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There is nothing like going to the beach on a beautiful sunny afternoon in the middle of the winter, even better when its low tide. This is defiantly the reason why we moved to California, You just can’t beat that. When we went last week there was a great display of stones piled up waiting for us to enjoy, the rest of the time we found ourselves looking for flat small stones for our menorah from the sea.
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This is a great opportunity for me to introduce the Popsicle sticks (don’t laugh). They have such building potential beyond using them to spread glue.
You will need:
Popsicle sticks (not the kind the doctor checks your throat with, but the narrow kind)
White glue
paint and sparkles (optional)
What to do:
call the babysitter, and go have a cup of coffee at your local coffee place all by your self...or...Apply a few small drops of glue to the ends of three sticks. Glue them together to make a triangle. Repeat with three more sticks. Turn your triangles so
that they face in different directions. One pointing up...one pointing down....Glue one triangle onto to the next to make your star of David. Repeat this multiple times, keep on gluing the triangles on top of each other.
Stop when you think your extrusion is tall enough.
After you are done, you may paint and use it as a pencil holder.
you may want to leave the box of sticks out for a little bit, your kids may find some other things they may want to build. you never know....
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Zoe and I planned of building a puppet theater this holiday, when I read the post in halul (a site that was recently recommended to me by my friend Danna) I thought to my self how appropriate and fun this could be…a shadow theater…in Chanukah with all the light verses darkness stories. (I hope we will actually get to do it)
You will need:
a plot (optional)
White sheet
A strong source of portable light such as emergency flash light, or a clip lamp
black construction paper
Something to cut with
A happy and well fed audience
What to do:
Hang the sheet using 2 chairs and laundry pins.
Place the light source behind the screen
The shadows will be in front of the light source behind the screen
For the shadows you can either use your arms, or you may cut silhouettes out of black construction paper and glue them on a Popsicle stick.
Two videos for inspiration:
The Art & Craft of Shadow Theater
Little Fables
Variations:
You can have your kids play around with shadow making, see what happens when you get closer to the light source or further away and finish with that,
OR
You can choose a story that you can turn into a quick shadow play, make the characters together with your kids and have fun.
We went to an exhibit once showing puppets in the Santa Monica Museum of Art. One of the displays they had was videos of Shadow Theater created by I believe high school students. They rewrote a well known fairy tale, made the puppets and performed it. It was amazing. So I think it could be a fun project to invest your time in, maybe take a little longer than a couple of hours.
Make sure to video tape so your kids can watch it after
WHoo's There?:A Bedtime Shadow Book is a book I have just ordered for my girls 9and my self, of course); I think it could be a lot of fun at bedtime.
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This project is an homage to the Latkes...
You will need:
1-2 potatoes
knife
Paint
Plate for paint
What to do:
Cut potato in half
Create a stamp by cutting out a dreidel shape or any other Chanukah symbol from the face of the potato
Deep stamp in paint
Press onto paper
Variation:
You may stamp brown paper or newspaper to be used as alternative and one of a kind wrapping paper
Stamp onto a table cloths to be used at dinner. you may use fabric paint or acrylics for that.
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You will need:
Air hardening clay
newspaper or plastic to protect your table
toothpick (optional)
What to do:
For older kids and more capable:
Roll some clay onto a surface
Cut out a shape of the base of the pot
Roll clay into snakes
Attach snake on and around the base
Hand build link after link connecting them by scoring the surface and working the clay with fingers
Create the shape of pot you like
Smooth with fingers and some sponge with water (don’t use too much water)
Attach a handle
Allow to dry.
Variation:
1. While the pot is wet, take a toothpick and engrave onto the sides of the pot symbols such as the menorah or Hebrew letters
2. After drying, place a wick inside your pot and pour some oil, light during Chanukah.
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What are we doing this holiday? I think we are staying close by. Eating lots, twirling dreidel with friends, playing No Limit Texas Dreidel, reading lots of Chanukah stories (our favorite Chanukah books found here in the Book Shop). and 'make' till we can't do no more. I have compiled a list of craft activities for the 8 days of Chanukah. Some activities are things I used to do in my childhood, some I made up, and some I found while doing some Chanukah research. I hope you will enjoy them all, and please feel free to copy distribute and share with whom ever you think will enjoy this. Please write a comment, email me or call me with any question, I love to hear from you. I don’t have images to all the projects but I will update images as the holiday goes, so check back for updates.
One little suggestion before you go buy supplies, read through the list of the different activities, see what you want to do, make your ‘grocery’ list and then go shopping for supplies once only. Also, I have posted a holiday card making in growing up creative you may find worth exploring.
Have a luminous and creative holiday.
tali
1st night - finger paint menorah
2nd night - stained glass windows
3rd night - lacy candle (with ice cubes)
4th night - revealing secret notes
5th night - a little pot of clay
6th night - potato stamping
7th night - shadow theater
8th night - star of david extrusion, made of sticks
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You will need:
A candle
White paper
Water colors or Gouache paint and a brush
What to do:
Write secret notes with a candle on a piece of white paper.
Reveal notes by painting over the paper with water colors.
Variations:
This activity could stand on its own; it can be turned into an afternoon of writing secret letters to friends. Or if you are hosting a party this could become a treasure hunt game. The clues to the treasure could be a series of secret notes, while the treasure could be a sack of chocolate gelt which could be the beginning of a great dreidel game.
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Important note:
Be extra cautious with hot wax near children
You will need:
Wax - you can go and buy paraffin at the craft store or just use candles that you may have at home.
Crayons, adding a colored crayon to the melting wax will add color to the candle (optional)
Ice cubes in different sizes
Moulds, paper milk carton container are perfect for that (cut the top part out)
Tapered candles or waxed candle wick
Pot
a can
What to do:
1. Place candles/ paraffin in the can, put can in pot filled with water on the cook top.
2. Secure candle in mold
3. pour a thin layer of the melted wax, let cool down a bit
4. Fill the mold with ice cubes
5. Pour the rest of the melted paraffin/candles over the ice (make sure you use a glove to hold the can). If you have been using candles don’t forget to ‘fish’ the loose strings, you may do it with a fork. Let the candle harden then pour out the water.
6. Tear away your mold and enjoy your new candle.
Variations:
You can try making the candle with different sized ice cubes. Small ones
leave small holes, etc. (you may crush the cubes lightly by placing them in a plastic bag and banging on them with a kitchen tool (use your imagination).
Melt colored crayons with wax for color
Follow this link for more candle making ideas
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The Israeli preschool way:
You will need:
Black construction paper
Scissors or Xacto knife + cutting mat (the knife will enable you to have more detailed designs)
Colored Cellophane or colored tissue paper
Glue stick
What to do:
1. If using a knife – place template (from the link below) over construction paper (you may cut about 3 at a time) cut the pattern line. If using scissors – cut out template first, then trace pattern onto the construction paper (a pencil should show). Cut out the design. If the pattern is to complicated, please simplify the lines, or make your own.
Templates:
Lion (pdf)
Menorah (pdf)
Dreidel (pdf)
Star of David (pdf)
2. On the back of the construction paper glue pieces of cellophane, make sure to cover all the holes you cut out.
3. Let it dry before hanging on a sunny window.
Variations:
This is a great opportunity to learn about mixing colors. Use primary colored (red, blue, yellow) cellophane and overlay them to create more colors
Try and use multiple layers and smaller pieces of cellophane. The work will look richer and more interesting.
The 'high tech' way:
You will need:
Window Art Deluxe Refill Set
Wax paper or any other smooth surface like clear smooth plastic
What to do:
Create the dark outlines of a drawing with the black color
Feel in with other colors
Let dry
Peel and stick to a window.
You may use different Chanukah images as an underlay to trace you may follow this link for some suggestions
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You will need:
Paper (big enough to fit both hands)
Finger paint
Some shiny paper or cellophane in red, yellow and orange (optional)
Scissors
Glue stick
What to do:
Apply paint on to hands
Imprint hands together on a paper
Cut and glue cellophane on top of fingers to appear as flames
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