Tag Archives: menorah

Meatloaf Menorah

Posted on 12/15/2012 | 6 Comments

MeatloafMenorhcandles1 text
Mmmmmmm, a menorah made of meat, in honor of the Shabbat during Hanukkah.

Actually, I made two:
1) a free-standing meatloaf menorah, and
2) a flat, branched meatloaf menorah (see below). Continue reading →

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Posted in Edible Craft, Hanukkah

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Hanukkah Parent classroom visits

Posted on 12/07/2012 | 5 Comments
Super cheap, in-your-face oil menorah

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 →

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Posted in Activity, Hanukkah, Jewish kids in nonJewish school

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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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Distributor Cap Menorah

Posted on 01/03/2012 | 5 Comments

A hanukkah menorah made out of a repurposed V8 distributor cap might not be kosher, I’ll admit.  But it sure is cute, and if you live with a car freak, satisfyingly thematic.  The function of a distributor cap is all about fire—or at least sparks: it’s part of the ignition system and it helps distribute or control the path of the current.

And Hanukkah is all about fire, right?  The miraculous distribution of that wee bit of fuel? Continue reading →

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Posted in Hanukkah, Kitsch

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Dreidel Challah, Menorah Challah

Posted on 12/23/2011 | 8 Comments

When Hanukkah and Shabbat coincide, the challah deserves a thematic tweak.  The preschooler and I made a big Menorah Challah and a few little Dreidels.

We learned that using food dye to color the “flames” orange is not worth the trouble.  After the challah is baked, the food color merges with the golden egg wash.  But it was fun to try, and now we have orange palms for the rest Continue reading →

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Posted in Edible Craft, Hanukkah

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Squirt the Menorah: Hanukkah game

Posted on 12/16/2011 | 3 Comments

Squirt the Menorah

I live in Nashville, so I’m not so much in touch with the rest of the Hanukkah carnivalling world.  Is “Squirt the Menorah” a popular Hanukkah game?  The only Google hits seem to be my own.

I should say “Squirt the Hanukkiyah,” but it doesn’t have the right ring to it.  Menorah works fine in this case.

Now, usually, when we light Hanukkah candles, they stay lit until they go out by themselves.  It’s a no-no to blow them out or extinguish them in any way.  Squirt the Menorah involves shooting water pistols at a lit menorah, which sounds pretty treyf to me.  But we don’t play it during Hanukkah on the really real candles, the candles upon which we’ve said the commanded blessings and all.  No, we play Squirt the Menorah ahead of time, when it’s okay to extinquish the candles with a squirt gun.  Odd, but okay. Continue reading →

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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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Lego menorah

Posted on 12/07/2010 | 6 Comments

We made the Temple out of Duplos and experimented with different menorahs. Not hanukkiyot (hanukkah menorahs), but 7-branched menorahs like what was supposed to be in the Temple in the Hanukkah story.

Here are some examples:

Lego menorah with Lite Brite flames

Turning legos upside-down reveals the little spacer holes just right for “flames.” Had I owned enough of those teeny one-unit, columnar pieces, they could have been flames and the menorah would have been “pure” lego. But yard sales dictate what legos we own, so I made do with Lite Brite pegs.  Tried red Battleship pegs, too, but Lite Brite pegs have graduated thickness and can fit into the upside-down lego holes a bit better.

Building upside-down was a pleasant challenge.

Made three sizes, overall:

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Posted in Hanukkah, Jewish parenting

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Hanukkah Parent guidelines

Posted on 12/05/2010 | Leave a comment

A Duplo Temple and a jar of olives.

Guidelines for Hanukkah Parent visits: where are they?

All over the country, volunteer parents are visiting their child’s classrooms and representing the entire Jewish people in 15 minutes or less.

In the spirit of “sharing traditions,” we bring a book, maybe some dreidels, some gelt (its never too early to jump-start a child’s association of Jews and money…see below), and a menorah. Hands-on parents bring all this stuff, and we check if we are allowed to actually light the menorah (and if we are allowed to keep the candles burning or blow them out far, far from the smoke detector).

Out of the dozens of books I’ve accumulated the last 16 years, plus the books I see at shul and in the library and in the bookstore (that just closed forever), why is it I can’t find a single one I LIKE? Continue reading →

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Posted in Hanukkah, Jewish kids in nonJewish school, Jewish parenting

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