Make a Collection Box for High Holidays and Beyond

One of the tenets of the Jewish High Holidays — Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — is tzedakah, which means charity, justice or righteousness.

On holidays and Shabbat, Jewish families often collect money in tzedakah boxes to save and give to someone in need.

Of course tzedakah can mean more than just monetary gifts, but making a tzedakah box for kids to use around the holidays is a good time to talk about all the ways that we can help others.

This tzedakah box craft is made with a coffee can, but other containers would work as well. Check out the tutorial (and a crash course in Jewish holidays) at Multicultural Kids Blog.

[Photo: Multicultural Kids Blog.]

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Yom Kippur Activities for Kids

I guess this isn’t exclusively a kid’s craft or learning activity (though cutting and folding are great for developing fine motor skills!) but I think kids would love having some of these printable holiday houses around the house or classroom to play with in the holiday season. Because they’re made of paper, they’re inexpensive to make, and while there is assembly involved the results are well worth the work.

If you have a cutting machine you can use the cut files from Delia Creates to make making your own paper village that much easier. She actually cut out all her buildings in different colors of card stock and used them to decorate a wreath, but you could also put them on the mantle or on a low table for kids to play with. Make a whole small world scene complete with fake snow, little characters and other elements, and kids are sure to start making their own stories to go with the setup.

This set of houses is printed and cut out using a craft knife. It’s meant to be an advent calendar, with each of the buildings numbered and you can stick a treat inside. But you could also just play with the buildings! You can get a free download of four buildings from Little House on the Corner, or head to the post to see where you can buy the whole set.

The Mavelo website isn’t in English, but their printable gingerbread house template is super cute to use as a gift box or to play with. If you need the instructions the website is in Polish but Google Translate seems to do a pretty good job.

Bora Illustrates has an adorable little house to print, cut and assemble featuring a cat, bird and gingerbread person. You could probably print it in black and white and have your kiddo color it, too.

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