The Stars learnt that Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, a special time when Jewish families celebrate the start of a new year. We talked about how it is a time to think about the year that has passed, make good choices and think about ways we can be kind and caring towards others. We also learnt that apples and honey are traditionally enjoyed during Rosh Hashanah because they represent wishes for a sweet and happy new year. 

To celebrate, we tasted our very own traditional honey apples! The Stars absolutely loved them and enjoyed exploring the sweet taste of the honey with the crunchy apples.

We also listened to the beautiful sound of the shofar. We explained to the children that a shofar is a special instrument made from a ram’s horn, which is traditionally blown during Rosh Hashanah. The sound of the shofar is an important part of the celebration and reminds people to think, reflect and make positive choices for the year ahead.

We also then spoke about our kindness tree that we made at the start of the week. We reminded the Stars that they each added their own special leaf to our tree, sharing a kind thing they can do for someone else. We talked about how kindness can be shown in lots of different ways, such as sharing with our friends, helping others, taking turns, using kind words, giving someone a hug or simply making someone smile. 

We explained that just like the branches of our tree grow and become fuller when we add more leaves, our kindness grows when we continue to make kind and caring choices every day.  This linked beautifully with our Rosh Hashanah learning, as we thought about how we can start the new year by being kind, thoughtful and caring towards others.