A Do-It-Together Kotel

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!

Looking for more Tisha B’av projects?
Rebuilding Yerushalayim (in paper)
Yerushalayim Puzzle for Tisha B’av
Peek-a-boo Yerushalayim
Stained Glass Yerushalayim

Do-It-Together Kotel

Time:
Active: 20 minutes

Age: 3-10

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.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

Stained Glass Yerushalayim

Add a burst of beautiful color to the Yerushalayim skyline!

Well, this is a first. I am posting this well after Tisha B’av, just so I have it documented. I did share the outline of the idea on our facebook page before Tisha B’av but I just did not have the time to do the entire craft in advance to photograph and post here.

Hindsight did give me a few tips to share however!

1. We used a wide variety of crayon colors. They all melted together and the effect was fairly dark overall. I would suggest staying away from black or brown or even dark blue. Try sticking to a more limited color palette and I think the effect will be more successful.

Our melted crayon sheet

2. Don’t use too many crayons! To give an analogy, consider the spacing you would use to bake a tray of cookies rather than to roast a full tray of veggies (this made sense to me, I hope it does to you too!). Too many crayons will not give a translucent effect.

3. Use a much larger piece of wax paper than you think. Our crayons mostly filled our paper and wax spilled out the side, staining the old towel my husband insisted on putting under the wax paper. Fewer crayons in a bigger sheet will save you from this mistake.

Looking for more Tisha B’av projects?
Rebuilding Yerushalayim (in paper)
Yerushalayim Puzzle for Tisha B’av
Peek-a-boo Yerushalayim

Time:
Active: 30-60 minutes
Age: 5-10

Materials:
Crayons, wrappers removed
Iron
Wax paper
Printout of the Yerushalayim skyline (or draw it yourself!)
Scissors
Tape

Process:
Following this method create a page of “stained glass.”  See tips in the post above for getting the best effect with the least amount of mess.

Print out or draw a basic Yerushalaim scene. Keep it simple with a more basic drawing, rather than a lot of small details. Color it however you wish. Then cut out windows and doors or whatever other areas you like.

Snap off pieces of your crayon “glass” and tape them behind the cutouts on the back of the Yerushalayim scene.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

Peek-a-boo Yerushalayim

Yerushalayim is always in our minds…or underneath our paper!

Coming up to Tisha B’av, I wanted to come up with something the expressed the meaning of the day. Sitting in United States, we want to feel a connection to Israel. By using flaps to “uncover” the Israel beneath, we are symbolizing that beneath our everyday activities, we always have Israel in our hearts and prayers. This idea is a little abstract for small children, but flaps are always fun and I think the gist of the idea can come across.

I did this sample piece while the kids were out at camp and I have to say I got very engrossed in it! I played with different kinds of collage by sifting through the recycling bin. I found a mailer for a car dealership, and I tried cutting out a car to add to the road but while I loved the mixed media effect, it ended up not fitting well with the flap. Don’t confine yourself to plain construction paper, see what else you can add!

Looking for more Tisha B’av projects?
Rebuilding Yerushalayim (in paper)
Yerushalayim Puzzle for Tisha B’av

Time:
Active: 15-30 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+ if using paint

Age: 3-9

Materials:
Printout of the Kotel (or draw it yourself!)
Construction paper or magazines and newspapers
Glue
Scissors

Process:
Print out or draw a picture of the Kotel. Fold in both sides of the paper to the center until they touch.

On top of the flaps, create a cityscape that reminds you of where you live. You can use construction paper shapes, or images from magazines or newspaper. Add your family in to the picture too!

Unfold the flaps to the reveal the Yerushalayim beneath.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!

Yerushalayim Puzzle for Tisha B’av

Put Yerushalayim back together this Tisha B’av!

Searching for meaningful activities on Tisha B’av can be tough. I wanted to create a craft that would give children a sense of the day. A puzzle seemed like a great format. By putting together the pieces, they can create the whole, just as we long to do with the Beit Hamikdash.

The concept here is simple – create a picture and then cut it up and let them put it back together. I drew a very simple image of Yerushayalim, but a coloring page printed out from google works fine.  We painted it using sponges and brushes, but if paint on Tisha B’av is above your mess tolerance level, crayons, markers or whatever you want of course works just fine.

Should your kid be the type who would cry if you cut up their picture, definitely do not do this step! Creating the picture will be enough art for this kid!

May the symbolism of children putting Yerushalayim back together serve as metaphor for our redemption!

Looking for more Tisha B’av projects?
Rebuilding Yerushalayim (in paper)

Yerushalayim Puzzle

Time:
Active: 15-20 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+ if using paint

Age: 3-7

Materials:
Paper (We used card stock so it would hold up to cutting better. Thin cardboard like a cereal box works as well.)
Sponge
Paint
Scissors

Process:
Decorate your paper with a Yerushalayim scene. Cut a sponge into squares and dip it in paint to create the impression of bricks. Try not to leave too much white space or the puzzle will be too hard to put together.

I found the sponge paint to be thicker and take longer than usual to dry, so feed the kids lunch and then come back and check on it. When it’s dry, cut it into as many pieces as is age appropriate. Be careful cutting so you have some sort of color close to the edges to match up when putting it back together.

Did you do this project? Share your pictures on our facebook page!