Posts Tagged ‘Rosh Hashanah’
Last year I made some apple decorations to hang in my sukkah after Rosh Hashanah, based on an idea by Creative Jewish Mom. Then I saved my plastic soda bottles all year so my Shabbat Tot group of kids could all make their own apple decoration for Rosh Hashanah.
To make this craft easy for very young children, I prepared a bunch of different pieces of paper or plastic that I had in my craft stash: printer paper, crepe paper, cellophane, florists’ paper etc – some shiny, some matt, some translucent. These were all red apart from some gold cellophane to represent honey. All the kids had to do was select some pieces and scrunch them up, then put them into the container – perfect fun and easy enough even for 2 year olds. The “honey” went inside too. To finish off the apple, the child taped on a cardboard leaf.
The sounds of the shofar
Posted on: 16 September, 2012
My wonderful husband is blessed with the annually useful talent of being able to make a great sound with a shofar. (In fact he can actually play recognisable tunes on a shofar, which is pretty impressive – too bad there is no need for this in a religious context! I keep telling him he should take up trumpet.) He was giving a shofar demonstration for a group of kids, most of whom were under 3 and not good at sitting still. So we made it into an action game for them.
When he blew Tekiah, they took a big step forward.
When he blew Shevarim, they took three smaller steps forward.
When he blew Teruah, they did a bunch of steps on the spot.
And when he finally blew Tekiah Gedolah, they ran all the way to end of the hall and back again.
It was a lot of fun!
Fuse beads (hama beads, perler beads, whatever you want to call them) are awesome! We found a new source of beads, including brown ones (how did we ever manage without brown?) and have been trying out some new ideas. So, what can you do with fuse beads, other than vacuum them out of the carpet? I made these Rosh Hashanah decorations for our front screen door and they are a little kitschy but I’m pretty happy with them.
The apple was made on a round pegboard. The thing that looks like a furry red caterpillar is the pipecleaner (chenille stem) I used to attach it to the screen. I didn’t realise we had two not-quite-identical shades of red until I took this photo, the joys of mixing up two sets of beads from different manufacturers!
The honeycomb was made on the central part of a six-pointed star (magen david) pegboard.
I made the text on a square pegboard, and the shofar down one side of a heart-shaped pegboard. They are strung together with jewellery wire, and then onto a pipe cleaner.
So, come on over… 
PS If you like this, you might also like my fuse bead dreidels and shabbat designs.
Rosh Hashanah card
Posted on: 3 September, 2012
I love to give and receive home-made cards. This year my Rosh Hashanah cards are a variation on papercutting – a traditional craft brought into the modern age thanks to the joy of technology. Instead of cutting out designs by hand with a craft knife or scissors, I can send them via my computer to a machine (a Silhouette craft cutter) which accurately cuts the paper with a tiny blade, far quicker and more accurately than I could ever hope to do by hand.
After my design was cut out of white paper, I sticky-taped scraps of metallic paper (different colours and textures) behind sections of it (all except the apple outline) then used double sided tape to stick the entire thing on to green card. The honey drop is actually a gold hologram-like paper which is very sparkly!
I can’t post the silhouette file, but here is a copy of my design you could trace around to make your own, if, like me, you were searching for Jewish designs for a Silhouette cutter.
Here’s to a sweet new year for all of us!
This past week, I designed a little Jewish card game/board game for my daughter (aged 4). In it, you need to match 3 pictures to each of a selection of Jewish holidays.
For example, Shabbat is represented by candles, a kiddush cup and challah; Chanukah has a menorah, dreidel and latkes; Pesach has a seder plate, the plagues and matzah; and Yom Ha’atzmaut has an Israeli flag, a map of Israel and some Israeli dancers.
I found this game to be a fun way to review a lot of the festivals, identify some key symbols and talk about what we do, what we eat and so forth. Please feel free to use it yourself. The instructions are included on the pdf. I suggested putting the pieces into boxes or bags during the game, but I’ve thought of another way to do it (especially for older children) – put all the pieces face down in the middle, and turn over two at a time as you would if playing Memory. If either matches your card, move them to your card. If not, turn face down again and let the next person take their turn.
Last year I saw this fabulous idea at Creative Jewish Mom: she had made apple-shaped gift boxes from the ends of plastic bottles. For better or worse we don’t buy much in the way of soft drinks, so it was quite some time before I finished two bottles of tonic water and was able to make my own version of this great idea: a hanging decoration which we can use both for Rosh Hashanah and for our sukkah.
What I used:
- ends of two 1.25l plastic bottles (the sort where the bottom looks a bit like a flower with five petals – I used several different brands and some work better than others, so you may just need to experiment.)
- red or green cellophane (or tissue paper, or fabric.) The beauty of cellophane is that the light shines through it.
- felt scraps for the leaves and stem
- thin ribbon or similar to hang the apple up, and a button to hold this in place.
- needle and thread
How to make this:
1. Carefully cut off the ends of two plastic bottles. I found cutting one a centimetre or so taller than the other meant I could overlap them and they stick together even without glue.
2. Very carefully use a sharp object to punch/drill a tiny hole in the centre of one of the bottle ends. Thread through the ribbon so that you have a loop on the outside. Thread the ends through a button and tie it on the inside. (The botton stops the ribbon from slipping out. Alternatively you could make two holes and skip the button.)
3. Cut leaves and a stem from felt and stitch them together (glue might also work but thread seemed more secure to me.) Stitch the leaves and stem to the ribbon. If you’re more organised than me, you might even be able to do this in one step rather than in two.
4. Scrunch up some cellophane or other paper/fabric to provide the colour of the apple and put this inside.
5. Slot the plastic bottle ends together. Glue or tape them if necessary.
6. Hang and admire!
It’s so much fun to make your own Rosh Hashanah cards. This year’s design is very easy and I love the way it looks.
Materials:
- blank card
- circle of shiny yellowish paper (symbolic of honey or round challah)
- slightly larger circle of clear contact
- selection of confetti/table scatters in the shape of apples, bees and honeycomb (or you could use other small pictures if you can’t get confetti)
Sandwich the confetti between the yellow paper and the contact. Use the excess contact to stick the entire circle to the front of the card. Too easy!
I purchased my confetti from an Australian seller on ebay at http://stores.ebay.ca/justlovebeadsweddingaccessories
Blow your own (paper) shofar
Posted on: 18 September, 2011
A couple of years ago my husband had his first opportunity to blow a shofar, and it turns out he is a natural. He can even play a tune on one of those things! When he blows, the shofar sounds amazing. I, on the other hand, can barely make it sound like someone blowing a raspberry, or worse. This year we decided that those of us not blessed with natural ram’s horn blowing talents should still be allowed to make a loud noise, and these shofarim are the way to do it. This is a great craft activity for kids to do before Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
You will need:
- light card or heavy paper cut in the shape of a shofar (I used the pattern from here: http://www.cajestl.org/documents/ShofarCraftProject.pdf and just narrowed the shape of the handle slightly.)
- the hooter part of the type of party favour where you blow and part of it extends. (What are these called? Party horns? If you google “party hooters” some of the photos are a bit risque!)
- double sided tape and sticky tape
- textas/stickers etc to decorate
Cut out the shofar and decorate with textas or stickers. Stick together with double sided tape (as per the instructions printed on the .pdf), and roll the handle to fit around the hooter. Secure with sticky tape. That’s it! Then put in your ear plugs and let everyone else go blow their horn.
Rosh Hashanah collage
Posted on: 17 September, 2011
Collage is always fun for young children, and it’s easy to incorporate the key elements of Rosh Hashanah – apples, honey, shofar, round challah and “L’Shanah Tovah”.
I used:
- cardboard – I used a plate to trace circles on some old cardboard folders I was recycling.
- pictures – find them on the internet or draw your own, cut shapes from coloured paper
- scratch and sniff stickers – who knew they came in both apple and honey scents? (Mind you if my honey smelled like those stickers I don’t think I’d be eating it!)
- textas for additional decoration
Cut out your pictures and glue them on, then add some decoration (if you want to) and hey presto, a colourful new year decoration for your fridge or wall.
If you’re short of time, you are welcome to print off my compilation of pictures gleaned from the internet: Rosh hashanah collage pictures
Last year I used the same pictures and we made cards to give to grandparents.
