Shabbat Friendly Crafts
Shabbat is the Hebrew word for sabbath, and it is a day that is primarily for rest and spirituality. To help teach children about Shabbat, provide some entertaining and relevant craft projects; these activities should help hold the children's attention while simultaneously demonstrating important components of the ritual observance of Shabbat.
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Teaching About Tzedakah
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Teach children the importance of performing tzedakah, or charity work that involves sharing what they have with others to give to the needy. After you've gone over the concept of tzedakah, you can introduce a relevant craft project such as making a pushke, or a container kept at home to collect coins to perform tzedakah. All you'll need for the children to make their own pushkes are some jars or coffee cans with lids; simply have the children cut slots into the lids of the pushke and then they can decorate using paints, stickers and other materials.
Incorporating Kiddush
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Kiddush is the process of sanctification that occurs during Shabbat; a blessing is said over the wine or grape juice to sanctify it, and then the person who says the blessing drinks the wine, passing it along to others when he is done. The children could make their own kiddush cups for the craft project to help them practice this ritual by taping or gluing two styrofoam cups together end-to-end and then decorating the finished products.
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Making Shabbat Table Settings
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Have the children create some crafts that can be used for the Shabbat table settings each week. For instance, create Shabbat place mats to use at the table. All you'll need is some colored construction paper and art supplies such as markers, paints or crayons for the kids to use for decoration. Have the children incorporate symbols of Judaism with the art supplies, or just have them write their names for personalization, and then laminate the finished mats. The children could also decorate their own table runners to use on the table during Shabbat, or could decorate white handkerchiefs to use as challah covers.
Candle Crafts
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The lighting of candles is another important component of Shabbat, so incorporate candles into your craft. You could have the children make their own candlesticks by gluing wooden thread spools together and then decorating the finished sticks with paints or stickers. The children could also make their own candle boxes to store the household candles when not in use during the week; you could use any box to do this, but one option could be an empty plastic berry container that the kids can decorate by interweaving bits of ribbon in the open slots.
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References
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