Snowman Thermometer

                         

When the weather is chilly outside, this snowman thermometer is the perfect project for kids stuck indoors.

What you'll need

• 1 jumbo craft stick
• White acrylic paint
• White and red glitter glue
• 2" piece of white chenille stem
• 2 medium blue pom-poms
• Wax paper
• ½ orange toothpick
• 1 blue toothpick (colored toothpicks are not required, plain will work)
• Scrap of material for scarf
• Scrap of white paper for sign
• Black marker
• White craft glue
• Glue stick
• Scissors

Jumbo craft sticks are available at discount department stores and craft supply stores.

Hint: Start your number 0 where the red and white meet, then fill in remaining numbers from there.

Glitter glue takes several hours to dry, so be sure and plan accordingly.

How to make it

1. Paint craft stick white and let dry. Repeat if needed.
2. Make the snowman face by using a black marker to draw on eyes, eyebrows, and a mouth. Glue the orange toothpick piece between the eyes and the mouth.
3. Place a piece of wax paper on the work surface. Glue the blue toothpick to the back of the craft stick, about 2.5" down from the top. Leave about 2/3 of the toothpick visible. Cut a piece of white paper, about 2"x3" (approximately) and fold in half. On one half, use a black marker to write "BRRR!" Line the inside with a glue stick and fold it around the blue toothpick to create the sign.
4. Glue a piece of scrap material around the neck area to create a scarf.
5. Bend the chenille so that it is rounded and fits around the top of the craft stick. This is the band for your ear muffs. Glue in place. Trim a little off the side of a pom-pom (to make one side flatter) and glue to the side of the craft stick where the chenille ends. Repeat on the other side.
6. Starting at the bottom of the craft stick, use the red glitter glue to create a "ball" of mercury, then draw a line halfway up the stick.
7. Switch to the white glitter glue and continue up the craft stick until you reach the scarf. Let glitter glue dry, this will take several hours.
8. Use a fine tip black marker to add dashes and numbers to your thermometer, including the Fahrenheit and Celcius symbols (F and C).

Looking for something fun to do with the kids over the winter break?

Check out:

Over 1000 local Gainesville listings for kids activities!  Listings include kids events, children's programs and classes, summer camps, youth sports, kids eat free directory, school listings, day trips for kids, birthday party directory, rainy day activities, free fun for kids, and MORE fun things for kids to do in and around Gainesville.

               Young Families

   Dinner and Hannukah Party

Hosted by B'nai Israel Community Day School and the PJ Library

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

6pm-7:30pm

B'nai Israel Social Hall

$20 per family

plus a small wrapped gender-neutral gift for the children to exchange

Come celebrate with us

Play Dreidel

Enjoy a dinner of latkes and jelly-filled doughnut holes (and more ) 

Light the menorah and take home a goodie bag

Hear a story about Hannukah

And more...

RSVP to the front office by Dec. 10

 

Check out this really cool idea...

 

DIY Hanukkah Party Photo Booth

By Stacey Ilyse

 

http://www.kveller.com/blog/parenting/diy-hanukkah-party-photo-booth/

 

It is almost that time of year… Hanukkah! At my house we are hosting our annual Latke Party. Everyone is required to contribute to the party and we all sit together prepping and mixing the ingredients that make up my delicious latkes. I then spend 90% of the rest of the party acting as fry-master, missing out on a lot of the party itself (but I guess that’s how it goes).

This year, I thought it might be fun to incorporate some different photo options that family and friends might be able to do for themselves to help capture the evening, so that both myself and my daughter can look back in the years to come and remember her first official Latke Party!

Here are 2 different options I am considering for my own gathering that you can incorporate into yours to make it a Hanukkah celebration photo-extravaganza.

1. A DIY photobooth

I know, I know–you are thinking this is much more complicated and you could NEVER do this. But really, it is not THAT hard. You just need a backdrop of some sort. It can be a funky sheet, or a cool paper backdrop, or anything! I like this one off of Chickabug.com.

You can then get some props (if you like). Here are some I found off of etsy.

Then, you just need to set up your camera on a tripod. It can even be a small point and shoot! Just put it on the self timer option (which actually is possibly the easiest option) and TA-DA! DIY photobooth!

2. Polaroid

I LOVE Polaroids! Yes, it’s the style that make Polaroid cameras. I was just looking on Amazon and it is kind of crazy how the “classic” Polaroids have become so expensive. But, they do have the new style, which I also have, and while the photos are a tad smaller, it still has the same Polaroid effect. Make sure to ask your guests to leave you a little message with their name/date or whatever you like so that you don’t forget years later!

You then should get this AMAZINGLY adorable album that I found via Amazon to store all your new fabulous party photos in. It is specifically made for this type of Polaroid film.

I hope you are inspired to try out one of these ideas. If you have any others I haven’t mentioned please let me know. I’m always looking for fun things to do and ways to incorporate photos into my own personal events.

Happy Hanukkah!

If you’ll be shopping for cameras or photo supplies like Stacey suggests and would also like to support Kveller, consider shopping on Amazon, where Kveller receives a portion of the profits.

Hanukkah

 

Check out this creative article on decorating for Hanukkah:

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/5176759/list/8-New-Spins-on-Hanukkah-Style-With-Dreidels-and-Gelt 

  Staying Healthy In The Winter

The long days of winter often keep children indoors, which can lead to hours of inactivity. Furthermore, children are more likely to contract illnesses during the winter months because they are in more confined spaces. To stay healthy during the winter, consider these safety tips:

• Eat a healthy, balanced diet that includes fruits and vegetables.
• Teach children proper hand-washing techniques to kill germs and bacteria or use hand sanitizer if necessary.
• Ask a pediatrician about the necessity for flu vaccines for young children.

Framed Handprint Turkey Craft

This is a great craft to celebrate Fall!

What you'll need:

• 9" paper plate
• Acrylic paint: gold, brown, yellow, orange, green, red, white and black
• Black marker
• Paintbrush
• Felt in fall colors, cut into 1" squares

How to make it:

1. Place paper plate on work surface upside down and write the child's name and the date. Turn the plate right side up. Paint entire plate with gold color and set aside to dry.                                                                                                                                     
2. Meanwhile, cut felt into 1" pieces. Use several fall colors, such as red, brown, orange, tan, gold and cream. 
3. Have all of your paint colors handy and a separate paintbrush for each color. Paint the child's palm and thumb with a generous amount of brown paint. Working quickly so that the paint doesn't have time to dry, paint each of the child's four fingers with red, green, orange and yellow. 
4. Have child gently place their handprint in the center of the paper plate. Gently press down on the child's hand and each individual finger to ensure a good distribution of paint.
5. Have child lift hand directly up into the air so as not to smear any of the colors.
6. Use a paintbrush to add a red gobbler and an orange beak. Let dry. 
7. While the paint is drying you can glue on the pieces for the frame. Pipe glue around the outside edge of the plate and press the felt squares onto the glue, overlapping the outside of the plate. Alternate the colors to create a pattern.
8. Use black marker to draw legs and feet.
9. Use the handle end of a small paintbrush to add a dot for the eye, let dry. Once dry, use a toothpick to dot on the black. 

Tips:

1. You can add a magnet to the back of the plate or use tape and a piece of yarn to create a hanger.
2. Always save scraps of felt and construction paper for projects such as these.
3. Instead of painting on the eye, you can glue on one wiggle eye.

Announcement:

Our Fiddlers Fall Festival was a great success, thanks to everyone that joined us! A special thanks to our sponsors: Gary & Anita Altschuler, Sharon Abramowitz & Greig Arendt, Mike & Jessica Gutter, and Jennifer Sager & Chris Brown! Thanks to Robb Eggelston of Egghead DJ Services, Stacey Steinberg of Photography by Stacey, and the Klezmer Katz Band for volunteering their services and making our event so successful!

Sheldon Low

 

Save the Date...Sheldon Low will be joining us for a Shir Fun Shabbaton Nov. 16-18, 2012! This will be a fun, FREE weekend celebrating Shabbat!

The event kicks off on Nov. 16 - 4:30pm @ Congregation B'nai Israel. Please bring your kids and join us for this exciting event!

Judaics

This week we focused on Noah's Ark; how the animals went into the ark two-by-two, how Noah cared for them during the flood, and how God used a rainbow as a symbol that he would always take care of us. We discussed that we have to take care of one another, as well as, the animals. The children were very excited to share stories about the mitzvot that they love to do at home! We had a great couple of weeks in Judaics!

Yarok Class

The Yarok class has been very busy doing projects and experiments...

1. Celery soaked in food colored water:

  Gives an example as to how blood flows through      our veins!

2. First aid kits were made in plastic bags; the children placed a band aid, cotton balls, and gloves inside. Miss Shari explained how to care for a wound and let the children take home their first aid kits to share with their parents.

3. Miss Shari's class also has a new classroom pet, a caterpillar named Elizabeth. Several names were chosen by the children then randomly drawn to make a final decision. Miss Shari has a butterfly life cycle chart right by Elizabeth, explaining the various stages of life. Elizabeth has already spun her cocoon and will eventually be released into the outdoor environmental classroom.

 

Sheldon Low

Save the Date...Sheldon Low will be joining us for a Shir Fun Shabbaton Nov. 16-18, 2012! This will be a fun, FREE weekend celebrating Shabbat!

The event kicks off on Nov. 16 - 4:30pm @ Congregation B'nai Israel. Please bring your kids and join us for this exciting event!

Mom's Night Out!

 

Remember ladies PTP will be hosting Mom's Night Out on Thursday, October 18 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm. This event will take place at the home of Stacey Steinberg, please RSVP to your evite for directions.

It's International Babywearing Week!

Are you a babywearing momma?

 

Our Beautiful Babies

What is Simchat Torah?

Check out this article on the Jewish Holiday of Simchat Torah...

http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/whatissimchattorah.htm

Torah Cookies for Simchat Torah

Ingredients:

• DOUGH:
• 3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 2 sticks butter or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• ICING:
• 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp. water

Preparation:

1. Sift together flour, baking soda and cream of tartar into bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly using pastry blender.

2. Beat eggs, 1 cup sugar and vanilla in another bowl until well blended. Stir egg mixture into crumb mixture and mix until blended. Cover and chill in refrigerator 15 minutes.

3. Divide dough into fourths. Roll out each fourth of dough on floured surface to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut with Torah-shaped cookie cutters or other cookie cutters of your choice. Place cookies about 2 inches apart on greased or parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle each with sugar. (or, if you plan to ice the cookies, do not sprinkle with sugar.) Bake in 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from baking sheets; cool on racks.

4. For icing, combine all icing ingredients in a bowl and stir using a fork or a whisk until smooth and of good spreading consistency. Add more water a drop at a time if needed.

For colored icing, spoon portions of icing into small bowls and stir drops of food coloring in until desired colors are achieved.

Carefully ice cookies. Allow iced cookies to sit at room temperature until icing sets up enough to handle. Store iced cookies in an airtight container.

Cookie Sukkah

Items Needed:

• 2 whole graham crackers
• 1 container ready-made frosting (your favorite flavor)
• An assortment of fruit candy (Runts, gummy cherries, skittles, etc.)
• Sprigs of mint for decoration

Cooking Directions:

1. Carefully break each graham cracker in half so that you have four graham cracker squares. Spread a circle of frosting on a plate.

2. Assembling the Sukkah:

• Your Sukkah won’t hold together unless you “glue” the sides with frosting. To do this, dip the edges of three graham cracker squares into frosting so that each edge of each graham cracker is frosted.
• Stand the graham cracker squares up in the circle of frosting so that they form three walls of a box. The walls should touch and "glue" together. These are the walls of your Sukkah.
• Now cover the 4th graham cracker with frosting. This will be the roof of your Sukkah.

3. Put the roof, frosting side up, carefully onto the walls of the sukkah. Decorate the Sukkah roof with fruit candy.

4. Use the mint for palm fronds. Now you have an edible Sukkah

Enjoy!

What is Yom Kippur?

Check out this article...The Jewish High Holiday of Yom Kippur

http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/yomkippur.htm

 

 

Rosh Hashanah Activity

 This is a really cute and easy activity to do with the kids in honor of Rosh Hashanah.

 

What You Need:

• Paper plate
•  Honey
• Grapes
• Raisins
• Apples 

Instructions:

 

Slice one apple into wedged pieces. Lay down one paper plate and decorate a face: using raisins for the eyes, a grape for the nose, an apple slice for the mouth, and honey for the hair. Lastly, enjoy your tasty creation!

 

Helpful tip: If you put a little bit of lemon juice on the apple wedge, it will keep it from turning brown.

 

Shofar Craft

Supplies:

New Year's Party Horn
Aluminum Foil

Toilet Paper Roll
White Glue
Craft Tissue Paper and Star of David shapes
Glitter
Scissors

Instructions:

Using glue, decorate a large piece of aluminum foil with craft tissue paper and Star of David shapes. Let dry. Attach a toilet paper roll to the end of the party horn. Apply glue to the back of the aluminum foil after decorating, and then wrap it while still wet around the party horn.  Trim excess, bend the open end up a little as shown in photo above. Let dry.

Check out this great website for Rosh Hashanah ideas and more!

www.creativejewishmom.com

Judaics

Our second week of school flew by in Judaics! We talked about blessings and what we have in our lives that we are grateful for. We also made a Blessing for the Home Hamsa craft so that our homes will be filled peace, love and happiness! We had a great time painting our Challah Covers and singing Shabbat songs! 

For the Challah Cover:

This is a Challah Cover that your children had a great time decorating this week as we continued our learning about Shabbat. The reason that we cover the challah is that it is the last object to receive a blessing on Shabbat (first we bless the candles and then the wine) and we don't want the challah to feel bad that it receives the last blessing. Rabbi Jacob ben Asher from the 13th century elucidates that since we are sensitive to the "feelings" of the challah we learn that we should be extremely sensitive in the way that we deal with those around us. In Judaics this week we have been discussing that it never feels good to be picked last and that we should always try to include our friends in any activities we are doing. The Hebrew words say "Shabbat Shalom" which is the greeting that we say to one another on Shabbat, wishing each other a good and restful day. I hope that you enjoy using these Challah Covers as much as your children enjoyed making them! 

For the Hamsa:

This is a Blessing for the Home Hamsa that your children enjoyed decorating this week. A Hamsa is a traditional Jewish symbol that is often hung in the home as artwork or worn as jewelry that serves to protect. The shape of the hand is reminiscent of the priestly blessing which is given with the hands raised above the head. I hope that enjoy the Blessing for the Home Hamsa!

Curly Birds

 Use your old paper scraps...

(Great Rainy Day Craft!)

 

Materials

• Card stock
• Scissors
• Tacky glue

• Clothespin
• Toothpick

Instructions

1. First, use this guide to measure and cut the card stock strips you'll need for each bird:
   
   Body: 5 (1-inch-wide) strips, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 inches long
   Head: 2 (1-inch-wide) strips, 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 inches long
   Tail: 5 (1 1/2-inch-wide) strips, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 inches long
   Beak: 1 (1- by 2-inch) strip
   Eyes: 1 (1- by 1 1/2-inch) strip
   
   
2. Roll the body strips into circles, overlap their ends about 1/4 inch, and secure with tacky glue. 
   
   
3. Nest the circles and glue them together. Tip: Use a clothespin to hold the pieces until the glue dries. Do the same with the head strips, then glue the head to the body.
   
   
4. Trim the tail strips into long triangles, then curl them a bit before gluing them together. Glue the tail to the body.
   
   
5. Fold the beak rectangle in half, then cut off the two folded corners at an angle, as shown. Fold in the tabs and glue them to the bird's head. 
   
   
6. Roll the eye piece around a toothpick to form a small tube. Secure the tube with a thin line of glue, then glue it in place.
   

Judaics Class

This week we had a great week in Judaics. We learned about how each of us and how everything around us has a name, and how this is a great gift from God because we can identify all of the things and people around us. We learned the Yiddush and Hebrew names for Grandma and Grandpa (Bubby and Zaidy, Savta and Saba), as well as the Hebrew words for Mommy and Daddy (Ima and Abba). We reviewed the symbols of Shabbat – Candles (Nerot), Challah and Kiddush, and also learned about a very important Jewish symbol – the Mezuzah. I hope you enjoy the Mezuzah craft that the children made! I am looking forward to next week when we learn about another Jewish symbol – The Hamsa and we discuss blessings!

-Mora Brenda

"First Day/Week" Photo Book

What You Need:

• Camera (digital is especially handy)
• Card stock paper
• Glue Stick
• Tape
• Markers

 What You Do:

1. Schedule some "run-through” time to practice the first day of school routine, and get your camera
ready. If you’re talking about a “new” school, your child may not realize that there will be many
aspects of her day that will actually be familiar!

2. For your first run-through, start with getting up in the morning. Invite your child to “act out” waking
up and take a picture. Have her put on a nice outfit, the kind she’d wear to school, and once she's
dressed to impress, take a picture again. Do the same for eating breakfast and then for putting on
a backpack or grabbing a book bag etc.

3. The next step, going to school, can be frightening. Have your child practice and “act it out,” whether
that means walking to, or hopping in your car. Photograph that, as well.

4. Finally, take some pictures of the afternoon transition. Your own family’s rituals probably vary, but
in general, try for 1-3 photographs that help your child know just what to expect and be reassured
that again, it’s all really very familiar. You can take a picture of her coming home, or eating her
after school snack or simply playing outside.

5. To assemble the book, print your pictures and invite your child to help you lay them out in order on
a table.
 
6. Now cut your card stock paper in half, to make a stack of pages 5-1/2”x8-1/2”. On the first one,
place a picture of your child, and write a title. On each succeeding page, place a photograph and one or two words, such as
“waking up,” or “my school” (you can have your child write the word). Use a
glue stick to attach all of the pictures.
 
7. You can make a traditional book by stacking the pages or you can even make an accordion style book.