Conference taveng::bagels

    Hi Sandy,
    
    I like the idea of forming and baking challahs.  Just bring in prepared
    bread dough ready to form.  It will need a final rise.  That's assuming
    you have an oven available.
    
    Maybe for RH/YK you could do something on the theme of Jonah and the
    whale.  The idea of being swallowed up, overhwelmed.  Climbing through
    large tubes?
    
    Another idea, maybe not the most exciting but.  Make paper book covers
    for the holiday prayer books.  The kids could decorate them with
    suitable religious themes.  You could show them pictures of ornately
    decorated prayer books and bibles.
    
    L

    For Chanuka, one idea we've used is to have the kids put both hands
    down on construction paper, have another person trace their fingers.
    
    This makes a nice menorah (chanukia) shape with their 8 fingers that
    they can color, put glitter on, etc.
    
    -Neil

    
    In Holiday happenings my brother made a menorah that we still
    use once a year.  
    
    The pieces needed are:
    1- One piece of wood about 9 inches long
    2- one piece of wood about 1 inch long (about square)
    3- 9 nuts, the size so that a standard chanakah candle will 
       fit inside.
    4- stickers, pens and other decoration stuff
    5- glue
    
    I guess the construction is real strait forward and probably
    would take less then 1/2 an hour.
    
    Amy

    Last year my husband gave the school a sack of polished, spent, shot
    gun shells to make the menorahs.  They glued them to the wood, then
    varnished the whole thing.
    
    How do you get off the wax afterward?
    
    L

    thanks for the ideas so far.
    
    One year my son brought home a menorah made from metal nuts attached to the
    wood -- i think that's too much for 4+5 year olds.  [plus both of us
    teaching the course work, and don't have the time to get everything
    ready in advance!]  it is a nuisance getting the wax out too.
    
    i like the idea of tracing the hands -- i've seen it done for turkeys
    for thanksgiving, never thought of it for chanukah tho.
    
    Wish we could let them crawl through tubes.  but the temple isn't set
    up with a playground; we get as far as "creative movement".
    
    Keep the ideas coming -- we appreciate everything!
    
    sandy

    For Rosh Hashana why not make honey jars.  It is traditional to dip
    apples in honey at the evening meal and to use honey with your challah
    until after Sukkot.  Baby food jars (with tops) can be decorated to
    look like apples or bees or just decoupaged or covered with glitter.
    
    My children have produced a collection of these over the past decade. 
    They love to use them and show them off.
    
    L'hit,
    
    Avi

    re: .6 -- now that's an idea!  we used baby food jars last year to make
    candlestick holders for Shabbat; never thought of making them for
    honey jars. [We also make spice boxes for Havdalah from toilet paper
    rolls, sticky paper, and spices -- who said we don't recycle?]
    
    
    thanks.
    
    sandy

    re .4, getting wax off things
    
    If the object can be dunked in very hot water, or tolerate
    baking, the wax will melt off.  Otherwise you're stuck with
    scraping and chipping, unless there's some wonder-soap around
    I don't know about.  I suspect that the wax chips better when
    cold.
    
    Anyway, you can make candles with hot water, and if your kids
    can handle boiling water you can add hand-dipped candles to
    the things to make:
    
    Fill tall containers with wide mouths (e.g. mayonnaise jars)
    with boiling water.  Put paraffin blocks or old candles (fish
    out old strings).  Color with crayon bits.  The wax will melt
    and float on top of the water.
    
    Fill another container with cold water.
    
    Cut white cotton twine to a few inches longer than the jar is
    deep.  Dip into wax, then into cold water to set.  Repeat. 
    As the string gets coated, you can dip it deep in the "wax"
    jar, through the wax into the water--it'll lose some wax on
    the way down and gain more on the way up.
    
    With dipping in various levels and different colors you can
    do all sorts of layers and decorations, and while they are
    warm and flexible you can tie knots in thin candles or braid
    them, and when cold can sculpt them.
    
    Real candles have specially made wicks which are formulated 
    to burn at just the right rate, and the twine isn't--but these
    candles will work, more or less.
    
    		-John Bishop

Another neat way to make candles is to get a foam cup or polystyrene cup even 
a paper cup and fill it with ice cubes.  Insert a wick down the middle when 
you put the ice into the cup.  Pour melted wax into the cup.  Eventually 
the ice will melt and you get left with a candle filled with interesting 
holes.

Potato painting:
Cut potatos in half and carve out a shape on the flat side. dip into paint 
and stamp it on to paper.

What about making things with pipe cleaners....you know those little bits 
of wire covered in fluff that people use to clean their smoking pipes.  You 
can make all sorts of little objects with it by bending and twisting the 
wires round eachother.

Collect leaves and flowers and stick them onto paper and make different 
pictures with them

Regards

Steve Bloom
DECdirect
Sydney Australia