Kids’ Corner
We are so excited to have your children with us this High Holy Day season! We will have children’s programming (child care, learning & fun) concurrent to all services for ages 2 through 6th grade. Your children either need to be checked in to children’s programming or supervised by an adult at all times.
Registration: Children’s programming is included for Members and advance registration is required, click here. Non-Members are required to register, click here to get your non-member IKARds.
Details: Read on for all your Rosh Hashanah Children’s Programming Need-to-Know info, including check-in, snacks/lunch, diaper policy, programming, and more!
Our in-person Services will be held at Shalhevet High School (910 S Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036).
The 2nd Floor Children’s Programming Help Desk (located on the 2nd Floor Landing throughout the High Holy Days) is the place to go to get your questions answered, to see our daily schedule and to find your children.
Need a High Holy soundtrack? Check out playlist created by R’ Ronit Tsadok.
IKARds – The Way In: All children age 2 through 6th grade must be registered for Children’s Programming and will receive an IKARd, which you can pick up at Shalhevet. (Adults must register too!)
Please note that IKAR is packed! We recommend coming earlier to ease the flow of traffic and make the whole experience more enjoyable.
Checking In and Out: In order to ensure that children are safe and accounted for at all times, please use the following process for checking in and out.
CHECK-IN: Please use the outside staircase to get to the 2nd Floor Landing where children 2 years old through 6th grade will be checked in at the 2nd Floor children’s programming Help Desk. Then you will walk your child to their designated classroom. In the classroom, your child will receive a wristband from their teacher to complete the check-in process.
CHECK-OUT: Children are expected to remain in children’s programming throughout services. If your child leaves programming, you are required to check them out of the classroom. Please note that if your child is not in children’s programming, they must be with an adult at all times.
Snacks, Allergies, Meals, etc: We will provide snacks at various points during the day, as well as a vegetarian lunch (pasta bar on RH1, taco bar on RH2). Please send your child with a labeled water bottle that we can refill throughout the day. If your child has allergies, it should be indicated on their IKARd. If it is not, please inform a Children’s Programming staff member. We’re prohibited from bringing food into Shalhevet for reasons of kashrut, so please do not send your child with any food.
Children in Diapers: Our staff do NOT change diapers. For any children wearing diapers, please be sure to check-in with them several times during services to change their diapers.
Parking: There is no available parking at Shalhevet, so please leave yourself extra time to park. Or feel free to rideshare, scoot, bike, walk, rollerblade, etc! Parking is available at the Peterson Auto Museum up the street for a flat rate of $21 per day. There are also certain relaxed parking restrictions (for example: meters and tow-away zones are still in effect).
If you want to locate your child, please check the large children’s programming schedule, which will be posted behind the 2nd Floor Children’s Programming Help Desk (2nd Floor Landing). There will also be staff at the desk to help direct you.
We are excited for a meaningful High Holy Days season with you and your children. If you have any questions before Rosh Hashanah starts, please email [email protected].
Shanah Tovah!
Download and Print:
–Pursuing Justice Resource Guide – begin or deepen your family’s conversation around pursuing racial justice with discussion prompts, text study, and resources for children of all ages. Created for IKAR by Anne Hromadka. Prepare in advance with this book list. You can download the full guide or one section at a time.
-Looking to dig into traditional texts on teshuvah (repentance/return) with elementary and middle school age kids and hands-on activities with younger kids? Check out this awesome resource from Pedagogy of Partnership.
Take a family walk this Yom Kippur and see what happens when explore your neighborhood with a new perspective and some discussion questions. Can you spot anything new? Change a pattern? Click here to Take a Second Look.
Stories and Activities:
-What can we do when we make a mistake? In this 10 minute video, Morah Beth Weisman reads Pete Makes a Mistake and explores different options after we do something we wish we hadn’t.
-Morah Eva Katz reads some of her favorite books, sings songs, and does High Holy Day activities for our younger crew. (approximately 2 years old through 1st grade): Beautiful Oops, Sammy Spiders’ First Yom Kippur and Something From Nothing (20 minutes) and The Hardest Word + Havdallah (20 minutes). And check out Morah Eva’s trip to the beach for Tashlikh. Plus a 1st grade bonus video (5 minutes), Live Life Sunny Side Up.
Download and Print:
–Pursuing Justice Resource Guide – begin or deepen your family’s conversation around pursuing racial justice with discussion prompts, text study, and resources for 2-year-olds through teens. Created for IKAR by Anne Hromadka. Prepare in advance with this book list. You can download the full guide or one section at a time. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
-Enjoy a Rosh Hashanah Seder, a Sephardic and Mizrahi tradition, from our friends at the Schusterman Foundation. Don’t forget to get your simanim (symbolic foods) in advance! The seder is available in English, Hebrew, Spanish and Russian.
Cooking, stories and activities with IKARites and Friends:
-Persian Lentil Stew in honor of Rosh Hashanah? Yes, please! Thank you Rachel Sumekh, IKAR Board member and member of our Racial Justice and Inclusion Committee, for sharing this delicious recipe.
-How do we make applesauce? Morah Beth Weisman, Director of Parenting and Admissions at our ECC, walks us through the steps for our younger kids (including the “mash in a plastic bag” step!) and reads Apple Days: A Rosh Hashanah Story.
-Round challah from start (part 1) to finish (part 2), courtesy of Betsy Uhrman & Ora Snyder and Lauren, Liora & Micah Applebaum. Click here for the Uhrman/Snyder recipe and here for the Applebaum recipe.
-Morah Eva Katz reads some of her favorite books, sings songs, and does High Holy Day activities for our younger crew. (approximately 2 years old through 1st grade), Watch the full 40 minute video. Check out these short additional videos for 1st graders: Apple Tastes, Shofar.