This will be my final healthy eating post, and tomorrow I will begin Purim!

What you'll need:

Fruit halves or plastic fruit halves if you don't want to waste
Tempera Paint
Paper for the stamping

Simply use the fruit as a stamp to dip into the paint and then press on the paper.

Enjoy!

I love finding new uses for the myriad paper towel/toilet paper rolls that I collect. This craft is perfect for the foil rolls that are too thick to cut as well. 

You will need:

An empty cardboard roll
Purple/Green paint
Paper
Green/Brown marker

Dip one open end of the tube into the paint and then print onto the paper. you should be able to make 2-3 prints before needing to redid your tube. Make concentric circles so that they resemble a bunch of grapes. When you're done, use the marker to draw a vine/branch holding the grapes together.

Ta-da!

Seeing a dyed celery photo on Pinterest reminded me of these fun celery painting techniques!

You will need:

Celery head with 2-3 inches of the stalks attached
Individual celery stalk with leaves attached
Desired paint colors
Cardstock, easel paper, whatever you prefer
Plate for paint

Start with the celery head, and dip it stalk side down into the paint. Press onto your paper to create a beautiful flower print, reminiscent of a rose. You may want to do multiple prints, or you may want to stop at one. Next, use the individual stalk as your paintbrush and dip the leaves into a different color paint. Paint leaves, vines, or just have fun and enjoy the process of painting with something different.

What I love about this is that there is very little actual waste because you don't use the celery head anyways, and preschoolers are small enough that they don't need an entire stalk to paint with, just a  couple inches.

Here's a final craft pertaining to the sense of hearing for now.

Supplies:

Paper Towel roll
Paint
Duck Tape
glitter
winter stickers (optional)
Beans or rice
Plastic spoon

First paint the paper towel roll, and sprinkle on some glitter to make it shine. if you're planning to include stickers, I find that they stick better  when placed on the wet paint. 

Once dry, cover one side of the paper towel roll's opening with duck tape. Ensure that it's very secure. SEt the beans or rice on the table and have the kids carefully spoon about 1/2 cup into their paper towel roll. Seal it closed with the duck tape on the other side. 

Show the kids how to rock it back and forth slowly to resemble a steady rainfall, or fast to sound like a storm!

I've been promising you some crafts that apply to the 5 Senses. The next few posts will be dedicated to them!

Here's some bubble wrap fun!

Bubble Wrap Prints:
choose one or two colors of paint, and paint the bumpy side of a sheet of bubble wrap. Then gently press a piece of construction paper down onto the paint, and slowly peel it off! When the bubble wrap dries, cut off a piece to staple to the paper when sending home, and give the rest to the kids to pop the bubbles.

Play "We are the Dinosaurs" by Laurie Berkner, or other marching songs, and have the kids march on bubble wrap popping the bubbles.

Chanukah is coming much faster than we think, so I'm going to post a few Menorah options today.

The basic supplies that you'll need for all of the Menorahs is:

3x12 plank of wood that is apps. an inch high
9-10 3/8" Hex Nuts
9 Pennies
1 Beer bottle Cap- optional, can be switched for the 10th hex-nut
Wood Glue
Sandpaper

Most supplies for Menorahs can be found here.

Prep the wood by sanding down the edges. For older kids, you can sand it most of the way, and then provide the kids with the sandpaper to complete the task.

Next, place a small amount of wood glue onto each penny, and immediately stick a hex-nut on top. These are your candle holders. For the shamash, glue the penny onto a beer bottle cap (see photo) or simply glue a second hex nut under the penny for the added height.

Paint your wood a base color. You can choose a metallic paint, or just the regular crayola washable variety. 

Now, depending on the Menorah, you will need to follow different instructions.

For the striped Menorah pictured below, you'll need painter's tape, and an additional color of paint. First, cut 4-6 inch strips of tape and have the kids tear the strips so that the lines are jagged and narrower. Stick the tape down any way you'd like onto already painted wood. Using a paintbrush, paint the entire piece of wood the second color. Either when the paint is dry, or right away, peel off the tape to reveal your two toned Menorah, Now you can stick the candle holders on in a straight line, with the shamash wherever you choose. As an additional option, you can stick on rhinestones to add some sparkle, or use some glitter spray that can be found here.


For the gravel Menorah, you will either need colored gravel, or you can color rice for the same effect. Coloring rice involves placing the rice in a bag with a little bit of paint and shaking it around so that the paint distributes. For this Menorah, you'll want to glue on the candle holders first. Once they've dried (anywhere from 1-24 hours) spread a nice amount of wood glue onto a small section of the wood, and cover it with the gravel. Shake off the excess, and repeat the process with another color. Keep doing this until the whole Menorah is full.

The next Menorah is simple. You only need some glitter glue to decorate the painted wood, and then stick down the candle holders.

Finally, for the CD Menorah, you'll want 3-5 cds per Menorah. Lay 3 cds out with the shiny part facing upward. Then place 2 more cds next to each other on top of the 3 (see photo). Attach the candle holders, careful to keep the 8 candles on the 2 cds so that they are all level, and place the raised shamash anywhere you'd like. You can add beads or rhinestones for a more sparkly effect. When lit (see photo) the flames create rainbows on the mirrored cds. 

Enjoy!

This is a great Chanukah craft that doubles as a recycling craft!

What you'll need:
Washed and de-labeled can- I prefer the pop top cans because they don't have any sharp edges.
Paint
Glitter
Paintbrushes
Droppers 
Paper Cut-outs

First, choose a base color paint and paint the entire can. Before setting it to dry, you can add glitter to the paint anklet it shimmer. Once it's dried, you can decorate the can either by gluing themed paper cut-outs like Chanukah pictures, or snowflakes for Winter, OR, you can water down a couple other colors of paint just enough for the paint to be able to be sucked into droppers, and have the kids use droppers to squeeze globs of paint onto the can, letting it run down the can. This will look like the colored candles are melting!

Fill with a box of Chanukah candles and send home!

My favorite Fall fruit is apples because of their versatility. There are so many fun things to do with apples, here are some ideas:

Apple Graphing- Many of you probably do some sort of apple taste test for Rosh Hashanah, but if you didn't, you can now! Prepare a chart with each child's name followed by 3+ blank columns, depending on how many apples you'd like to taste. The classics are of course, Granny Smith (green), Golden Delicious (Yellow), and Red Delicious (Red). If your kids are older, you may want to include Gala or Fuji and point out it's many colors, for fuji you can also point out its crispiness. Prepare slices of each apple for each kid to taste, and pass them out one at a time. Remind kids that we all have different tastes. You may want to give the kids 2 at a time, and ask which was their favorite, documenting on the chart. When you've tasted all apples, describe and show the results to the kids.

 Apple Stamping- Slice apples in half horizontally so that the flower of seeds is visible, and remove the seeds. Use these apple halves as stamps to either dip in ink or paint and create beautiful prints!

Applesauce- Cook apples on stovetop (if you teach older kids you can do this in your classroom with a hot plate) and place them in a bowl. Provide the kids with forks to mash the apples, and season with some cinnamon and sugar- delicious! You can even send some home in small plastic containers!

Fruit Leather- You can either make applesauce or use prepared applesauce for this. You'll need a well oiled baking sheet, and simply spread the applesauce about 1/4 inch thick and bake for 6-8 hours on lo (200-250). When it's done, it will simply peel straight off the pan. I like to give the kids some to taste and then bag the rest and send it home to share with the families.

Apple Mat- Follow the instructions to make Stained Glass except, cut out Apples from red, green or yellow construction paper, and fill in with appropriate colored tissue paper. You can also make the stained glass papers smaller, and add a small hole at the top to create a car hanger, door hanger, etc. (see the picture below).

Apple Cork Stamps- I don't remember where I saw the blog post with this idea, but it's too fabulous not to share! Cut 2 nicks opposite each other in the same end of a cork. This will be your stamp. You can dip into apple colored paints and press onto paper. Once it's dried, you can give the kids brown markers to draw stems.