Tag Archives: hanukkiyah

Swim Noodle Menorah

Posted on 11/13/2012 | 19 Comments

Swim Noodle Menorah

The Swim Noodle Menorah.  Google all you want, but it won’t be there unless it’s here, because I’ve just invented it.  I am ridiculously pleased.  It signals my complete recovery from a summer illness that left no room for aggressively thematic, Jewy frivolity.

Foam flames in a foam candle in a foam candleholder

My goal was to make a practice menorah irresistible to young children.  Everybody likes swim noodles, don’t they?  Swim noodle candles are fun to hold,  are big, lightweight, and easy to slide in and out of foam drink-holders. Foam-against-foam friction is far more satisfying than, say, foam against cardboard tubes or metal cans.  The craft foam flames are easy for little hands to poke into Continue reading →

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Posted in Activity, Hanukkah

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PVC Menorah kit for kids, revised

Posted on 12/14/2011 | 2 Comments

PVC Menorah, ready to disassemble and reassemble

The finished PVC menorah worked beautifully at the Chanukah Carnival.  The volunteer who staffed that station devised a great ploy to generate interest: he left it half-assembled and then asked kids if they would like to “help finish it.”   They sure did.  Boys and girls, I am pleased to report, in seemingly even numbers.  Leaving it half-built was a wise move.  This left just enough of the structure up to entice would-be builders, yet not enough to look finished (and therefore not as alluring).  If he had disassembled the whole thing between turns, the kids would have seen nothing to draw them to the table.

Setup: I put everything on a huge baking tray on a card table.  The tray was the working surface, and the raised sides (like a jellyroll pan) kept pieces from Continue reading →

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Posted in Activity, Crafts, Hanukkah

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PVC Menorah: advice needed

Posted on 11/02/2011 | 3 Comments

my DIY PVC menorah, so far

Addendum:  you want to see the revised version?  Go to the newer post: PVC Menorah Kit for kids, revised.

For the synagogue’s Chanukah Carnival this year, I want to add a Build a Menorah station for kids. The goal: to assemble a menorah from bits of PVC pipe.  They don’t get to keep the menorah and it won’t actually work (as in, it isn’t wired and it isn’t fire-safe for candles).  No, the real goal is the process: for kids to figure out how all the pieces can fit together properly, and then to take them apart for the next person to try.  They can choose to make a 7-branch Temple Menorah or a 9-branch Hanukkah Menorah (Hanukkiyah).

The new station should give the older kids something else fun to do while the little ones are busy with Dreidel Fishing and Squirt the Menorah and so forth.  It will appeal to the types that love to build anything out of anything.

I bought the pipes, fittings and an awesome cutting tool that—Hallelujah—makes my hacksaw obsolete.  The tool wasn’t my only surprise, as evidenced by my facebook status: Continue reading →

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Posted in Activity, Crafts, Hanukkah

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