Where we are its hard to know who will be distancing and who won’t. A representative of our local municipality educational division noted that they aimed for students who will be distancing to have no less than three days of school in school, not distanced. It still is not completely clear which rules win, which loose out, in each school and whether there will be a strike or new changes. Making sense of it all and deciding what is right for our families, has been fairly stressful. I wish all of us success in keeping our families safe.

In the meantime, for those who are going back to school, these alcogel hangers are an easy project and an addition to your school bag. The advantage of this alcogel hanger is that it can dangle on the outside of your bag to prevent extended searching at the bottom of a bag pocket.

These we actually made as end of year gifts for my children’s teachers. My kids didn’t physically return to school but did still thank their teachers as we have in years past. Younger students may need assistance with finishing the project but overall it is an easy and quick craft. The hanger below was made by a preschooler using ribbon with an adhesive backing:

Resources for Alcogel Hangers

We used travel size bottles that a local pharmacy had on sale, packaging tape, ribbons, duct tape, and washi tape we had at home. I freely admit that there were many times over lockdown that I was thankful for my hoarding tendencies, especially when it comes to art supplies.
Thinking about the design, I felt that it would be best for the opening of the bottles to hang down for easy access.

Instructions

• Tape the ribbon to make a loop for hanging. The loop needs to be large enough to allow the bottle to slip through.
• Wrap your additional ribbon around the bottle checking for spaces and then cover with tape.
• You can also use decorative duct tape or washi tape to wrap the bottle and ribbon.

Note for some my kids chose to color in the duct tape designs.
The teachers did appreciate the gifts. We also made some other versions we are proud of, using some great recyclable materials.

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Shopping While Social Distancing

However, I did not take into account COVID-19, social distancing rules and self quarantine. Nor the fact that I would end up making them before Passover, with supermarket shortages exacerbated by the changeover that happens in a supermarket pre-Pesach. So it took some improvisation with what I had on hand.
I was lucky to be able to get one package of Smiley face sandwich cookies for the project. They were not the ideal solution because they don’t break neatly and we lost a few cookies along the way. But we managed.

Ingredients:

• Vanilla Sandwich Cookies (if using sandwich cookies use them “inside out”
• Coconut colored by food coloring (representing chopped cucumbers)
• Cream cookie cream colored by a red food pen (tomatos)
• Date spread mixed with chocolate (for falafel balls)
• Cream cookie cream or white frosting (techina)

Cookie Falafel Instructions

Take apart the cookies carefully and cut them in half. Each cookie can make two falafels, if you don’t break them. Place the coconut in a bag with food coloring to color the coconut flakes. Take some cookie cream, color it red and cut into small pieces. Mix date spread and chocolate powder until it tastes good and is thick enough to roll into balls. Once it is thick enough, roll the balls. You may want to put the spread in the refrigerator before rolling the balls.

Assemble by placing most of the “cucumbers” and the “falafel balls” on one cookie half. Sprinkle with the “tomatoes”. Stick the two cookie halves together into a “V” with the cookie cream and “techina”.

They turned out better than expected and were immediately gobbled down by my kids.

Kid Made

My kids all loved the idea and all wanted me to make them one to eat. Even those of them who are not overly partial to date spread. My 9ish year old even decided he wanted to make his own:

Perhaps where you are you have access to better or fancier ingredients. Let us know what you come up with. If you have sandwich cookies and appropriate ingredients, there is a cactus oreo cookie project that would be great for Yom Haatzmaut. This is because Israelis are known as sabras, a particular type of cactus fruit, because they are prickely on the outside and sweet on the inside. 
You may also want to make falafel yourself:  Falafel Recipe from Tori Avey.

We are also planning on making our blue and white cornettos this year. Check out our other blue and white projects as well.

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Learning Tefillat HaTal

My daughter and I learned Tefillat HaTal, the Prayer for Dew and related topics over about a year and a half. We learned about how dew was different from rain. The sources in Tanach quoted by HaKalir, as well as references to various midrashim. Together we saw how the prayer has messianic overtones and a connection to redemption. We read articles by Tamar Elitzur, Avigdor Shinan and Steve Fine. These helped us to get an understanding of how the community heard piyutim and what the paytan did. All of this resulted in a review sheet on Tefillat HaTal.

Escape Room Game on Tefillat HaTal

Related to that, I created an escape game that took place around the Bird Observatory at the beginning of the celebration. I have made that game “Dew Escape”, available in the Birkat Chaverim shop. Through the game, players learn a number of things. They do learn learn about dew. But they also learn about the author of the dew prayer and about the birds you see in Israel this time of year. There is actually a dew connection for the birds and not just because the celebration was at the bird observatory. In months without rain, birds actually get their water intake by eating bugs. Bugs, of course, get hydration from dew.  
The escape room file is located in the shop. There is a huge discount for the duration of isolation.  

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Megilla Bingo Game Origin

This past year, I became a member of our synagogue children’s committee. I figured it was a good reason to come up with another quiet game for Megilla reading and therefore created this Bingo game:

Note that its called a Megilla find rather than Megilla Bingo game. Feel free to download it for your own friends and families. Please do let us know if you used it and how it helped.

Purim Game Origin

You may have noticed that the Bingo game looks an awful lot like our Purim wrapper collection. It does add a few extra characters- Bigtan and Teresh, the ten sons of Haman, a horse and the number 127. But clearly it is based on the Purim collection. You can still order wrappers from the shop. These include Purim Character Cupcake Toppers and Chocolate Wrappers, Mini Purim Character Cupcake Wrappers, and Our Original Purim Character Cupcake Wrappers.

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What makes a great Bnai Mitzvah chesed project? While there is no one answer, I think Gilad’s swing building is a special project. Gilad chose to build swings in Oz VeGaon reserve. Gilad’s building swings chesed project is an active, physical chesed project.

Where?

Gilad and a group of his friends built swings for Oz VeGaon. Oz VeGaon is the park/reserve set up and dedicated in memory of Gilad Sar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Frankel, who were murdered more than five years ago by terrorists. It is named Oz (strength) due its proximity to Kibbuz Migdal Oz, and Gaon is an acronym in Hebrew of the three young men’s names. Oz VeGaon is a tourist site, a camping site, and also an educational site where groups can participate in agricultural and Zionism workshops.

Gilad planned the activity for the day before the anniversary of the abduction. Building swings is a particularly good activity for when there is nice weather. It is not really a project for rainy or snowy weather.  He and his friends were guided by a local carpenter in  building the swing. Having someone on hand who has experience in building is extremely important. With the guidance, they worked together, working hard and well to create beautiful swings.

Why A Swing Building Chesed Project is a Good Idea

Swing building is a great project on many levels. There is, of course, the aspect of remembrance and giving to others. Long after the project is finished, visitors will enjoy the swings. Additionally, the boys learned new skills and could feel proud of how their hard physical work contributes to others.

Oz VGaon has many ways for groups to volunteer at the site. For instance, a local girls school created a mosaic sign. If you can come up with a project that fits the imagination and skills of your Bnai Mitzvah you can likely do something special that would work. You can use this idea to benefit your own local organization.

Bnei Mitzvah Ideas

We often feature different ways to celebrate Bar and Bat Mitzvah. Whether through special educational projects like the art mentorship and tefillin project, or through learning programs for Bnai Mitzvah. But we have a particular interest in exploring value building and share guest posts and reviews (Pirkei Hallel.) Chesed projects like Gilad’s swings or Briyah’s shelter/synagogue project fit into this. Have an interesting project? We want to hear about it.

Mazal Tov!

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What we Brought

Everyone brought something along the lines of fruit/nuts. And each of the committee members prepared something different. One brought herbs, a “finjan”, which is a small metal pot often used for camping, along with a camping gas heating element and cups to make herbal tea. Another of us sprouted sprouts and seeds for children to plant and take home. 

Games

My job was games. For the older children, I set up a Tu Bshvat based escape game, that I had found from Tzafon Bkufsa. This went over fairly well, with a group of students from 2nd grade through 6th working together throughout the gathering to figure it out. Of course, an escape room is not an ideal activity for younger children. We expected many more younger children, so I made a scavenger hunt. I used the community garden itself for pictures. I also added some shapes, in the event that they found everything and wanted to find more items. That is the basis of the community garden scavenger hunt that I am sharing here.

The event seems to have gone over well and we plan to do something similar this year. This year we plan to do a small workshop that works for multiple ages. In any event, you are welcome to use the community garden scavenger hunt for your own Tu Bshvat celebration. It is a bit site specific but you can use the pictures as a jumping off point. I see that this year I may need to change some of the pictures since the garden has changed a bit since last year.

We have other ideas for Tu Bshvat on the site. Largely projects like making a succulent garden with a toddler, or flower projects. Check out the Tu Bshvat section for more ideas.

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Greek urn inspired student mini urns

This is a cute assignment that mixes Greek history class with Art. You may note that the teacher shows classical pottery shapes, techniques as well as Greek mythology. You might also notice that while many students stick with simple patterns one or two students include Hanukkah or Hanukkah stories in their urn decorations. I like how they keep their color palettes simple to fit what they were learning. These urns were made by sixth graders.

Embossing and Watercolor

The embossing and watercolor projects are by third and fourth graders and combined to make a display of candles. The third graders made embossings on rectangles. I assume that the fourth graders were learning watercolor techniques using watercolor paper which they subsequently cut into flame shapes. Together the two techniques look visually interesting.

Hanukkah Projects using lots of techniques

At a local gan, the children made works with many different techniques. Embossing, patterning, and surface ground relationship. They used these different techniques to make different symbols of Hanukkah. They also made your traditional Hanukkah lamp and dreidel. Note that while the Hanukkah lamps/Hanukkiyot are hard to see, since they are wrapped up in packages on the tables, they are glass bottles filled with fish, rocks, fake plants and blue colored water. The dreidels are made of recycled materials- coffee pods and cds. The cds is pretty common but coffee pods is a new thing. I personally do not drink coffee, but I have seen lots of discussions locally regarding what you can make out of those pods.

I do not have pictures but there were also Hanukkah lamps made by 3rd graders using bolts and large tiles. As in, kid made Hanukkah lamps that are fairly safe. However, since the local custom is to try to light outside, they are a bit large for the traditional glass cases used to keep the flames from blowing out.

What projects have you seen?

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The center is one of the projects organized by the non-profit Muslala on their roof garden (nicknamed “Gag Eden”). They do all types of interesting programs and classes. One recent project I noticed, and a useful one around here, was a project to compost cat scat. Additionally, my kids have also enjoyed a workshop on painting with natural materials on their rooftop garden and they have workshops on carpentry and urban gardening as well as exhibits and other activities.

About Urban Bee Keeping

The center founder, Yossi Ud, explained that urban bee keeping is becoming more popular given the recent phenomena of disappearing bees. He spoke about various urban bee hives in the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem area and spoke about the courses Propolis offers to help people in setting up their own hives. In fact, the woman sitting next to me, had just finished the course they offered for Arabic speakers and told me about her own hive. She told me about how peaceful it was to sit near the hive and watch the bees. I could definitely imagine that. She was also translating the speeches into Arabic for other attendees, some of whom had participated in that course with her.

A Really Good Sport

My kids were fascinated by the presentation and peppered Yossi with questions after the ribbon cutting ceremony. He was a good sport, and after a question about petting the bees, showed them how to approach the bees and take note of whether the bees wanted them there or not. The bees did not want to be pet, but all my kids took turns sitting near the hive for quite a while. They noted the bees that had been pushed out of the hive, likely due to illness or age.
Yossi also pointed out to my kids the connection between shmita (the sabbatical year) and the life cycle of a bee hive. A queen bee lives about seven years. Each year, half of the hive goes off with a new queen to build a new hive. After seven years, the original hive dies off.

Amazing Enthusiasm

Everyone who attended was very enthusiastic and the site itself is beautiful. The manager of the site pointed out that all the construction at the hive, and the entire “Gag Eden”, are made out of recycled materials. For instance, the bamboo from the center entrance sign, is from an exhibit that took place at the Israel museum. A walk in structure near the hive, came from the Israeli version of the burning man festival. The hive is made of recycled wood.
The flowers planted in the surrounding area were all to encourage bees in honey making. Sitting in this little urban utopia and looking over the sides of the building is a bit surreal. You are looking over urban Machane Yehuda, with all the construction cranes up and around.

Something New

Something I learned in the session was that bees are sensitive to the smell of perfume and deodorant. It acts for them like a pesticide. It was also interesting to hear the cross cultural perspectives on the use of honey. In all really interesting and fun. My kids asked about setting up our own hive. I am not sure we are ready yet for urban bee keeping but I am glad they are enthusiastic. For now, they’ll have to be happy with our Rosh Hashanah cupcake wrappers. They have bees on there.

Resources

• Overview of urban bee keeping
• Overview of kosher status of honey

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Lunch Box Taste Testing

Razelle explains:
“4 kids (B”H), 4 different tastes. 4 sandwiches will need to be made every day this coming school year. So today we had a sandwich sampling as lunch. Each possible spread combination cut into quarters, made by our third child. The chart was made by our eldest using Word, so we could tick off who likes what. Practical Summer fun!”
Note that those sandwiches were cut by Dov who has been featured here before regarding Tiny Ninja Theater.

Why I love this idea

One of the things I particularly like about this idea is it really does hit on a pain point for families with more than one child. I love looking at pretty bento boxes and even used to make them. Here are two examples from when I only had one child in school:

But bentos can get complicated

However, trying to get all your kids out of the house at around 7-7:30 each day is not conducive to beautiful creations. In addition, when each kid has their own likes and dislikes, and they often don’t overlap, it can get time consuming and difficult. One can’t really throw up your hands and tell your three year old to prepare their own meals. But it can also be hard to remember (at 6:30 am) who hates grapes, likes cheese but only outside of a sandwich, and who will absolutely positively not eat matbucha. This week. Because last week matbucha was fine.

Taste Testing: A Possible Cure

With a taste test you can get your kids to try something they may not usually agree to, because its fun, and your child might find they actually like the sandwich. As a plus, you can hang up your chart to show them that they like that sandwich, which is already in their box, with a little check next to the food item. At the very least you have an easier time preparing the daily sandwiches since you have a quick reference to majority likes.

Template

I am including a template for a taste testing for four people. I expanded and translated the list used by Razelle. Note that these are sandwiches that would be usual here and they are all meat free. Schools around here encourage dairy meals and parents prefer to send them. In particular, since the larger lunch provided by the after school programs that many kids attend, serve meat meals (as in the Kosher sense, not specifically meat).

One more thing, the template is only for sandwiches. For snacks you are on your own.

Lunch Box Taste Testing Template

If you use the template, share with us in the comments. If you are looking for other ideas for lunch ideas, we have a range of ideas on our kids food pinterest board.

Our current lunch and snack boxes are Rubbermaid’s LunchBlox Sandwich & Salad Food Storage Container Kits (affiliate link). We like the modularity of the boxes, that they can be washed separately and stack and that it is possible to buy them in bulk for multiple kids. We do also use all in ones, but it seems to be out of stock. In general, I like the kind that don’t break easily and come in multiples.

Top two photos courtesy: R.W.

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Noga writes

Last year when Noga’s daughter finished high school, and due to commitments she had made, left the country before graduation, Noga decided to take charge of teacher thank you gifts for her.

“I decided this year not only to thank the homeroom teacher, but to thank all the amazing teachers who were “on her side” along the way, and from my point of view, acted as a “guiding mom.” In quite a few cases, I also appointed them, without their knowledge, as the responsible adult.

So how do you thank twenty important women without going bankrupt? I set aside an entire morning to prepare a first aid cream, make greeting cards from old flyers that I had found in one of the Jerusalem museums, and wrote each of my teachers a personal dedication. Starting from her first grade homeroom teacher (who taught all five of my daughters!) and concluding with the choir teacher. It’s rare for me to photograph a process from A to Z, but this time it’s really appropriate … from first grade – until the end.”

I love this idea as it is from the heart and something that older school age children can make on their own. I did not get Noga’s recipe but here is one that can be used:

First aid cream recipe

In addition, our lip balm recipe has suggestions about how to heat up beeswax in a safer way with younger children.

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