students sample herbs, spices to choose favorites for bag
This post focuses on the spicy part of Havdalah. Besamim work is a rich, smelly hands-on opportunity to create memorable connections to Shabbat (and to being Jewish). You choose the level: make a garden, a pot, a sachet, an herb buffet, an etrog pomander, a “Smell Test,” or besamim containers simple and fancy.
rolled beeswax sheets, twisted or braided by students
My Making Havdalah Candles with Kids Intro has the general whats and whys. I’ve also got posts about how to dip beeswax Havdalah candles and how to repurpose cruddy Hanukkah candles for Havdalah.
To roll Havdalah candles out of beeswax sheets is a zillion times easier than to dip tapers. Especially if you’ve procured soft sheets of wax: sheets that are pliable, supple, biddable. The good wax. Continue reading
quick, cheap DIY
What if you want kids to make Havdalah candles and you don’t have the time and materials (or inclination) for nice, beeswax versions? I’m the first to admit that candles from scratch can be a big to-do—even just the simple, rolled sheets.
Rejoice: all you really need are leftover Hanukkah candles, a bowl and a teakettle.
Just twist two warmed Hanukkah candles to create one mini Havdalah candle. It’s an easy, cheap DIY that can make any Havdalah lesson hands-on and memorable. Continue reading
First, please read my Intro post for making Havdalah candles with kids. I’ve also got one coming for Rolled Beeswax Havdalah candles and one for the E-Z version using repurposed Hannukah candles. This one is just about dipped beeswax…
worth the work, I swear (click pic to enlarge)
To make candles with kids could be a straightforward project. But then again, to make candles with kids could also be my biggest teaching challenge heretofore, and in fact could be a Kafkaesque labyrinth in which I stagger from one surreal complication to the next. Who knew that to melt a bit of beeswax and dip a string could be so dramatic? Continue reading
more than one wick = fire / eish = kosher
This will be my short Havdalah candle post. I shall simply tell the whys and whats. The hows, I’ll save for three additional posts: one for rolled beeswax sheets, one for dipped beeswax tapers, and one for a repurposed Hanukkah candle version. Four posts just might be enough room to wax lyrical about the ups and downs and sideways of a seemingly simple process. I feel compelled to record my experiences so that others may skip the labyrinthine bits and get right to the part where everything turns out well. Continue reading
“every almond used to be a pink blossom”
I wouldn’t ordinarily write about a holiday project that’s been done (and done, and done), but I’m posting this to prove a point: that with just a smidge of “extra”—just a few props to provide context—even a quick, conventional activity can be more meaningful and memorable. Continue reading
A Tree Products Display for Tu B’Shevat can be an easy, effective way to show All The Things That Trees Give Us.* The display in our school lobby is a magnet: grownups and kids can’t help but fiddle with the hanukkah gelt, glue sticks and pinecones and such. Creating a display can be as quick or as protracted an activity as you wish. You learn, the kid working with you learns, and whomever sees your collection learns. Continue reading
11 x 17 mounted on large construction paper
Simms Taback’s marvelous Joseph Had a Little Overcoat is easily one of PJ Library’s smartest picks. It’s a Caldecott and Sidney Taylor Book Award-winner and an all-around delight. I’ll assume you know about Joseph if you’ve found this post, and that you are looking for a related activity for young children. There are plenty (see links below), and you could spend days exploring this book and the oodles of enrichment ideas. Joseph is cover to cover Yiddishkeit, for sure. But, what if you need a 25 minute lesson plan for Sunday School art class? Just a quick collage project? That’s what I needed but couldn’t find. Continue reading
Gelt just for playing, Prize Draw for big winner later
The word “quiz” is instant Carnival buzzkill, right? Hardly the sort of catchy title to entice kids to a Chanukah Carnival station. But really, it is a quiz, my activity, not a game. And if it’s facilitated in the right spirit, it will be fun. And educational. And memorable. I promise. Continue reading
“Girl color” or “boy color.” Adult role model included.
In which I modify store-bought dreidel kits, and lament the gendering of an otherwise gender-neutral toy. Continue reading
Olive Crushing Installation
This year, instead of a Chanukah carnival, I envisioned something new, or rather, something very, very old. Our synagogue Religious School held a Chanukah “Oil Crush” program. In a nutshell, we made olive oil—shemen zayit—just like the Maccabees, with a commissioned replica of a Hellenistic-era olive crushing installation: crushing wheel, pivot pole (power shaft) and crushing basin. Students from Pre-K to 7th grade took turns pushing the pole to rotate the crushing wheel over fresh olives straight from the tree (ordered from California). Continue reading
Posted in Activity, Crafts, Edible Craft, Hanukkah
Tagged lesson plan, menorah, olive oil
My Earnest Sunday School Teacher hat is on:
Kindergarten dreidels
Dreidels are great teaching tools. To paint and decorate a dreidel means a kid learns the 4 Hebrew letters and how to form them, and the Hebrew acronym that points to the reason for the season: Nes Gadol Haya Sham (A great miracle happened there.) And, there’s the dreidel game, of course, which Continue reading
print this JPEG or click on the pdf link below
Need a quick visual to remind players of dreidel game rules? Or to show kids the shapes of nun, gimmel, hey and shin for dreidel crafts? Or what the letters on a dreidel stand for? Click this link to print the pdf: Dreidel Letter Cheat Sheet Continue reading
and flesh-colored candles on a bed of gelt.
I just can’t get worked up about the Hanukkah / Thanksgiving thing. I can’t even bring myself to call the holiday mashup by one of its cute, mashed up names. However, I did feel duty-bound to create a cheap Menurkey DIY, and then another even cheaper Menurkey.
But what I really, truly wanted to do was roast a huge Empire Kosher Turkey, shove white turkey frills on the ends of the drumsticks and jab nine Hanukkah candles into the crispy, brown skin on top. Continue reading
Some folks are still looking for a cheap turkey to repurpose as a Hanukkah menorah, so here’s one for a buck. If your once-in-a-lifetime Hanukkah/Thanksgiving needs will be satisfied with a cheap plastic Menurkey, get thee to a Dollar Tree before all the $1 solar-powered turkeys are gone. Then, pimp that bird with a jumbo craft stick and super-glued birthday candleholders. I added glow-in-the-dark bday candles and Continue reading
Mint-orah
Nine hexnuts glued inside an empty Altoids tin = Travel Menorah. Or, a Curiously Tiny Menorah. You can’t get much easier. Or smaller for that matter. (EDIT: see smaller one here.) Mine is the classic Altoids size, and it holds—just barely—a row of birthday candles with the Shammash nearby.
I might have to name this a Mint-orah, although my gag reflex is already on the alert. In the last couple of weeks, I’ve made a Menorah-saur Continue reading
Dorm menorah
An upcycled menorah for a dorm room, made of an old yardstick and plastic Easter eggs. My cost was zero, because I happened to have eggs left over from the seder plate lesson plan wherein I tried to convince 3rd graders that the brightly-colored, hinged and apparently hilarious objects were, in fact, “beitzim” and not Easter Eggs. The eggs ended up as projectiles, as talking eggs (what with the handy hinge) and as unintended take-home favors. Continue reading
Posted in Crafts, Hanukkah, Jewish kids in nonJewish school
PVC and pine Menorah
A “Man-orah.” 100% hardware, rough and ready. Instant. Cheap. Uncomplicated. Just hacksaw 18.5″ off the end of a pine 1×3, slap some glue on 9 PVC fittings and you’re done. No need to sand the splinters or remove the printed SKU# with acetone. That’s for sissies. LED tealights mean this bad boy is safe for the strictest dorm rooms (“no naked flames”), but Continue reading
Marmite Menorah
The subset of people who love Marmite and who celebrate Hanukkah must be infinitesimal, so I do not expect a ton of hits on this project. Still, it begged to be created: a Marmite Menorah. Mmmmmm. The name sounds delicious, so warm and yeasty, like Marmite on challah toast. My 6 year-old saw this in the window after school today and declared it a “Men-armite.” (Such a genius.) Whatever the name, I love the look of flames licking up from the open jars, as if by some miracle Marmite is transformed into fire. Continue reading
repurposed craft store turkey
I am not super excited about the “Menurkey” because I didn’t think of it first. Still, I cannot ignore this once-in-a-lifetime convergence of Hanukkah with Thanksgiving, and I happen to need a commemorative menorah for our religious school Chanukah program. Sure, I could have supported the worthy Kickstarter Menurkey, but I am a Maker myself and I am the cheapest woman I know. Continue reading
Swim Noodle Menorah
LEGO Gragger
Altoids tin travel menorah
Spin it, Eat it: The Caramel Dreidel
Edible dreidels, regular and mini
Jonah and the Whale Cracker
DIY Lego Mezuzah
PEZ + Mezuzah = PEZuzah
Menurkey (repurposed figurine)
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DIY LEGO dreidel
LEGO minifig Passover seder table
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