Torah Bag

Store your things in a Torah bag this Simchat Torah!

We have been spending Yom Tov with my parents. The rabbi of their shul gives Torah cards to any kid who wishes him a good Shabbos or Yom Tov, which is the highlight of shul for many kids. My kids amassed quite a collection over all of the holidays. On Sunday morning of Chol HaMoed Sukkot, my daughter came up with a great idea of how to store them – make a “Torah bag.” She proceeded to direct my mom to give her specific supplies and put together an amazing bag!

Since they were working with limited supplies, I put together an upgraded version to share with you. I think these are adorable and have multiple potential uses if you do not have Torah cards. Bring them to shul on Simchat Torah to collect whatever the kids get there (candy overload is one of my pet peeves but that is for a different discussion). Use them as favor bags at an upsherin. Or, as my daugher helpfully suggested, just use them for storing Shopkins.

Time:
Active: 30 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+ if using paint or glue

Age: 2-9

Materials:
Brown paper bag
Something with which to decorate the bag – paint, markers, crayons, stickers
2 paper towel rolls
Tinfoil
Scissors
Glue or tape

Process:
Trim off approximately 2.25″ from the top of the paper bag. The allows the paper towel tubes to stick out on the top and the bottom. Decorate your bag however you want. We had crown stickers, so I used one here, along with our favorite dot paint.

Cover the paper towel tubes with tinfoil. I didn’t find it necessary to use any glue or tape, just tuck the edges in at the ends.

Glue or tape the back of the bag to the paper towel rolls. Only attach the top 2/3 of the bag. Do not glue or tape the bottom part of the bag or it will not fold flat.

Allow to dry, fill and enjoy!

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

Easy Invisible Ink

Paint over your drawing and your picture magically appears!

We recently threw a science themed birthday party for my older daughter. We set up 3 rotating stations with experiments for the kids to do, and concluded with a dry ice show by my real-life-scientist husband. One of the stations was invisible ink. It involved mess, a hair dryer and soggy paper. Here is the version we should have done instead. It’s easy and can be kept fairly clean and of course, hair dryer free.

If you draw with a white crayon, it seems to be invisible. When you paint over the crayon drawing, the paint slides off the waxy crayon residue, revealing your message or drawing. Any paint will work, but for ease and less mess, we used dot paints, which the kids love. They had a blast revealing their messages.

Looks like nothing is there? Just wait!

This technique can be used for any theme. My kids wanted to do “winter” pictures but it could just as well be about anything. Scribbles are great too! You could do this to represent the first day of creation, (light and dark) using black paint over the white crayon. It could also work for the second day of creation (when the waters are separated). Color a large block of white in the center of the page. Paint over it with blue and voila! The waters split with white in between. The blue paint would go well with Kriyat Yam Suf too.  Share any other ideas you have, or photos of what you came up with!

Time:
Active: 30 minutes

Age: 2-8

Materials:
white  paper
paint (we used dot paint but any will work)
white crayons

Process:

Color with the white crayon on the white paper. Make sure to press down firmly for best results. Words are fun if your kid knows how to write but pictures are just as good. Make sure you have drawn everything you want before starting to paint, as you cannot go back and draw more on that page once the paint is applied.

Paint over the areas you colored. Watch as the paint slides off the crayon and your message is revealed!

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