids at a pond tossing crumbs, ducks	Starting fresh
Our table	Your family around the dinner table	Who we celebrate with

The last one is the one kids keep. A page with their own family around their own table means more than a generic apples-and-honey printable. If you want tips on getting the details right in holiday pages, our Hanukkah coloring pages guide covers the same approach for winter. For more on turning your photos into pages for free, see how to make coloring pages of your family.

Rosh Hashanah picture books

All of these are in the Seattle Public Library catalog, so your library may have them too:

• Sammy Spider's First Rosh Hashanah by Sylvia A. Rouss: a curious spider watches a family prepare. A gentle first book for 2 to 4 year olds. (catalog record)
• New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story by April Halprin Wayland: a boy prepares for tashlich and the apologies that go with it. Good for 4 and up. (catalog record)
• Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride by Deborah Bodin Cohen: a train engineer in old Jerusalem learns to say sorry.
• The World's Birthday: A Rosh Hashanah Story by Barbara Diamond Goldin: a boy wants to throw a birthday party for the world.
• Is It Rosh Hashanah Yet? by Chris Barash: the signs of autumn counting down to the holiday, for the youngest listeners.
• The Rosh Hashanah Recipe by Laura Gehl, Something New for Rosh Hashanah by Jane Yolen, and Measuring a Year: A Rosh Hashanah Story by Linda Elovitz Marshall are newer titles worth asking for.

Read one the week before, then again at the table.

A simple plan for the holiday with little kids

1. The week before: read a picture book, make apple stamps, mail New Year cards.
2. Erev Rosh Hashanah (first evening): round challah, apples and honey, one simanim food, and the greeting.
3. First day: services if your family goes (ask whether your synagogue has a family or tot service), then tashlich in the afternoon.
4. Second day: color the "our table" page from last night while it is fresh.

Rosh Hashanah is the start of the fall holidays, so the same habits carry into the rest of the year. For a spring holiday with lots for small hands to do, see Passover activities for kids, and browse the rest of our family and heritage guides.

Questions parents ask