Books about Passover for Kids

Passover is an important Jewish holiday that celebrates the freedom of the Jewish people from enslavement in Egypt and their exodus to the promised land. There’s a lot of symbolism and storytelling involved in the Seder, the traditional meal that marks the beginning of Passover, and kids in particular might not understand what all is going on or why.

Whether your family has a Seder or you just want to learn more about the Jewish traditions, these books will help.

Why on This Night? A Passover Haggadah for Family Celebration by Rahel Musleah (with illustrations by Louise August) covers the story of Passover, the steps of the Seder and why these different foods, questions and other traditions are included in the ceremony.

The haggadah includes Hebrew text, transliteration and English translations, so non-Hebrew speakers can recite the words in Hebrew or in English.

It also includes activities, recipes, songs and things for kids and adults alike to think about as they go through the ceremony. For example as the home is cleared of hametz (foods containing yeast or made from dough that rises), we can also consider the hametz inside us, the puffed-up feelings that we are better or deserve more than others.

All of the elements of the Seder plate are explained, and different variations from different parts of the world are included. Haroset (a mix of dried fruit and wine) recipes come from the Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions, as well as one in the style popular in Jerusalem. As Jews in Iran talk about the plagues they may use scallions or leeks to gently hit each other on the shoulders as a bitter reminder of the Jews’ time of enslavement.

This book is a great overview of the Seder and the Passover story that you can use to direct your family’s celebrations or add to your current family traditions.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback edition published 2024 by Kalaniot Books, suggested retail price $19.99.

An Invitation to Passover by Rabbi Kerry Olitsky and Rabbi Deborah Bodin Cohen, illustrated by Mariia Kolker, tells the story of Hannah, whose extended family can’t come to the Seder this year, so she invites her friends, who bring their own traditions to the table.

It’s a lighthearted and sweet look at the traditions and meaning of Passover, not just as a religious holiday that recalls Jewish history, but also as a celebration of spring, an even that brings people together, and a day of special food including bitter things, sweet things, and of course matzoh (and matzoh ball soup!). There’s even a recipe so you can make your own matzah for your Passover celebration.

About the book: 32 pages, paperback, published 2024 by Kalaniot Books, suggested retail price $11.99.

Homemade Passover Seder Plates

Bejeweled Wine Glasses for Passover

Learn About Passover Seder with a Craft

Did you know that October is Squirrel Awareness Month? I didn’t know we needed more awareness of these little creatures, but let’s take it as a sign to learn more about squirrels!

Let’s start with some fun facts via Kids Konnect: did you know there are five subfamilies and more that 280 species of squirrels? The smallest are pygmy squirrels and the largest, the Bhutan giant flying squirrel, can be longer that 4 feet (1.2 meters).

Tree squirrels can climb down trees so fast because their ankles can rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to grab the tree bark as they go down. While most squirrels don’t survive their first year of life, they can live five to 10 years in the wild and squirrels have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity!

Rhythms of Play has more fun facts and tips for observing squirrels if you want to add some real life nature to your nature study.

We always like to start these collections with life cycle and parts of the animal printables, so let’s grab the squirrel life cycle an parts of a squirrel worksheets from Montessori Nature. (It doesn’t look like these are free any more but they have a whole unit study on squirrels you can buy that includes life cycle and parts activities, characteristics of different kinds of squirrels, a printable poster, information about predators and more.)

Grab the squirrel lapbook printable (free with email address) from Homeschool Share to learn the parts of a squirrel, where they live, what they eat, whether they hibernate and more. There’s also a nut taste test printable, a place for making observations about squirrels, life cycle of an oak tree, games and more.

Simple Everyday Mom has some cute squirrel themed worksheets including tracing the letter s, labeling the parts of a squirrel and a letter s maze. She also has more activity pages with a squirrel theme, including matching, a more traditional maze and a counting and graphing activity.

Work on letter recognition with this squirrel and acorn game printable from Teaching Mama. I love the idea of hiding the letters in a fall themed sensory bin for kids to find, identify and match to the letter on the worksheet.

For older kids you can do this “if I were a squirrel” writing prompt from Lesson Planet.

And throw in a little counting with these squirrel and acorn tens frame printables from JDaniel4’s Mom, which you can use to count real acorns or any other little fall themed thing you have handy.

Have you read?

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