Tu B'Shevat Tissue Paper Tree Art

If you think that you shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree, you should see the beautiful results of this surprisingly simple Tu b'Shevat art activity! I saw the idea first on the Pinterested Parent. I tried it out myself before introducing it to the boys and decided it would make a perfect project for Rosh Chodesh Shevat, welcoming the new Jewish month of Shevat. The finished work truly looks like it took hours of labor and love, but really this project is easy to prepare and complete in just minutes--a huge plus if your artists (young or old) have a shorter attention span.

You will need:

• thick white paper-I used watercolor paper as it is more conducive to soaking up both water and the color, but card stock worked well, too
• color bleed tissue paper -- regular tissue paper will not necessarily work here, so you do need to get specifically the type that is labeled as color bleeding tissue. It is available in most craft supply stores and, of course, on Amazon. 
• black permanent marker
• spray bottle with water

Before you begin you (or your artists) will want to draw a black tree trunk with branches in the center of your page (or wherever you wish to place it--you could even draw multiple trees). I cut a few strips of tissue paper down to small rectangles. Little artists can help with this as well. You'll want to make sure everyone's hands are dry because any amount of moisture will cause the colors to bleed! 

I like to wet the paper beforehand and had the boys do the same. Y was especially excited to discover he can work a spray bottle now and wash his own glasses. This should come in handy...

Next, lay your tissue paper squares down as you like them. They can be scrunched, flat, layered... When everyone felt they had their tissue paper squares in the position they wanted, we sprayed more water over top. S is rather an overzealous sprayer with a spray bottle--a quality that often washes his project colors away, but comes in rather handy with this one. The more water, the more the colors will spread and mix. It's pretty impossible to go wrong here, and I like that in an art project!

Next, it's time to get everyone away from the wet and colorful artwork and let the situation dry for a bit. Once everything is dry, you can easily remove the tissue paper squares and dispose of them (although they are still so pretty, even with the colors mixed now that I kind of wanted to save them and use it for collage...)

Your artwork will be revealed on the paper and is ready to send on display or as a greeting in the mail or to gift to a friend or family member. 

I think they all came out so great, don't you? Color bleed tissue paper art is a great medium for working with artists of all ages. One friend of mine contacted me for directions to do this with a group of children and senior citizens she runs--what a great idea! You could tailor the colors of your trees to be seasonally specific or use the same concept to draw and add color to another subject of art. We will be back with a really fun collaborative process art project for Tu b'Shevat in the days to come. Until then...

Happy Playing!

A Peek Inside Our Playroom: Getting Ready for PURIM

The Jewish month of Adar is welcomed with two days of Rosh Chodesh, beginning at sundown this Saturday night and continuing through Monday evening. This is a month in which we are commanded to increase our joy and happiness as we get ready to celebrate the holiday of Purim! Purim is one of the most joyful and fun holidays for children and adults alike. We wear costumes and enjoy a festive meal. We eat special treats like hamentaschen and give gifts of food (shalach manot) as well as extra tzedakah (charity) to those in need. One of the most important parts of Purim is hearing the Megillah, a story that recounts the Jews' miraculous deliverance from the wicked rule of Haman in the days of Queen Esther of Persia. While the story is quite graphic and can even be frightening (particularly for young children), we value the importance of teaching it in an age appropriate manner to our children and my very favorite way to teach is through play and hands-on experiences. The day of Purim is one we spend as a family giving out shalach manot to friends and neighbors, attending Megillah readings, parties and festive meals at our local shuls and celebrating with delicious treats and fun costumes. At home, we are already getting into the Purim spirit with some themed playroom set-up.

Purim is holiday that is fun for all ages! Even as a baby, my son loved making noise with graggers...

...and dressing up in costume!

Some of our highlighted activities will include:

delivering shalach manot to neighborhood friends last year

• a dramatic play shalach manot sweets & treats shop
• a field-trip to our post office to send out shalach manot to family members who are not nearby
• learning activities to explore the shape of a triangle--a common theme in Purim related to the shape of Haman's hat and our favorite Purim cookie, hamentaschen!
• invitations to build castles using a variety of mediums and building materials 
• story telling and sequencing using costumes, sensory bins, felt boards, books, puppets and props as well as songs, music and movement
• a science exploration of different sounds and instruments related to the use of graggers (noisemakers) to blot out the wicked Haman's name during the reading of the Megillah
• a cool hands-on science exploration to excavate "treasures" from an ice castle
• some Purim themed gross motor games to get us moving indoors and out
• games and learning activities to build descriptive language for different emotions and recognition of facial expressions
• cooking and baking activities to prepare holiday treats
• plenty of dramatic play and opportunities to wear and create costumes
• process art and project opportunities to make festive decorations and holiday props

 Here's a peek at some of our favorite activities and materials from Purims past! I hope you'll join us over the days to come as we explore some great learning and play activities in our home preschool.

Counting Crowns combines foam crown shapes (Dollar Tree) with numerals and corresponding dots for visual representation along with glass gems (you can use plastic jewels, buttons, sequins or beads) to help teach one-to-one correspondence for younger mathematicians

More advanced mathematicians can begin simple adding activities with the same materials

We love using a variety of props to retell the Purim story. Puppets, costumes, pictures and flannel board sets make story telling and sequencing activities a fun, hands-on experience.

Last year, each of my students (ages 4-5) helped to make their own version of this felt story Megillah using a large rectangle of felt and two Velcro dots for secure closure. We included laminated castles and story characters with Velcro dots as well so that they could enjoy some quiet story telling while the Megillah was read in shul, a time when we are commanded to hear each and every word. As it is so important for children and adults alike to hear the Megillah, we must get creative with ways to include and engage our children while limiting any extraneous noise (other than the important use of graggers and noisemakers to blot out Haman's name!) so that everyone can fulfill this special mitzvah together!

We had a lot of fun dying our own rainbow rice last year for a Purim themed sensory bin!

Small costume props and jewelry, toys and castle shaped buckets made for some great small world play to retell the story of Purim in our sensory bin. This year we are looking forward to adding one more theme-related element to a fresh batch of play rice: a sweet orange scent to remind us of Persia, where the story of Purim took place!

For some additional great ideas and materials, check out this free, printable Purim Activity Pack and 25 Fun Activities for Purim, both provided by the wonderfully talented blogger of A Jewish Homeschool Blog.

If you're looking for a simple, free printable castle coloring page for some Purim story themed artwork, check out this one!

Here are some great free printable photographs of actual castles to inspire your little architect courtesy of the blog "Fun-A-Day."

We bake hamentaschen every year using our favorite family recipe. We also had a lot of fun using this peanut butter playdough recipe to practice shaping (and eating) hamentaschen last year! It's a great one for kids--WARNING: adults may like it, too!

Hope you're feeling as excited for Purim as I am, now and that this will tide you over until my next Purim-themed post. Until then...

 Happy Playing and may we all experience an increase in joy this month!

Rosh Chodesh Kislev: Welcoming the New Month and Chanukah!

We've always loved our "moon rocks" here!
They're really made from crumpled up tinfoil (shh)
but he still loves a good game of Rosh Chodesh
Moon Rock Toss, and now that he's older
he sometimes even makes it in the basket!

Chodesh Tov! Yesterday, in addition to marking the first day of December, also marked the beginning of the new Jewish month of Kislev. As I've written about before, we try to make the beginning of a new Jewish month a little extra special here. We might have a celebratory playdate or a special snack. Sometimes we dress in nicer clothing, sometimes we take a special family field trip and we also take some time to introduce anything exciting that may be coming up in the month ahead. This month we will celebrate Chanukah. Last night seemed like the perfect time to rotate in some of our favorite Chanukah materials and books.










My little guy woke up this morning with all his usual enthusiasm for a brand new day and a little extra excitement for the new month. I'd already set out this white coffee filter "Blue Moon" project as his work table. All you need is a black washable marker, a white coffee filter and either a spray bottle of water or a small dish of water to dip the coffee filter in after your little doodler is done having at it with the marker. You may want to forewarn sensitive artists that their artwork will be drenched in water and change so that they are not surprised to see an intricate picture disappear! When they are done, spray with or dip the coffee filter in water and watch the color run. I usually fold it in half a few times and then lay out on a couple of paper towels to dry. When dry, it somewhat resembles a blue moon--and Rosh Chodesh comes only once in a New Moon!

finished sample

Our Chanukah Observation Station has also received a lot of play and attention today. He is especially enjoying practicing with dreidels and using real candles to work the fine motor skill of putting candles in a menorah (and taking them out). Now we just have to work on him not blowing out the Chanukah candles! (That's likely the result of my husband recently having a birthday here and likely the inspiration for a future candle sorting activity--which candles do we blow out and which do we let burn to the bottom?)

Chanukah Observation Station

Digging In to Chanukah themed fun!

Chodesh Tov & Happy Playing!

Rosh Chodesh: Welcoming the New Jewish Month

The Jewish month of Cheshvan is known for rain!
This umbrella project seemed to also fit in with our Noach theme this week.

We are big on creating meaningful family traditions and celebrations here--even (and especially) over the little things! The Jewish calendar runs on a lunar cycle, and Rosh Chodesh (literally the head of the month) is welcomed with the new moon and holiday status. It is a special day (sometimes two days)--particularly for women--to celebrate the blessings that will, G-d willing, be bestowed upon the month ahead. Additional prayers are said and many have the custom to eat a nice meal, dress in nicer clothing, or otherwise give the day(s) a bit of a celebratory feeling.
Tuesday and Wednesday of this week marked Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan. With the month of Tishrei and all of its many holidays now behind us, I wanted to give Rosh Chodesh an extra feeling of joy--particularly since the month of Cheshvan has no holidays at all! Here's a peek at how we honored the occasion this month and some of the things we have done to celebrate on Rosh Chodesh in the past.

I set out a festive Table Time activity this morning, lit a scented candle and popped on some of our favorite Jewish music to set the tone for our day ahead. We had some challah dough we brought home from a wonderful playgroup we attended at our synagogue yesterday. Today in honor of Rosh Chodesh and Parshas Noach, we decorated it with some rainbow sprinkles!

He wanted it to be shaped like a braid! We worked together on rolling three little balls of dough into "snakes" and shaping a braid. He may or may not have consumed several handfuls of sprinkles instead of his toast this morning.

We begin our morning homeschool routine each day by giving tzedakah (charity) and singing our morning prayers and songs. On Rosh Chodesh, I add a special song about the new month:

The time moves on so quickly

See how the days fly

________ [previous month] is now over

It's time to say goodbye

Goodbye, goodbye to _________ [previous month] (repeat 3x)

And welcome _______! [new month]

A basket of instruments added some extra fun and excitement to our usual morning daavening (prayers).

Watercolor painting a paper plate umbrella for the rainy month of Cheshvan!

On some months we've invited over a friend for a special Rosh Chodesh themed play party. We pick out special paper plates, blow up balloons, make a special snack and pull out some favorite themed activities and crafts. Here's a blast from Rosh Chodesh past...

Snack time!

Even new month celebrations deserve party hats & balloons!

"moon dough" playdough to honor the new moon

"moon rocks" made from crumpled tinfoil--really great for a game of Moon Rock Basketball

Chodesh Tov & Happy Celebrating!