8 Great Chanukah Activities: Day 2 Melt and Pour Beeswax Candles

Happy Second Day of Chanukah! I'll keep today's post short and sweet as honey. This activity is the bee's knees--we're making our own melt and pour beeswax candles! We tried it for the first time late in the summer before Rosh Hashanah and decided then and there that we would do it again over Chanukah. This is an activity that requires some supplies and ingredients you may not already have at home. I'm introducing it early in the holiday in case you want to gift the results, but it's a great one to do on a snowy (or rainy day) or even store in the vault for another year or holiday. I love the idea of candle-making for Chanukah since it is definitely a holiday with a lot of candles involved and even after the menorahs have gone out, these lovely scented keepsakes will bring light and warmth to your home (or to someone else's).

To make your own Melt and Pour Beeswax Candles, you will need:

• a crock pot and metal bowl that fits inside or a double boiler*
• beeswax (I use this product from Amazon, but you can often buy pellets or bars at craft supply stores)
• a designated jar (I like the 4oz ball jars, but you can use recycled baby food jars, a shallow tin, a glass candle holder, etc.)
• pre-tabbed candle wicks
• essential oil, scented oil, honey, cinnamon sticks or dried botanicals (optional)
• hot glue gun (optional)

*A few notes before I begin with instructions on how to melt and pour your candles: I use a small crock pot (the $10 version from Walmart) and a tin bowl I bought secondhand at the thrift store that happens to fit in the crock pot since melted beeswax does not easily come off the vessel it's melted into. Because we keep a strictly kosher kitchen, we use the crock pot and bowl only for non-food projects. (You can also use this setup for melting your own crayons, making your own lotion bars, lip balms, soaps, etc.) Pre-tabbed candle wicks are available online from Amazon or from craft supply stores. The first time we did this, I didn't have them at home and actually just took apart some Shabbos candles we had by pulling the tab from the bottom and using the wicks in our melt and pour candles. I used a hot glue gun to affix the tab of the wick to center of the bottom of each jar before we poured the wax in so that it wouldn't move when we were pouring. And now you're ready to begin!

Instructions:

1. Melt your beeswax in the Crock pot or double boiler. In a crock pot, this is a slow process, so you will want to allow for a couple of hours over low setting for the wax to melt before you're going to pour your candles. Four bricks of the beeswax above produced two 4oz candles, so you'll want to decide upon your jar size and how much wax to use accordingly.
2. Pour your melted wax into the jar. An adult should do this part and use a potholder! You may want to cover your work surface if you are concerned about wax dripping. Fill your jar leaving at least an inch of wick exposed. If your wick is particularly long, you may want to trim it at the end.
3. Add your scent before it hardens! If you are adding one scented oil to all of your candles, you could even add it directly into the pot of melted wax. When we made our Fall candles, we used a cinnamon scented oil and honey drizzled into each jar. You can also individualize your candles each with their own scent while the wax is still melted/soft. This is a part kids can help with. They will love scooping and sprinkling dried lavender buds or breaking cinnamon sticks into each jar or even shaking drops of scented oils into the jar.
4. Allow candles to harden and enjoy your handmade gift! Once the candles are completely hardened and cooled, children can even decorate and personalize the outside of the jar or tin with permanent markers or stickers.

Adult supervision and support is a definite must with this activity and with any lit candles and use of matches. We'll be back tomorrow with our next activity. Until then...

Happy Chanukah and Happy Playing!

Sprout Scouts Playcamp: Creepy Crawlers!

They're movin' on up...

It's been a while since we've unpacked a Sprout Scouts Play Theme here and today I am so excited to launch an introduction into some of our Creepy Crawlers activities all about Bugs, Butterflies and Insects! If you've been following along with our Grow Your Own Green Thumb theme, you may be wondering what the heck happened to our Garden to Table Theme and Terrific Trees theme--they are coming, closer to the harvest season and end of summer. One thing I am truly embracing this summer is our need and desire to play and learn at our own pace and whim.

Last summer one of our very favorite activities was growing our own butterflies, and when our caterpillars arrived in the mail last week, we all decided to dive right into learning more about creepy crawlers as we wait for them to eat and grow. Now, I have to be completely honest--bugs really bug me. I am learning to embrace them, especially those helpful garden pollinators. I know I am bigger and stronger but I am not braver. I also don't want to unnecessarily impose my feelings on other, shorter members of the family. I know that learning and playing about something that frightens you is a great way to lessen fear and increase understanding, so we are learning through play with some great indoor and outdoor activities that will surely get your wings fluttering!

Suggested Materials: You certainly do NOT need all of this, and we actually found a great young naturalists backpack kit available for checkout at our local library that contained a variety of ways to observe, catch (and release), read and learn about bugs and insects! Use what you have on hand, check dollar stores and secondhand shops for the rest or borrow from friends!

• magnifying glasses
• magnifying bug boxes
• binoculars (bugs can be far away, too!)
• jars, bug containers or critter containers for catching (and releasing) bugs
• butterfly nets
• playdough (or make your own)
• pipe cleaners, google eyes, small loose craft parts
• paper, markers/crayons, scissors and other art & craft materials
• tempura paint
• butcher paper
• white coffee filters
• spray bottles
• fly swatters
• Borax & school glue for bug slime
• plastic bugs (we found ours at Dollar Tree)
• artificial flowers
• shredded craft paper in black and yellow (or the colors of your choice)
• yellow, black and white pompoms
• recycled containers
• small tongs
• optional butterfly growing kit--we like the Insect Lore kit available from Amazon
• books about bugs and insects from your local library or personal collection
• a camera to capture creepy crawlers in action!
• your nature journals to capture memories and important discoveries

OUTSIDE ACTIVITIES

Check out that Japanese beetle! He can stay
here as long as he likes, just stay away
from our vegetable garden!

Creepy Crawlers Scavenger Hunt: Grab your nets, containers, magnifying glasses and critter cages. It's time to get out there and observe our creepy crawling (or flying) friends in action! Don't forget to look up and down, to lift up and peer under rocks, to check out your flower garden and even areas that are particularly soggy and dark. Bugs and insects are EVERYWHERE. Look at the grass for a while and observe how it moves--creepy crawlers are busy at work down there and even though you may not see them, you can observe signs of their presence. Can you find an ant hill? Dig up a worm? Can you hear a cicada or a cricket? Can you spot a firefly at night? Perhaps you will take a list of bugs to search for with you or record a list in your nature journal of those you can find. Please remember that if you do capture a little critter to also let it go back into nature when you are done observing. Also remember to take proper precautions around bugs that may sting or bite, including proper clothing and coverage and not handling bugs that can be harmful to humans!

Plant a Pollinators Garden: Choose a variety of flowers that attract helpful pollinators to your garden. Zinnias, marigolds, morning glories, milkweed, dill and more will all attract butterflies, bees and even hummingbirds to your yard. You can start from seed or purchase starter plants (this time of year, many are discounted). Then step back and observe the wonder of their wonderful work...


Spot That Pollinator: One of our favorite offshoots of the Creepy Crawlers Scavenger Hunt has been observing pollinators at work in our garden and in gardens around town. We use my camera phone quite a bit to record our findings. Talk about how some bugs and insects are helpful to plants and gardens even though others are considered to be pests. Can you spot a helpful ladybug? A busy bee? Some fluttering butterflies and moths? Where do you notice them and why do you suppose that is?

Can you spot the bumblebee?

Can you spot the monarch butterfly?

Fly Swatter Painting: Outdoor messy art is one of my favorite things about summer weather! Get out, get messy, get hosed off and come in good and tired for bedtime. I don't necessarily encourage promoting the use of fly swatters in their traditional purpose with young children, but they are great for swatting and splashing colorful washable tempura paint on butcher paper set either flat on the sidewalk or taped to an outdoor wall. If you do have a hose hook-up and a wall, sidewalk or fence you don't mind painting directly on before hosing it down, you can even go paperless.

INDOOR OPTIONS
Since the caterpillars arrived, so has the rain! While waiting for those six very hungry little caterpillars to eat and eat and grow and grow, we have been busy (mostly inside) playing and learning about butterflies, bugs and insects. The boys made a welcome sign and named the caterpillars, and then it was time for some of these fun games and activities:

Pollinators Sensory Bin: We used shredded craft paper, pompoms, our plastic bug collection, some artificial flowers and recycled containers and tongs for this whimsical sensory table. Y gets a kick out of tossing the paper shreds (everywhere) and still likes to try out the tongs even though he's not quite there yet with his fine motor skills. S loves to pretend the pompoms are food for the bugs and use the tongs to collect them in containers for the bugs to eat.

Bug SLIME: Ah, what's summer without slime? And you really haven't gotten totally creepy and crawly until you're also slimy. We made up a batch of green slime and the boys had such a great time! In the past, we have used slime in our sensory table, but seeing as it was occupied housing our bees and butterflies and other pollinators, we opted for a couple of plastic trays (and no brothers fighting!) and some plastic bugs to share. Making bug prints in the slime is so much fun! S also loves to use a playdough knife with EVERY type of dough, so I added a couple of those in as well.

Butterfly Collage Decoration: We have a collection of these butterfly die-cuts from Dollar Tree a few years ago, but you can also trace and cut your own butterfly shape from construction paper. I especially love to use this as an opportunity to teach about symmetry with beginning cutters. Trace or draw the outline of half a butterfly onto folded paper and cut the shape out away from the fold. When it is opened, it will reveal the shape of a butterfly! We used glue and a variety of small loose parts from our craft stash.

Coffee Filter Butterfly Decoration: We have a collection of these pinned to the wall going up our stairs and they are so beautiful! Use washable markers to color at least a few colors onto the white coffee filter. Next, use a spray bottle with water to wet your coffee filter. The colors will bleed and blend into very colorful butterfly wings. Once the paper filter is dry, you can wrap a pipe cleaner around the center to form antennae and you've got yourself a butterfly! Or two. Or two dozen...



Playdough Invitation to Create a Bug: Pipe cleaner legs and antennae, googly eyes, beads, rhinestones and other small loose parts are all part of the fun that goes into building your own bug. It can look like a real bug or be entirely your own creation. We used a large blob of [very colorful] store-bought playdough (I know so many of you are cringing at the sight of mixed colors right now!), but you can also make your own playdough if you prefer [or stick to only one color at a time!].


Want to do more?

• Check out our other play activities about bugs & insects, bees and butterflies..
• Ask the Experts! Many garden centers, farms, science museums or botanical garden centers have living bee hives, live butterfly gardens or exhibits or at least some knowledgeable folks to answer questions about creepy crawlers. Check out some of these places in your local community to learn more--and don't forget the library!
• Print and laminate your own Beautiful Bugs Playdough Mats from Picklebums to go along with your playdough invitation.
• We are loving this huge free printable pack, "I is for Insects" available from Scribd. We added several of the action rhymes and activities to our Ever-changing Book:

Here is the Beehive Action Rhyme and Felt-board Set (we use both with and without a felt board)

Bug & Insect Action Cards--such a fun way to get moving indoors or outside!

• Lazy Day Coloring Book Art is a great way to spice up a rainy afternoon and use some art materials you likely have on hand. I love using "adult coloring books" with young children (and adults). We found some really beautiful floral designs at Dollar Tree. Even though I'm sure many would balk at me using coloring books at all (what about PROCESS ART???), I think they have their place. Certainly the fine motor aspect of coloring within a designated space is useful as children develop, but I also love to include some materials besides the classic crayons or colored pencils. We got out our watercolor pencils and some bee and butterfly stickers to design some pollinator gardens to hang inside! Y liked to use a foam brush with water and go over his pencil marks (almost to their exclusion!) and S liked to dip the pencils right in the water and observe the vibrant color. The boys each stuck on some butterfly and bumblebee stickers (Y needed help) and we hung them to dry and look at instead of gazing longingly out the rain covered windows...

As I am finishing up this post, our seemingly sunny afternoon has given way to more rain and thunder! So happy for our garden, so sad for our plans to do fly swatter painting outside--but alas, the great indoors is full of other ways to have fun playing about creepy crawlers and we even have six very hungry caterpillars to watch as we wait out the weather. We'll be back soon! Until then...

Bug OFF! I mean, Happy Playing!

Rosh Hashanah Invitation Stations

Ah, Rosh Hashanah is so close I can almost taste the apples dipped in sweet, sticky honey! It's the perfect time to...play?! Yes, play! There's a lot to be done, and whether you're the cook ahead and freeze it till Wednesday night type or the start it all Wednesday morning type, you're going to need your kids to be busy. Really busy. This post has just about everything you'll need for that. Some of the activities and games are ones that your children can do independently. Some, they may want help from an older sibling with. Most can be adapted to a variety of age groups. And maybe, just maybe, you'll need a little break and get to play along. The added bonus is that while they are playing, the children will be developing fine motor skills, pre-writing/writing skills, using their imagination and creativity to make some great artwork, learning math concepts, engaging in sensory play, engineering and, of course, learning about the upcoming holiday.

You can choose one, a few, or all of the activities to try. Some will require an element of prep-work. Use what you have on hand and don't drive yourself crazy trying to set up games and activities while preparing for a three day yom tov. Feel free to adapt activities to work for you and your kids. And have fun!

To start, you'll want to visit A Jewish Homeschool Blog to gather your free Rosh Hashanah printables. I've adapted several of them as you will see below to use in our Rosh Hashanah Invitation Stations. You will see that I've laminated many of the items or used dry-erase sleeves for more-than-one-time use, but you do not need to do that. You can easily just print the activity packs or selections of materials you like and use them as is. You can also engage your children who are independent with scissors in preparing activities and games--that's an activity in and of itself! You may also want to print out this free Counting Apples Book from Fun a Day.

Some additional materials you may want to use if you have on hand include:

• markers, crayons, colored pencils, pencils
• glue, scissors
• apple stickers, bee stickers
• solid white gift bags or brown paper bags
• blank note cards & envelopes
• clip art or cut outs of apples (even made from recycled doodles and paintings)
• playdough (check out this recipe for cinnamon scented playdough!) or store bought
• artificial leaves, apples, stems, dried black beans (for parts of an apple)
• dried oats, shredded paper, scoops, tongs, recycled containers for sensory bins
• toy bees, toy apples
• wooden craft sticks, clothes pins

Invitation to Play with Playdough:

This is a favorite of ours, worth repeating! This invitation to create an apple with play dough is so much fun. Here I used cinnamon playdough, artificial leaves, dried beans, cinnamon sticks and some toy apples for reference (along with a library book that shows the life cycle of an apple tree). 

Invitation to Play: Sensory Bins

We've had two favorite sensory bins this season:

Parts of an Apple Sensory Bin: we used dried oats, cinnamon sticks, artificial leaves, toy apples, scoops and containers

Busy as a Bee Sensory Bin: we used shredded paper in yellow and black (from the party supply section of Dollar Tree), artificial flowers, a magnifying glass, tons and containers for filling, some toy bees (you might need that magnifying glass to actually spot them!) and I also set out some bee themed artwork/graphics and a set of bumble bee wings (also from Dollar Tree) to inspire play!

Invitation to Create: Rosh Hashanah Cards and Gift Bags

This is a great one if you have greetings to send out or packages to deliver to friends, family and teachers this time of year:

I set out a variety of art materials, stickers, some sentence strips to inspire even pre-writers (who still are gathering the concept that letters make words and words can make messages!)...this is an activity that is sure to keep little hands busy!

Invitation to Play Games:

Here are a variety of Rosh Hashanah games prepared from the free printables linked above. Younger ones may need an older child or adult play partner.

Rosh Hashanah Parts of a Whole

Rosh Hashanah Hebrew Word Match-it

Clothes Pin Counting Cards

They come in Hebrew Letter Cards, too! If you don't have clothes pins at home, you can use a paper clip, a penny, a mini eraser or small loose part or even use these un-laminated and have the children use bingo dabbers or circle the correct answer for one-time use.

Counting apples game: Little ones won't even notice they're doing math as they use tongs to pick the correct number of apples from the basket to correspond to the number on these apple cards (printable also from the link above)

Speaking of Counting...Invitation to Create a Counting Book:

This one is great to create a fun keepsake your early reader will love to read again and again after decorating!

We used red circle stickers for our "apples" but you can use red ink and fingerprints, stickers, bingo dabbers or even provide loose parts (like pom poms) to use with the book (printable linked above)

Invitation to Decorate a Tzedakah Box

Here's another printable from the activity pack linked above. I subbed in yellow circle stickers for the yellow circles that came with the coloring sheet. Your little artist can have fun decorating the tzedakah box and adding in the sticker "coins" as we recall that this is an auspicious time of year to be extra charitable.

 Invitation to Play: DIY Toy Tzedakah Box
This is one of the first toys I made when S was about Y's age! For smaller babies you can use baby food jar lids as your coins. I like using plastic coins from the Dollar Tree in ours. All you need to make it is a recycled plastic container with a lid (I like the ones from Hershey's brand cocoa powder) and an exacto knife to cut the slot at the top. With the Hershey's container, the "Hershey's" insignia is just the right size for your opening! Very little ones will love putting the coins inside, shaking it and as they get older, emptying it out and doing it again! S actually still loves to play with this.

Do keep an eye on little ones with small pieces that could present a choking hazard and make sure your "tzedakah" is not too small for tiny mouths!

To add an element of challenge for older toddlers, use two different colored containers and corresponding colors of bottle caps or poker chips for a tzedakah sorting game. (For example, cut a slot in the top of a couple of those take and toss plastic storage containers in red and blue and save your milk caps or applesauce pouch caps for the coins!)

And for more baby/young toddler friendly Rosh Hashanah play activities, check out this post!

For more fine motor fun, here's a lovely holiday themed lacing activity also available from the link above:

Alternatively, you can cut individual Rosh Hashanah themed shapes from cardboard or cardstock and hole punch the perimeter for a set of holiday lacing shapes.

 Music and Movement:
I love using props with songs and action rhymes. With this playful counting rhyme, your little one will also be learning mathematical concepts like counting, division, and, with the addition of props, one-to-one correspondence!

Ten Red Apples

Ten red apples grew up in a tree
Five for you and five for me!
Let us shake the tree just so
And then red apples will fall below!
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!

This was another creation from S's baby days. We upcycled (and laminated) some of his paintings into apples for counting along with this playful rhyme. It's also a great activity to go along with the book Ten Apples Up on Top by Dr. Seuss.

Invitation to Build: Rosh Hashanah Themed STEM activities

Invite your little engineer to build apple trees using recycled cardboard tubes, green craft sticks (you can paint/color plain ones green or purchase colored craft sticks) and apple colored pom poms. How many craft sticks and pom poms can you balance on top before it topples? Add an element of sorting by designating one tree for each apple color if you wish!

Help this busy bee build his hive using craft sticks to trace the hexagon.

I hope this inspires some fun and play in your household as holiday preparations take off. May we all be blessed with a sweet, healthy, happy and playful new year!

From our family to you and yours, shanah tova u'mesukah!

Rosh Hashanah: The Buzz on Bees

Apples and honey seem to get all the attention this time of year, but where would we be without the help and hard work of bees? This is a great season to teach about the life-cycle of bees and how they are helpful to us in our environment. At home, my very favorite way to do that is through play and hands-on exploration. Here's a peek at what we're doing this week in between errands and cooking to prepare for the holiday that's less than a week away!

Our local library is always a great resource for books and materials about a particular learning topic. To supplement that, I often search the internet for free printable cards and activities I can use at home. I found some beautiful honey bee life cycle cards here and printed/laminated a set for my son to be able to see individual steps of the life cycle as well as to teach some of the vocabulary around it.

I use a metal ring for easy storage and transport

Just as easily, we can slip them off the ring and work on sequencing

He liked this activity so much he wanted to do it again and again!

My busy little bee has officially picked up on our homeschool morning routine. After breakfast he goes right over to the hook where his school bag is hanging asks to "go school!" That means he wants me to sing our little school song, help him unzip the bag and let him see what I slipped inside the night before! On Monday morning he was very excited to find a book about bees and this bumblebee finger puppet. I don't tend to read all of our non-fiction books word for word with him, but I do show photos and highlight certain words and ideas. Using markers, crayons, do-a-dots and colored pencils in black and yellow, he decorated a piece of poster board that I then cut/stapled into a hat and attached some pipecleaner antennae. It was time for him to become a bee! For some music and movement fun, I put on Rimsky-Korsokov's "Flight of the Bumblebee" in the background, handed him a large pair of tons (found at the Dollar Tree) and let him take off to capture and collect pieces of pollen (large pom poms). The tongs, although still somewhat challenging for my toddler, add an element of fine motor practice to the activity. He equally enjoyed just dancing around like a bee!

I have had quite a few conversations with other teachers lately about how we teach children about shapes. There are many great ways to give over formal lessons about structure, number of sides and corners, etc., and one of my very favorite ways is simply through exposure as related to other themes we are exploring. Here's how we are learning about hexagons with a hands-on activity related to bee hives!

I love using these dry erase folders I found at Target this summer for worksheets and other printed activities I wish to use more than once. I use them along with dry erase markers sometimes, but also with playdough and here, with popsicle sticks. It cuts down a lot on "waste" and allows us to revisit an activity multiple times and in multiple ways.

This website had some cute bee crafts. I have some old bubble-wrap lying around that we will be painting and making prints with for a variation on this one.

We are fortunate to be members at our local science museum that has an amazing exhibit on bees including an active hive and some great kid-friendly hands on materials. This provided a great field trip for us and a fabulous way to extend the theme. Even if we didn't have such a perfect opportunity nearby, I've been amazed this late in the season to still see bees busy at work when we're at the park or botanical gardens. This is a great time of year to spark a conversation when you're out and about. My son is really into discussing his fears lately and has frequently said "bees scary" when we are learning or when we see them in nature. I think it is so important to validate those feelings (rather than saying "no they're not!") and to share the ways in which they also can help us and how we can do our best to stay safe and help them, too. For that reason, when we are singing the ever popular song "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee," I alter the words a bit to eliminate parts that are scary to humans or bees for that matter. 

Here are a couple of other songs and finger-plays we like about bees:

You can add to the fun of these by making your own (or printing out) bumblebee finger-puppets, stick puppets or props to use or even recycling a winter glove and attaching a picture of a bee to each finger with glue or velcro. Hope you all keep busy as bees as you play, learn and prepare for Rosh Hashanah!