Just in time for Shavuot, here’s another Mt. Sinai project. It’s really a three-holiday diorama, but your kid can make just the Shavuot portion in about half an hour, once you’ve raced around the house collecting supplies.
Lemme just share my pics. I’m in a hurry: Continue reading
Posted in Activity, Lag B'Omer, Passover, Shavuot
Mitzvah Project—The Tza’ar ba’aley Chayim Birdbath—a quick or slow nature project for home or school.
So subtle, I had to add an arrow
Until yesterday, my synagogue didn’t have a bird bath or any other water source for animals. I haven’t seen one in the 20 years I’ve been a member. Our courtyard is a perfect place for informal birdwatching: surrounded by classroom windows on two sides, and the Internet Cafe and school entrance on the third. I’m a Volunteer Tennessee Naturalist. I think about this sort of thing alot. It would have been so easy to buy and install a birdbath by myself in less than an hour, and bingo: water for wildlife. Or, I could make it a Mitzvah Project in a slow way, a participatory way, a way that makes for several active lesson plans, and that can foster a student’s sense of investment, stewardship, community and empowerment. Continue reading
Lag B’Omer! Here’s a quick glimpse at what we did…
I wanted my K – 3 classes to “embody” the connection between Passover and Shavuot via the Counting of the Omer, to use their bodies to travel from Passover—where the Israelites became a Free Nation, to Shavuot—where the Israelites became a Holy Nation.
view from the Sea of Reeds toward Lag b’Omer and Shavuot
First, we crossed the Sea of Reeds and became a Free Nation. On the floor were 49 steps toward Mt. Sinai on the opposite side of the room. See Mt. Sinai up there, far away? Continue reading
Posted in Activity, Edible Craft, Lag B'Omer, Passover, Shavuot
setting the Seder Plate
several years of old placecards
Have an index card? You have a frog. And a placecard, an afikomen clue, a keep-hands-busy-activity, a plague, and a jumping frog game. Continue reading
LEGO Seder Plate
The LEGO minifigs are jealous. This time, we’ve made a seder plate sized for the big people. Continue reading
DIY kit for the search for leaven
Bedikat Chametz, or Search for Leaven is a quick, hands-on, kid-friendly and extremely memorable activity right before Passover starts. Basically, we hide bits of bread/leaven/chametz, let the kids find them at nightfall, and then destroy the bits the next day (the morning before the first seder). In short: hide + seek + darkness + flames = awesome. Continue reading
Just in time for the plague of frogs, another PEZuzah. My husband came home bearing a Kermit the Frog PEZ dispenser, and it begged to be converted into a holiday mezuzah case. Pull Kermit’s keppie to reveal a cavity perfectly sized for a real scroll. This little trick makes it far more convenient to inspect the klaf twice every seven years, as per tradition. A PEZ mezuzah is not per tradition, but it works. Continue reading
Playmobil says “Schultute,” I say Mishloach Manot
Yes, I go to great lengths to make tiny, Jewy accessories for my Playmobil and LEGO folk. But you don’t have to make a single thing in order to make toys Jewish. Sometimes, all it takes is a name change.
Look at this little Playmobil set ripe for conversion: #4686 Child’s First Day at School. See the parcels? Playmobil is German, and the set represents the German tradition of Schultute (school bags): big cones of goodies and school supplies for the first day of school. When I saw the box at a local toy store, I didn’t think Schultute, I thought Mishloach Manot. I saw two kids exchanging Mishloach Manot bags on Purim. For $3.29, I got a Jewish holiday scene and a mitzvah tableau, even though Playmobil doesn’t “do” Jewish.* Continue reading
It’s hard to make a triangle from a circle. It’s hard for little kids and for lots of older ones, too. And, even if a kid manages it one year, it’s a long time from one Purim to the next.
To transform a flat circle into a filled triangle requires skill and patience, and the last thing I want is for my bakers to have a perfectionist freak-out. So, I like to program a bit of Hamantaschen-folding Practice at Purim classes and parties, even with kids who think they are too old for PlayDo. No one is too old for PlayDo, not ever. Continue reading
faith in a seed
For Tu B’Shevat with my First Grade class, I wanted something hands-on, but not paper-based. Something thematic that links the Land of Israel with our own community, something the kids could make or do to gain a concrete reference point to a Jewish Spring holiday in the midst of a Nashville Winter. We’d already done nearly instant-gratification Tu B’Shevat gardening (eggshell garden), and I didn’t think they’d mind a project that required patience and uncertainty.
In a nutshell (an almond shell), here’s what we did, as copied from my exclamation-marked blurb in the school newsletter:
We finished up our tree celebration with a look at what happens in the land of Israel on the 15th of Shevat (the sap rises and the almond tree—ha shkedia—bursts into blossom). We touched almonds in the hull, cracked them open and ate the nuts, and then planted a few to grow our own almond trees. In contrast, we looked at the 15th of Shevat in Nashville and visited several trees at synagogue, touching, smelling and dissecting buds that will soon become flowers and leaves. Ask your child to tell you what made the rows of holes in the big sugar maple trees and why (yellow-bellied sapsuckers, to drill holes for sap and to trap insects!).
And, here’s the detailed version: Tu B’Shevat Almond “Sow” and Tell
Ideally, the almond tree is the first in the land of Israel to burst into Spring blossom, and it does so in delicate pink and white glory. Like most stone fruit trees, it’s in the rose family, and the flowers definitely have the family face.
Tradition tells us that the sap rises on the fifteenth of the month of Shevat, and this life-force is what triggers the tree’s reproductive cycle to start all over again: flower, pollination, fruit, seed, plant, flower, pollination, fruit, seed, Continue reading
lentils starting to put down roots…
Here’s a supplementary indoor gardening project for Tu B’Shevat. I swear by the Eat a Fruit, Plant the Seed project, and my version of the traditional Plant Tu B’Shevat Parsley for Passover project, of course. Both are hands-on and at the heart of the holiday. But, if you can program additional growy activities with your favorite kids, try this one, too. The nearly instant gratification is a contrast to the slow and iffy germination rates of parsley and fruit seeds.
What: Kids grow a nearly-instant, indoor, mini “garden” in an eggshell.
Why: to connect with Tu B’Shevat; to demonstrate the everyday miracle of seed germination; to grow food for us, for wildlife and for the earth. Continue reading
Here’s a quick list of links to my earlier posts for Tu B’Shevat. New ones coming soon…
pear seedlings from our snack
Eat a Fruit, Plant the Seeds: So easy. Cut open a fruit with your kid. Eat it, plant the seed. Of course, I mention a few Jewish-y choices of trees, but the important take-away is that THIS is where trees come from. Can’t get more thematic.
How (and Why) to Let Kids Plant Tu B’Shevat Parsley. Detailed how-tos here. I’ve a method that works without compromising hands-on learning or enthusiasm. Find out why the go-to Tu B’Shevat planting activity is not about planting trees…
Candy Tu B’Shevat: so I can get yet more hate mail about how I contribute to childhood obesity. Look y’all, this is a fun activity meant to supplement all the nature-y, nutritionally sound activities you’ve already programmed, and which your children have enjoyed and internalized and are therefore now chock full o’ Tu B’Shevat goodness. This is what you do when little Max has his tree fruit, his Tu B’Shevat seder steps and his four Kabbalistic levels of creation as per types of fruit down cold. Try the candy version with older kids. Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers, if properly trained, need a break. Find a version of the article at Kveller, here.
Edible Bowl of Tree Fruit: I go all-out thematic with the tree fruits. The project can be as simple or as elaborate as time and inclination allow. I throw in some botany and Rabbincs, too. Do forgive the lack of photography skills.
the perfect gift
THE PINECONE BIRD FEEDER. Oh, how I love this project. On any level, it works. Three posts:
• Why We Give Gifts to the Bird on Tu B’Shevat: the Pinecone birdfeeder, yes, but with Rabbinics! Biology! Soy Butter!
• Tu B’Shevat Birdfeeder Materials List (Annotations for the Over-Keen), in which I talk of cones and twine and allergies.
• Mini version of the pinecone birdfeeder for Playmobil or other dolls… If you have an Eastern Hemlock tree in your neighborhood, you’ve got perfect American Girl pine cones. Or G.I. Joe or Spiderman or Barbie or whatever. A bit big for LEGO minifigs, but if your kid doesn’t demand 100% fidelity to scale, go for it.
Hemlock cones. Aren’t they sweet?
caramel dreidel
I give you an edible dreidel that actually spins. It shares the chief values of the marshmallow dreidel and my mini-marshmallow dreidels—values which lie in the building, the writing upon (with food-safe markers) and the eating. To these attractions, the caramel dreidel adds the bonus of spin. Continue reading
tin oil menorah with glass or plastic cups
Here’s a link to my buffet of options for Hanukkah Parent School Visits: what to bring, what to read, what might happen. Please add your experiences below or on that page. We can learn from each other.
And here’s what I’ve chosen from the buffet for my own classroom visit this time:
After last year’s fizzle of a oil menorah demo (where none of the homemade wicks worked), Continue reading
Posted in Activity, Hanukkah, Jewish kids in nonJewish school
Sufganiyah on a String (the doughnuts aren’t here yet)
We set up for the big ol’ Chanukah Carnival today (my synagogue’s spelling, not mine), and I’m posting the pics below so you can see a few of the stations. Continue reading
Glow in the Dark Dreidel Arena
Of course a glow-in-the-dark Dreidel Arena needs a glow-in-the-dark dreidel. Why didn’t I think of it before? My friend Kathryn (at Joyful Jewish) put me up to it after she read about my arena idea last week. And that’s when the stealth crafting began… Continue reading
print it, show it to your kid.
Beloved LEGO nerds and LEGO enablers: print this picture, show it to your kid and let her rummage through the LEGO bins to find the seven, particular pieces. (Rummaging is part of the fun. Match the part to the pic: how many studs across and down? Brick or plate?) She can assemble the seven pieces as per the illustration. She can then add the letters. Voila: a LEGO dreidel.
Should your bins not produce all these parts, just substitute. Four 2×2 bricks are Continue reading
giant Hot Wheels track dreidel arena
If you get crabby when dreidels fall off the table or roll under the sofa, a dreidel arena is key to a happy Hanukkah. An arena corrals the dreidels and (says the Montessori in me) defines the play space. And, if your dreidel play includes battles, an arena is a must: the sides keep dreidels in action longer and coax them back toward each other.
A purposely-marketed dreidel arena is hard to find—with one notable exception below—but you can convert something from junk at home. For example, a laminate-topped breakfast tray with legs is ideal: mine has seen about 18 years of dreidel action at home and at Hanukkah Parent school visits. My all-time favorite is a clean train table: it’s big enough for a crowd and it stands Continue reading
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