When the pandemic hit our community in Spring of 2020, and we were all forced to lockdown in our homes, we started sharing our favorite resources for nature-based experiential and environmental torah activities at home.
We do our best to share printable resources to minimize your screen time.
If you use Instagram, we will also share resources there; and if you’ve got your own ideas, please tell us! THANK YOU!
Sign up below to be notified when we add resources to this page:
Nature Scavenger Hunt
Explore the nature around you! This scavenger hunt is a great outdoor activity and will help you learn to identify some local plants. The more we get to know them, the more we will care for them.
Natural Tie Dye with Food Scraps
How can our food scraps help us live the mitzvah of Bal Tashchis? What color dye do onion skins make? What about avocado pits? Follow our step-by-step instructions for making your very own natural tie-dye at home with food scraps.
Rosh Hashana Simanim
Rosh Hashana is all about new beginnings. The Simanim seder offers us an opportunity to infuse each bite with intention and bracha for the new year. Explore the simanim here.
Sukkot Eco-Decorations
Decorating your sukkah with beautiful homemade creations is a great activity - doing it with items that would have been trash is even better! Here’s how: Here's how to make this grape cluster from old corks!.
Gratitude Exercises
Join the international movement on flexing our muscles - our Gratitude muscles! Thank you so much to the amazing team at Gratitude Days for creating so many amazing resources.
Shavuot - Backyard Beit Midrash Tent
Just like Bnei Yisrael received the Torah in the wilderness, you can too! Set up a tent or shade structure outdoors before chag, and enjoy learning Torah outdoors! This is a super fun way to experience Shavuot just like Bnei Yisrael at Har Sinai!
76 pages of activities!
A group of Shul Youth Directors from across North America collaborated on this wonderful booklet of activities. Enjoy!
Shavuot - Grow Your Own Wheatgrass
One of the central mitzvot of Shavuot is the Bikkurim, and one of the first crops harvested was wheat. Try your hand at growing your own wheatgrass in just one week! We produced this video tutorial in partnership with PJ Library for you to do it by yourself, or you can book us to do a live step-by-step session.
Gratitude Days
We have partnered with Days of Gratitude to help us lift up our blessings and build our resilience from May 22-30. The website will feature a rotating menu of activities and prompts designed to help you and those around you share gratitude. Sign up to join Days of Gratitude today.
Shavuot Ratatouille
Join us this Wednesday night at 9pm on Instagram as we welcome Chef Educator Sylvia Fallas to walk us through making a Shavuot Ratatouille with seasonal vegetables. You can cook along, or watch and enjoy!
Make Spring Lilac Honey
Lilacs adorn many lawns in the Bergen County suburbs, but did you know they’re edible? Picking the flowers for this lilac-infused honey is a great family activity. You can use the honey any time you want an extra floral aroma.
14 Emor Activities
Parshat Emor contains so much inspiration for creativity. Our friend Rabbi Adam Simon created this incredible resource to get you thinking creatively while exploring many mitzvot in this parsha, including searching for your own Arava.
Make Natural Blue Dye
We love making natural dye with plants, especially at our camp, and it helps us explore the melachos of Shabbos. The Iris is blooming all over Teaneck right now, so we picked a bunch and made some blue dye.
Pesach- What is Marror?
Horseradish isn’t the only option! Learn the Mishna to explore other Marror options, including definitions from Bibilical Botanist Dr. Yehuda Feliks. You might even be able to find some of these in your yard!
Pesach- Grow Your Seder!
Grow your own karpas and marror by regrowing your lettuce and celery from the base. Growing your own makes it taste even better, and it can happen in just a few days!
Birkat Hailanot
With Spring officially here and Rosh Chodesh Nissan arriving on Thursday, we are gifted with the opportunity to find a fruit tree in bloom and make this beautiful bracha.
Do you know what kind of tree this is?
Toilet Paper Microgreens
We can’t grow new toilet paper, but we CAN grow microgreens in toilet paper rolls! Check out our 1-minute tutorials that show you how to convert a cardboard roll into a microgreen planter! If you need seeds, we love Johnny’s, and Click here for more on microgreens.
Start your own garden
From one pot to your whole backyard, we hosted a live Zoom session to give you a crash course in backyard gardening. View the slides of the session, complete with many helpful links, here.
Compost At Home
Compost helps breakdown food scraps into fertilizer. You can use this fertilizer for your gardens, or sprinkle it the base of a tree you love. Here is some awesome Compost Torah, specifically focusing on Bal Tashchit.
After studying these Torah sources, try making your own DIY composter at home!
Worm bins are super fun, and can be done indoors.
You can even try composting in a small bag or jar.
Parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei
Vayakhel: What's the connection between Shabbat and the Mishkan? Which of the activities that were done in the Miskhan, and are prohibited on Shabbat do we do in the garden?
Pekudei: What can the comparison between the Mishkan and Creation teach us about the sanctity of caring for the world? How are we creating a place to honor Hashem in the way that we behave in our garden?
Make Your Own Spring Forsythia Syrup
Forsythias are in bloom right now, and you can make this delicious syrup!
If you don’t have a forsythia shrub in your yard, someone in your neighborhood probably does! Be sure to get permission before collecting, and be extra careful that it isn’t in an area with toxic road runoff or herbicide/pesticide use.