The more you think you are making something unique, the more likely it is someone else has the same idea. While I was working on this with one kid, the other was basically creating the exact same project independently, but she was trying to use a rolled up tube of paper as a trunk. Even she had to admit that straws really worked better!
Time: Active: 15 minutes Drying: 15 minutes+ if using paint or glue
Age: 2-7
Materials: Construction Paper Glue Disposable straws Extras to decorate your trees – pompoms, buttons, crumpled tissue paper
Process: Cut down a disposable straw to your desired height. Snip a small slit on each of 4 sides of one end of the straw. (If your straw has lines on it, use those as a guide). Fold the snipped portion outwards and tape each “leg” down to a piece of paper.
Using construction paper, cut out a tree top. Decorate as you wish.
On the other end of the straw, snip 2 slits on opposite sides. Slide your tree top between the slits and secure with tape.
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The kids wanted to decorate for Chanukah and my oldest daughter got them all involved in helping make this cute and easy garland. She attached a small piece of a straw to the back of each doughnut for easy stringing. You could change it up to use any Chanukah shape.
Another Corona winter Sunday means bored kids. We thought about doing a project for Tu B’Shvat. It’s been a while since we did a project like this together, now that my kids are getting older they are creating their own projects! But every one from ages 4-11 enjoyed this. The 11 year old did it herself, the 4 year old drew the pictures and applied the glue and the 8 year old folded and glued. Everyone was able to participate on their own level. We hope you enjoy it too!
Time: Active: 15-20 minutes Drying: 15 minutes+ if using regular glue
Age: 4-10
Materials: Tree template (download here) Glue stick Paint, markers or crayons Scissors
Process: To make 3 trees in your forest, decorate nine tree tops and nine trunks. You can use our template or draw our own, but try to keep them approximately the same size. When they are dry, cut them out.
Fold each piece in half, folding the colored portion inwards. Working in groups of 3 pieces, using a glue stick, apply glue to the outer side of the first folded piece and attach a second folded piece. Then apply glue to the exposed top layer of the second piece and attach a third. Gently pull the stack and you have created a 3-D tree top. Repeat with all the tree tops and trunk pieces. Glue the tops and trunks directly on to a piece of paper.
Decorate around your trees to complete the scene.
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Join your kids in creating a Kotel together as a symbol of achdut.
We have a book that my kids enjoy called “The Travels and Tales of Dr. Emanuel J. Mitzva: Doctor of Mostly Everything” by Yaffa Ganz. One of my youngest daughter’s favorite stories is about a girl named Julie, who gets the chicken pox and can’t go to school to complete her Sukkah project with the class. When Dr. Mitzva suggests she just do the project at home, she explains that it’s a “do-it-together project” as the puzzle pieces they are making need to fit together. In a truly Corona-friendly twist, Dr. Mitzva brings the class over to her yard and they hold up their drawings to the window so they can each see them and complete the project properly. Of course he explains that bikkur cholim, visiting the sick, is a “do-it-together mitzva” as you need both the healthy and sick person to do the mitzva and both are impacted by it.
Now we are approaching Tisha B’av, not Sukkot, but I loved the idea of the “do-it-together project” and “do-it-together mitzva.” We learn that the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed because of baseless hatred. There is nothing better than a “do-it-together” to rejoin us all, in our case by both doing a project and learning about a mitzva.
If you have more than one kid, or a group of kids in camp, this is a great collaborative craft. We are planning to go big and have each kids do a few pages that will be assembled as a mural on the wall. If you don’t have either the manpower or the space, if you and your child can each paint one page, and that will be more than enough to reassemble on a sheet of paper.
You can add anything you find meaningful to your Kotel on top of the watercolor blocks. A picture of your family, a note you want to put in the wall or anything else.
I hope that by all of Jewish people joining together in achdut, we can rebuild the real Beit Hamikdash!
Materials: Watercolor paints Paint brushes Paper Scissors Tape or glue
Process: Give each participant a piece of paper and brush and have them fill the page with watercolor painting. No need to make any specific design or shape. You can assign each kids a few colors, so they will recognize “their” pieces once it is cut up. Or just have them all use just lots of colors!
When the pages have dried, cut them up into rectangles and squares. I stacked the pages and cut strips, and them stacked the strips to cut the smaller squares and rectangles – we don’t need to be precise! Glue or tape the squares in rows onto a piece of paper or if you are doing this on a larger scale, on the wall. Overlap some smaller pieces in between the bricks to simulate the greenery growing on the Kotel.
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Jewish Kids create 