Category Archives: Crafts

Purim Playmobil straight from the box

All Playmobil except the clay hamantaschen....

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

Polymer clay Mini Megillah (w/ real scroll)

polymer clay case for mini scroll

polymer clay case (and detachable gragger)  for a miniature scroll

I did not plan to make a Playmobil Megillah case today, but an unexpected email derailed me.  Attached was a pdf of the whole Megillah in thumbnail miniature, fresh from the scribe who wrote the real thing. Frozen groceries melted on the counter while I ran upstairs for the clay box.  A mini Megillah deserves a mini case, don’t you think? Continue reading

Coffee Cup Sleeve Haman hat for Purim

DSC00217Another coffee-cup sleeve headwear option: the almost instant Haman hat.
I went on (and on) about the Coffee Cup Sleeve Crown for Purim, so do please visit that page and see the applications and whatnot.  I am stoked about those crowns.

For kids who would rather get poked in the eye than show up at shul in a crown, try a Haman hat.  It’s the same size as the Crown variations and it offers the same thrill of repurposing coffee-house trash into holiday wear, but without the Crownyness. Continue reading

Coffee Cup Sleeve Crown for Purim: an UpCycle

Make a mini crown from a coffee sleeve

Make a mini crown from a coffee sleeve

It’s free, jaunty, quick and eco-kosher:
the Queen Esther or King Ahashveros Coffee Cup (sleeve) Crown.  The alliteration is even more delicious in Hebrew: Keter Kos Kafe.

My husband does the daily coffee-house thing.  He triangulates amongst locally-owned joints.  One of the byproducts of this habit is the accumulation of cups and sleeves.  The cups are repurposed as seed-starter pots, but the sleeves multiply unused in the shed, awaiting an aha moment.  I had the aha moment last week, and it is this: the Keter Kos Kafe.  I like typing it and I like saying it. Continue reading

Easy Hamantaschen Hat


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In black, with no filling, it’s the Easy Haman Hat of last week’s post.  In brown, with filling, it’s a Hamantasch Hat.   I mentioned the Hamantaschen variation at the very end of my Easy Haman Hat how-to, and by golly, a couple days later, one intrepid reader told me she’d made a few for her kids.  Oh, how I love to hear about someone who has tried something and had fun doing it.

So now, I’ve decided the Hamantasch Hat deserves it’s own post.   Continue reading

Easy Haman Hat for Purim

Construction paper Haman hat, modeled by balloon

Construction paper Haman hat, modeled by balloon

Your kid can make a Haman hat, with a little help.  Add an eye-brow pencil mustache, a black cape, and a sneer.  Make sure your child will not suffer emotional collapse when boo-ed by random adults and tiny peers. Continue reading

Mini Polymer Hamantaschen for Playmobil, LEGO, etc.

sculpey clay hamataschen

Polymer clay hamataschen minis

Kids old enough to resist eating clay can duplicate the PlayDo Hamantaschen-Folding Practice on a mini scale with polymer or air-dry clay.  I vote for polymer as the best choice: you use a tiny amount (which means it is cheap and easy to manipulate), you can pull the colors apart for do-overs, and the smoothy, firm nature of the clay is very forgiving in clumsy little hands.   Continue reading

Hamantaschen PlayDo Practice: Can You Make a Triangle from a Circle?

playdo hamantasch

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

Model Magic Hamantaschen (magnets)

Model Magic Hamantasch: mohn flavor

Model Magic Hamantasch: mohn flavor

Who doesn’t love to play with Model Magic?  Squidgy, lightweight, irresistible.  Expensive, too, but I find it on sale and buy the big packs of white.  It’s ever so much fun to color blobs of it as needed, just by poking at it with a washable marker and kneading until the new color is smooth.  Continue reading

Tu B’Shevat almond “Sow and Tell,” home or school

faith in a seed

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. Continue reading

Tu B’Shevat garden-in-an-eggshell

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quick, easy and visible plant life-cycle activity

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

Tu B’Shevat stuff: indoor gardening, edible bowls, sugar overload and birdfeeders

Here’s a quick list of links to my earlier posts for Tu B’Shevat.  New ones coming soon…

pear seedlings from our snack

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. Continue reading

Meatloaf Menorah

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

Tangram Dreidel Toast

tangram dreidel toast

tangram dreidel toast

A tangram toast dreidel may prove to be my least popular post, but as I tell my children, you gotta be you, even if no one wants to be around the you you gotta be. Continue reading

A new SPIN on Edible Dreidels: Caramel Dreidel

Carameldreidel1

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

Instant goodie bags for Hanukkah Classroom visits

re-used gelt bags

re-used gelt bags

Here’s a quick, cheap way to make teeny goody bags for your Hanukkah classroom visit.  IF you do gelt.
These are very, very simple.  I could go all Target Dollar Spot and use fancy bags and woven ribbon and include more gelt and hand-lettered name tags, but this particular goody baglet is meant to be a token gift for a minor holiday: a good-will gesture from the token Jews in the room. Continue reading

Hanukkah Parent classroom visits

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

Printable Dreidel Rules (gift tags)

Two-sided tags: dreidel rules and a 2 sentence explanation of Hanukkah

Two-sided tags: dreidel rules and a 2 sentence explanation of Hanukkah

I usually give out dreidels when I’m the Hanukkah Parent on a classroom visit. Dreidels are fun to spin, they (sort of) tell the story of Hanukkah in 4 letters, and they distract the children from the fact that I’m not giving them any gelt at all (long story).

Most of the kids aren’t Jewish, so they haven’t grown up playing dreidel.  They don’t know from dreidel rules, AT ALL. Granted, nowadays mum and dad can Google the rules on an iPhone right there in the school parking lot the minute the kid gets into the minivan, BUT… Continue reading

Hanukkah Carnival Stations

Sufganiyah on a String

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 and Glow Arena

Instant DIY Glow Dreidel Arena

Instant DIY Glow 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