Learning the Hebrew Aleph BetA curriculum for 5 and 6 year olds

Lesson 1 Shin

Lesson introWhat is a letter?It’s a written symbol representing a sound.Different people use different symbols to represent the sounds we make when speaking.We put these sounds together to make a work.

The Hebrew aleph bet uses different symbols to the one we use for English and some of the sounds are a bit different too. This year we are going to learn the symbols for the letters of the Hebrew Aleph Bet and the sounds they make.

ShinOur first letter is this one – show shin.It makes the sound shIn English we have to use 2 letters to make that sound but in Hebrew we just use one.

When we say shhh in English to tell someone to be quiet what do we sometimes do with our finger? We hold it up to our mouth as we say shhh. Let’s all do that.

Now in Hebrew we use this letter for the sound shhhh, it looks like 3 fingers to me, not 1. So let’s all make the sound again but this time hold up 3 fingers to our mouths.

Reinforcement activityModel a shin from play doh, pipe cleaners etcDraw finger nails and knuckles on shin and colour it in so it looks like 3 fingersThink of some hebrew words starting with the sh sound – we sing Shabbat shalom at the start of class.Where’s shin – before the class hide some cards with shin on them around the room for the children to look for

When you do the Rosh Hashanah lesson, point out the letter Sh in those words and at the start of Shofar

Lesson 2 Bet/Vet

RecapRecap on the previous lesson, what a letter is and the first letter we learned Shin.

Recap activities Show photo of girl holding up 3 fingers to mouth – can anyone tell me what sound she is making? Get all children to make sound shhhh while holding up 3 fingers

BetStart with Bet and include Vet if you have time and are happy the children can cope with it.Show them the new letter and tell them we are going to build that letter out of lego. Provide plenty of bricks.

When they have make an approximate shape of the letter – tell them to put it on wheels as it is actually a car. Point out the flat shape at the bottom, the curve going over the top. The flat bit is where the driver sits, the curved bit over the top is the roof. And the dot in the middle? What do they think it is, the driver, part of the car? You can’t make that bit with lego, but it is important to point it out.

Now they can drive their letters along the table and make the car sound brrmm brrmm.This letter makes the sound b.

I brought in a play road on a plastic sheet from home to drive our cars around – you could draw a road system on a piece of flipchart paper to use and add buildings, trees and even a school or synagogue.

VetWhen you are ready to introduce Vet, in this lesson or later. Tell them that this car hasn’t got the dot in the middle so it makes a different sound instead of going brrmm brrrmm, it goes vrrrmm vrrrmm.

If you have time left they could make a Shin from lego as well.

Or play tic tac toe with Shin and Bet as the 2 letters

Lesson 3 Tav, word building and vowels

This is a busy lesson with a new letter, the first vowel and building their first word

TavShow they the letter Tav, point out that it is a letter with a toe sticking out and so it makes the sound T.

Model the letter with pipe cleaners or play doh.

We made them with pipe cleaners and used a table tennis ball which the tav’s kicked with their toe towards the goal. We did penalties as we didn’t have enough players for a match!

RecapNow recap the previous 2 letters with their sounds, using the memory tags and encouraging the students to repeat them.

Word buildingNow tell them that we are going to build our first word SHABBAT, which uses these 3 sounds, Sh, B and T. Give them the 3 letters and ask them to arrange them in order. Tell them that Hebrew words are written right to left, help them to arrange the letters from right to left. Now read them out – make a meal of sounding them out quickly with no gaps – that doesn’t sound like Shabbat – what’s missing? The a sound.

Show them the vowel and encourage them to use their fingers to make a copy. Tell them that both and make the same vowel sound, a.

Where would they put the vowels to make the word Shabbat?Show them the correct placement below the shin and bet and the order in which they are read.

ReinforcementGive them the word SHABBAT in Hebrew to make into a bookmark, card or other item to take home as a reminder of what they have learned today. They can take it home to do if you don’t have time in the lesson.

Letter lessons

The first 3 lessons are given in a recommended order and are numbered as they build the first word Shabbat. The remainder of the lessons aren’t ordered; some are suggested to teach at certain festival times as the letters relate to the festival. Others can be taught in any order, as can the other vowels.

All lessons follow a similar format, starting with a recap of previous letters / vowels introducing the new letter and its memory tag. As more letters are learned the students can start to read and build simple words – which words these are will depend entirely on the letters and vowels taught up to that point.

Below are some general ideas for recap/reinforcement activities that can be done with any letter. Use the memory tags as much as possible when playing the games to help the children embed that learning.

Tic tac toe – choose 2 letters instead of nought and cross to play the game

Snap – choose 2 or more letters that look similar and use them for the pack for a game of snap, instead of shouting snap shout the sound that letter makes when you see a pair

Memory game – lots of letter cards turned over in rows in the middle of the table and the children have to find 2 the same, but they can only keep them for their team if they know the sound it makes.

Musical cards – not any music actually (unless you want to bring some in) put lots of letter cards in the middle of the table, the children march around the table and when you shout stop (or stop the music) they all quickly grab a letter card. If they know the sound they can keep it, if they don’t and someone else knows it that person gets to keep it. See who has the most cards at the end of the game.

Letter modellingWhen you introduce a new letter get the children to model it – be as creative as you like.Pipe cleaners, play doh, modelling clay, collage, lego, meccano, building blocks, loom bands! Making the shapes using their own bodies, then photograph it on a tablet to see how accurate it is.

Below letter vowels

The first vowel is introduced in lesson 3

The approach to learning the vowels is to get the kids to make a shape with their fingers whilst making the sound that vowel makes. Repetition is key here.

� and one finger pointing to side, held parallel to the body

� one finger pointing away from the body

� 2 fingers pointing away from body held parallel to each other

� three fingers pointing away from body on a diagonal slant (some kids find 2 fingers and thumb easier for this)

� 2 fingers and thumb, 2 fingers parallel and the thumb below in the middle

� 2 fingers held one above the other

Keyboard – draw a short piano keyboard and get the children to play it by pushing the key and making the sound of the vowel

New letters – get the idea of letters and vowels combining to make sounds, and reinforce both sounds by putting a new letter you have just introduced on top of a vowel and asking them to combine the sounds

Word building - when you have enough letter and vowel sounds encourage the students to start building words, working together as a group at first, then as they become more confident in pairs or individually. Start with 3 letter words and build up from there. You can either use Hebrew words, or ask them to spell English words in Hebrew, but be careful which ones you choose as some sounds don’t translate so easily using Hebrew.

Het and Hay a Hanukkah lesson

As Het and hay start and finish the word Hanukkah I link this lesson to that festival.Het and Hay look very similar so we do both letters together so the children learn to identify them and we also recap tav.

Show the children both letters and ask them to spot the difference between them. Hay has a hole in one side – memory tag hay has a hole.

Talk about the sound made by het, practice making this sound.

Now show them Tav, remind them of the sound and the memory tag, Tav has a toe.

Model all three letters using play doh, so the children have to look very closely and study the differences between them.

Reinforce this by playing snap with the 3 letters, the children should shout the sound of the letter when they see a pair, not the word snap.

You could also play the pairs memory game just using these 3 letters.

Another word they may know is Challah, which also starts with het and ends with hay. If you have done the letter lamed, then they can build the word challah.

We cut out and stuck down the 3 letters on a piece of A5 paper for the kids to take home – including the memory tags for Hay and Tav on the paper and the equivalent English letters. This serves as a useful activity and lets parents know what the children have been learning in lessons.

Go Gimmel – a dreidel letter

I usually do Gimmel quite early as it is both an easy letter to remember and one of the dreidel letters I try to cover in the run up to Hanukah.

The memory tag for Gimmel is that it looks like it has 2 legs – we make 2 legs with our finger and run along the table, saying Go Gimmel, Go Gimmel

To reinforce the idea of Gimmel as a runner we have a Gimmel race game to use for our recap/reinforcement activity. A simple grid is drawn on a piece of flipchart paper with start and finish written on the ends – each child has a coloured Gimmel as their counter. They take it in turns to draw a letter card – using the letters learned so far. If they can say the letter’s sound without any help they move 2 spaces forward if they need help they move 1 space and so does the child who helped them. First one to reach the end is the winner.

Dalet and Reish

As these letters look similar we learn them together.

Introduce the letters dalet and reish using the cards with the letters stuck on them.What is different about dalet and reish can anyone see?The important difference to focus on is that reish is rounded – it goes round the corner

Now get them to model dalet and reish with pipe cleaners or play doh (or anything else)

The memory tag for Reish is that it is like a road going Round the corner. We draw a big letter Reish on a piece of paper – one for each student. We then make it look like a road, with a white line down the middle and traffic lights or zebra crossing. Reish is like a road it goes up then “Round the corner”. The round bit here is the crucial part as it distinguishes it from Dalet which isn’t rounded.

I bought in a few toy vehicles from home for the students to drive around the road.Reinforce the memory tag as they drive the cars “Round the corner”.

You could reinforce the letters bet/vet here. Lego cars you built for Bet and Vet could be driven around the corner making the brrmm brrmm and vrmm vrmm noises.

Dalet is a Dead end road – the car goes to the top but then it is a dead end.

Draw a dalet on a large piece of paper and invite the students to drive a vehicle up to the dead end at the top of the road.

RecapPlay some games to recap on letters covered so far including vowels

Pey / Fey – a purim lesson

I usually do pey/fey at Purim as it starts the word. The memory tag for pey is that it is the first letter of Par Par the Hebrew word for butterfly. The memory tag for fey is that it looks like a face.

Introduce the letter pey/fey using the cards with the letters stuck on them.What is different about pey/fey can anyone see?

Now get them to model pey/fey with pipe cleaners or play doh (or anything else)

There are 2 activities one for pey and one for fey they can choose one or do both

Fey activityUse the template to draw fey on a piece of paper – then add features to turn it into a funny face. Model this for the students then get them to have a go – who can make the funniest face?

Pey activityYou can also use the template to make a butterfly (Par Par) with each wing based on the letter pey. You can colour in the butterflies wings cut it out and make 2 small slits in the body for a finger to fly the butterly.

If you want to tie it in more closely with purim, make a butterfly mask to dress up. Use the letter template as the base for making the mask – but add eye holes and stick on a pencil or similar for the kids to hold the mask to their faces.

Show students the word purim, can they read it, which letters do they know?

RecapPlay some games to recap on letters covered so far including vowels

Tet – a Tu B’Shevat lesson

The memory tag for Tet is that it looks like a little cup, which we can use for a cup of tea

I usually teach tet at Tu B’Shevat as it starts and ends the name of the festival. It works best if they have a Judaism session about the festival first.

Show them the Hebrew word Tu B’ShevatAsk them which letters they know (they should recognise shin, bet and the vowel sounds)Explain that the new letter this week is Tet which comes at the beginning and end and makes the sound t. They already know the other letter that makes this sound Tav.

Show them the Hebrew calendar (you’ll find it in the drawers) and the month of shevat.Without looking at the printed version in Hebrew challenge them to build the word using the letters stuck on cards.

Now get them to model tet with pipe cleaners or play doh (or anything else) You can reinforce the cup message by having a drink of fruit juice for Tu B’shevat.

You could draw Tet on a piece of paper and draw fruits around the outside that are used to make juice and colour their cup with the juice that is their favourite.

RecapPlay some games to recap on letters covered so far including vowels

Mem the Mountain

Introduce the letter mem using the cards with the letters stuck on them.What is different about mem, can anyone see?

This memory tag was chosen by the aleph class, they decided that mem looks like a mountain with one lone tree growing on the side – or possibly a person climbing it.

First model mem using play doh, pipe cleaners or anything else

Now draw a picture of Mem as a mountain with snow on the top. And don’t forget the tree or mountaineer on the side. This could be more fun if you use dark coloured paper and white chalk/pastels for the snow.

They may know of Moses from the Pesach story – you could challenge them to build his name in Hebrew Moshe

Mem sofit – if you have time talk to them about mem sofit. Mem changes shape when it comes at the end of a word e.g Shalom or Purim

RecapPlay some games to recap on letters covered so far including vowels

Aleph is for Ester a Purim lesson

This is the one letter many children already know and recognise, they have certainly heard of it as it is the name of our class. It is the first letter of the aleph bet but we don’t start with it as it’s not a typical letter. To understand aleph I think you need to know some vowels and the sequence that you read letters and vowels in Hebrew. By Purim they should all know enough vowels and how to read letters and vowels in the right order.

Aleph looks a bit like a wobbly cross which means don’t make any sound. We make a cross with our fingers and put it in front of our mouth to mean don’t speak. Skip this letter and look at the vowel underneath for the sound.

To help them understand why we need aleph I challenge them to build a Hebrew word, in this lesson its Esther. Get the kids to work together to find all the sounds they need to make

the name Esther. אסתרThey should know samekh, tav and reish and the below letter vowels (don’t worry if they don’t get the letters exactly correct (e.g. tet instead of tav) the main thing is for them to think about which sounds they need and which order to place them in. They should work out that there is no letter to put the initial sound under and that is why they need Aleph at the beginning.

I explain that without Aleph there wouldn’t be anywhere to put that first vowel sound, so words starting with a vowel sound need Aleph at the front.

We say that Aleph is a special letter that makes no sound but is very important in helping us to write Hebrew words.

You could challenge them to write other Hebrew words starting with aleph.Words from the family are good to do here

Aba dadIma mum Ach brotherAchot sister

Borrow the Mishpahah pack from Ruth which has all these words with pictures

RecapPlay some games to recap on letters covered so far including vowels

Yippee for Yud

Introduce the letter yud using the cards with the letters stuck on them.What is different about yud, can anyone see?Yud is the smallest letter and the only one that doesn’t sit on the line.

The memory tag for Yud is that he is a very happy letter who is jumping up with excitement and shouting yippee.He isn’t sitting down nicely on the line like the other letters, he is jumping up.

Ask the children why they think yud is so happy – what makes them happy?Get the children to stand up, put their hands up in the air and shout YIPPEE.Yippee for Yud

Model yud, using play doh, pipe cleaners or anything else you like.

Now do a drawing of yud with a face and a smile and around yud draw some things that you think make yud happy – think back to their own suggestions earlier.

RecapPlay some games to recap on letters covered so far including vowels

Vav is Very thin and Very tall

This is a longer lesson as we cover both the letter vav and the 2 vowels formed with the letter.

Introduce the letter vav using the cards with the letters stuck on them.What is different about vav, can anyone see?The memory tag for vav is that this letter is very tall and very thin.Stand up tall and pull your arms in to make yourself look tall and thin like Vav.Get the kids to do this too

Model vav, using play doh, pipe cleaners or anything else you like.

At the same time as teaching Vav we do the 2 vowels that are formed with the letter vav and a dot on top or to the side in the middle. One makes the sound o the other oo. Show these to the kids as well get them to spot the difference.Explain that we only make the vowel sound not the v sound also.

For o we remember because it is the dot on top – repeating the sound oGet the kids to say dot on top while pointing to the dot – and then repeat the sound o

The dot in the middle is oo. In rosenwasser this is remembered because it’s the sound we make when we are poked in the tummy – show them this action and get them to repeat.

They have already learned the vowel for ooo - with 3 diagonal dots below the letter. I explain the difference in the length of the 2 oo sounds by talking about this in English as a single o or double oo e.g. I go to the zooThe below vowel sound is the longer ooo the vav vowel the shorter oo.

To reinforce this I get them to build english words phonetically in Hebrew using letters they already know so Boo Loo Poo Goo (lots of fun and giggles in this lesson)Then the shorter sounds like to, shoe, who

You can do this collaboratively to start then make it into a game with each child forming a word and challenging the rest of the class to read it. The cards with below letter vowels attached (in box in bottom drawer) work well for the below letter vowels. Use the home made cards for the vav words.

Try to do some words involving vav as the sound v as well, so that learning is also reinforced. Do some simple short words like van, vat, have, love, dove

RecapPlay some games to recap on letters covered so far

Memory Tags

Samekh the SnakeSamekh looks like a snake curled into a circle, and makes the sssss sound of a snake.Make a snake from play doh, draw a snake and colour it in (I bring in a toy snake from home and we play with that getting it to curl up and go to sleep in the shape of Samekh)

Lovely LamedLamed looks like a lovely lollypop that you would like to lick.Complete the loop of Lamed to make a lolly shape and colour it in bright stripes like a lolly.

NunNun is a driedel letter which some children may know as nun gets you nothing when you play dreidel. This is a good way to remember the letter if they play driedel.We also drew the letter Nun and turned it into a candle for Ner (candle)

TsaddeTsadde is a combined sound to t and z and the letter looks like it is made from the English letters t and z

Zayin – still trying to think of a good memory tag for Zayin (sorry)

Kaf Kaf looks like the English letter C and makes the same sound – sometimes called curly c, when taught phonically

KofStudy with Kaf as both make the same sound. Complicated looking letter, a bit like lamed with a long line as well.

AyinAyin makes no sound because it is asleep, see it’s a very relaxed letter lying back having a snooze, so we don’t make any sound – and it doesn’t either. Teach after Aleph and explain that like Aleph is makes no sound

Hebrew lesson plan for 45 minute lesson

Introduce the new letter using the letters stuck onto the cardTell them the sound it makes and ask them to repeat itEncourage them to look at the letter and describe itIntroduce the memory tag for that letter

5 minutes

Model the letter using play doh, Pipe cleaners, lego, tissue paper 5-10 minutes

Activity relating to letter – time will vary depending on activity 15 minutesWord building – reinforce the new letter and recap previous letters by doing some word buildingOr reading – using letters already learned read some simple Hebrew words

5-10 minutes

Recap gamesPlenty of options here, you can play more than one if you have time

Flexible until end of lesson

If you have a longer lesson – play more games or show a video (or do both!)

Letter covered so far with Aleph

Shin SinBet VetTavGimmelSamekhNun HetHayLamed

Suggested programme for Term 3

Jan 10th Yippee for YudJan 17th Dalet and ReishJan 24th Mem the mountainJan 31st Tet for Tu B’ShevatFeb 7th Pay for Purim

Suggested programme for Term 4Feb 28th Aleph for EstherMar 7th VavMar 14th AyinMar 21st