PARSHAT SHOFTIM

HANDPRINT TREE

This is my first attempt to do a parsha project while living in someone else's house in Israel, without our stuff, feeling very unsettled. My connection to the internet is sketchy. I don't have any of my basic art supplies. And, I am not a car ride away from Michael's! But, thankfully, Israel does have a surprising number of little craft stores. At this point, I limited myself to buying some basic paper and paints. I don't even know what kind of paints I bought, if they are washable, etc, but we will use them outside and they will have to do.

In this week's parsha, there is the prohibition against destroying fruit-bearing trees because "haadam etz hasadeh." We talked about how trees and people are alike and how we have to be kind to both. We made these pretty tree prints using our forearms, hands, and fingers.





On Shabbat, a bunch of kids were whacking a tree and Maya came over to me and whispered in my ear: "They are not being nice to the tree like it says in the Parsha." That's my little Goody Two-Shoes!

PARSHAT DEVARIM

GLITTER STARS

PARSHAT MATOT-MASAI

COTTON BALL SHEEP

In an email to the editor of Challah Crumbs, I wrote "Parshat Matot stinks for kids crafts ideas…Ill see what I can come up with but I am not optimistic…" The parsha spends alot of time on vows and war and I was not very inspired. For preschoolers, I am looking for concrete objects like people, stars, food, clothing, or animals - especially animals. So, I looked again and I found...sheep! In Parshat Matot, the tribes of Reuven and Gad ask Moshe for the lands east of the Jordon so that they can have more land for their cattle. So, all I had to do was figure out how to make lots and lots of sheep!

Thankfully - yet again - not only do Christian Sunday School teachers love donkeys, they also love sheep (Jesus is the good shephard, the parable of the lost sheep..) Lamb crafts are especially popular for Easter time.

So, luckily, I had an easy time finding a sheep craft that used all stuff that we already had at home - toilet paper rolls and cotton balls. I wanted to do a model one for Challah Crumbs but I couldn't exactly remember what a sheep should look like. Andy reminded me of the image from the mattress commercials:



Our version came out super cute:





I used a mini-plastic kiddush wrapped in black felt for the nose. I have no idea why we had this grassy material in the house but it made for perfect pastureland...

PARSHAT PINCHAS

DAUGHTERS OF TZELAFCHAD PAPER DOLL CHAIN

Since my "classroom" is made of two little girls- who also happen to be my daughters - it was a pretty easy decision for me to focus on the story of the Daughters of Tzelafchad narrated in this week's parsha.

I decided to do paper dolls again since they are easy and the girls just love doing dress-up doll things. This time though I decided to get some scraps of materials so that we could make them fancy skirts and dresses.



For some reason, Maya really enjoyed learning the names of the five girls - Machlah, No'ah, Chaglah, Milkah and Tirtzah. She decided which "doll" was which girl and we wrote their names on their backs. On a whim, I put a few pieces of magnet tape on the back of the dolls so now they hang on our fridge and we are reminded and inspired by their "feminist revolution!"

PARSHAT BALAK

DONKEY PUPPET

We are big fans of this Parsha since Andy is its g-dcast narrator. Check it out! Needless to say, the girls have watched their father's cartoon numerous times so they know this parsha has something to do with a donkey.

Anyway, you can't NOT do a donkey craft for Parshat Balak! Thankfully, there were a million donkey craft ideas on the internet, thanks yet again, to the Christian Bible. Apparently, Christians are very into donkeys since Jesus apparently spent alot of time riding on one. There is even an entire website called Bible Donkeys.

Kids love talking animals and they love puppets so this seemed like the perfect opportunity for a good old-fashioned paper bag puppet. I think that he came out super cute. I would listen to what he had to say...