Yom Kippur Activities for Kids

Yom Kippur is also known as the Day of Atonement in the Jewish calendar, and while that sounds pretty heavy it gives a great opportunity to teach kids about asking for forgiveness and starting each day trying to do better than we did the day before.

Fasting and religious services are an important part of the day, as well as blowing the shofar, a horn made from a ram’s horn, to mark the end of the service. Kids aren’t required to fast but many of the other traditions of Yom Kippur can be shared with kids.

Learn more about Yom Kippur with this reading and comprehension questions packet from Teacher Noire, available on Etsy. And if you’re traveling for the holiday you can print out a book of word scrambles from Sakura James to keep kids busy. (They also have word searches and other printable activities.)

One of the traditions of the day has to do with the use of a scapegoat, which in the Bible is a literal goat that was sacrificed as a way to be forgiven for sins. I love the way Bible Belt Balabusta incorporates this tradition with kids by having people write down their al chets (meaning “missed mark,” an analog for sin in Hebrew), attach them to a goat and having the goat “sent away” to another room. The way the activity is set up people can write things down privately but still share in the communal expulsion of things they could have done better.

Judaism.org has an idea for kids to make a mitzvah wheel, which gets them thinking about people they can be kinder to and good deeds they can do in the coming year. You could also just talk about what a mitzvah is and the ways you can do good things for people in your family, at school or synagogue, and in the wider community.

Mini Monets and Mommies has an easy shofar craft kids can make from a cardboard tube. Family Holiday has some Yom Kippur themed coloring pages you can use to teach kids about the holiday.

It is forbidden to wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur, so making slippers is a great craft for kids to do this time of year. Jewish Homeschool Blog has a simple idea using sticky foam that kids can decorate and wear around the house.

Also check out this collection box idea that I shared a few years ago.