Lift-the Flap Fruit Bowl for Tu B’Shvat

A fun lift-the-flap way to celebrate Tu B’Shvat!

Tu B’Shvat always seemed misunderstood to me. Why eat dried Turkish apricots to celebrate the New Year of the trees? Intrinsically, Tu B’Shvat is the start of the new year for counting trumot and maasrot that were taken as tithes from fruit in the time of the Beit HaMikdash. Once the Jews were exiled from Israel, they would remember the day by eating the fruit of Israel. But in those days, the only way to send Israeli fruit far distances was by first drying them. Hence the minhag of eating bukzer (hard, hard, dried carob) on Tu B’Shvat.

Being that the holiday tradition stems from remembering Israel. I thought it would be fun to combine a little Hebrew learning with the fruit. Really I should have stuck with the Shivat HaMinim but 2 of 3 (pomegranate and grapes) are not bad. I added the orange for color variety. You can do any combination of fruit that works for you. If you don’t know the Hebrew word for that fruit, google translate is your friend!

Looking for more Tu B’Shavt projects?
Toilet Paper Roll Trees for Tu B’Shvat
Mixed Media Trees for Tu B’Shvat

Time:
Active: 15 minutes
Drying: 15 minutes+

Age: 4-7

Materials:
Construction Paper
Glue
Scissors

Process:
Cut out the shapes of a bowl and some fruit. Place it on the page to be sure there is room for a flap to open.

Fold a small portion of each fruit and glue that seam down. Under the flap, write the name of the fruit in Hebrew and English. Let kids who know their letters do the writing!

 

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Edible Menorah

Have your menorah and eat it too!

During our carpool Chanukah project brainstorming session, we also came up with this edible menorah idea. This would be fun for a Chanukah party or Shabbat Chanukah dessert. I took advantage of the opportunity of having my whole family over on Thanksgiving to try it out, so pardon my “fine china” and the picture quality – these are literally taken from people’s plates.

I cut up honeydew, pineapple, strawberries, and clementines and arranged them on a platter. I cut the pineapple to mimic the shape of a rounded menorah and the honeydew a rectangular one. I cut smaller pieces of honeydew to be candles, and the strawberries and clementines were for the flames. I also put out the honeydew seeds (with a caveat not to eat them!) because they looked like flames but no one used them, I would recommend an edible seed instead.

Should you want to go a different route, you could include vegetables, or the less healthy candy option. Set out a variety of shapes, sizes and colors and see what people create!

Looking for more Chanukah projects?
Pipe Cleaners and Straws Menorah
Menorah and Dreidel Snowflakes
“Light” a Paper Menorah
Nature Menorahs
“Spinning” Paper Dreidel
Decorate a Dreidel…with a Dreidel!

Time:
Active: 5-10 minutes

Age: 3-adult

Materials:
Fruits, vegetables, candy…whatever works for you!
Big enough plates to hold the menorah, based on the sizes of your food pieces
(our plates were a little too small!)

Processs:
Use the food to create a menorah however you want!

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