A Singing Chain

Family Activities

• שְׁמִירָה
• Share
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• You may want to sit on the sofa together and leaf through the book. Do you know all the poems in this collection? Which ones do you and your child like best? Unlike a story, a poetry collection can be read in any order, so you can choose one or two each time, or go back to the same ones over and over again.
• You could read together, sing, and even create dances to the poems in the book. Soon your child will learn them off by heart, and recite or chant them on their own.
• Do the songs in the book remind you of your own childhood? Did you sing different songs growing up? You may want to share those memories with your child. If Hebrew is not your mother tongue, you may enjoy teaching your child songs from a chain of gold reminiscent of a faraway land, those sung to you when you were young, and instill in them your own special family tradition.
• Perhaps you would like to choose one song and ask your child to tell it as if it were a story, adding details, describing the characters’ feelings, and making up their own ending (you may want to try this activity with the song “Gumball seeds”).
• How would you draw a song? Illustrator Batia Kolton added illustrations to the songs. You and your child could also make a scrapbook of your favorite songs.
• You could choose a song you both like and sing it together as a duet – parents sing one line, children sing the next. You could also make illustrations for your favorite song together, or perhaps, even write a song of your own?

Enjoy!