Make a Mandala with Natural Materials

I love collecting natural materials for art projects, and my daughter and I have had a lot of fun through the years collecting leaves, sticks, acorns, rocks and other materials from our yard, neighborhood or local park to use for painting or display.

NurtureStore has a great idea for making a mandala design with natural materials such as leaves and flowers. This is a really cool project kids can do on their own or each child can gather materials and the group can make a mandala together.

Depending on how durable your chosen items are, you can leave them outside or bring them inside and set up your design so you can see how it changes over days or weeks.

Making and observing mandalas is a very calming activity that sounds perfect for these hard days. Check out the full tutorial and lots of great ideas for making mandalas at NurtureStore.

[Photo: NurtureStore.]

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Acorn Crafts for Kids

Learning about Hanukkah is important for people of all faiths as a reminder that December isn’t just about Christmas and that their are many other important holidays that happen during this time. Hanukkah unit studies can give you ideas for incorporating the holiday into your holiday studies that happen in December, or to use at home for learning about people of different faiths.

Homeschool Superfreak has a lot of basic ideas for how to build a Hanukkah unit study, as well as FAQs about what Hanukkah is and why it is celebrated. This list is a good stargint point but doesn’t include all the details you’ll need. For example it says you can play the dreidel game but doesn’t explain how to do that or why it’s important. (If you need that information, this post from Mama Smiles is a good source.)

Teachers Pay Teachers has lots of great lesson plans and activities if you’re willing to pay a little bit to get some good content. Two I really like are this Hanukkah PowerPoint presentation from Shelia Melton, which provides a good overview of traditions, food and the history of Hanukkah; and a virtual field trip to Jerusalem from MagiCore, which includes lots of videos showing the city and activities like playing dreidel, drawing a menorah and making latkes. It’s a Google Drive folder and also includes writing activities and more for kids in second to fifth grade.

Kids Activities Blog has some simple printables with facts about Hanukkah and things kids can color in like a Star of David, sufganiyots (jelly doughnuts) and a menorah. These are great for learning the basics.

Homeschool Giveaways has a printable ebook about Hanukkah complete with questions kids can answer after they read. This would be a good one for older kids with good reading comprehension.

NurtureStore’s Hanukkah unit study includes a printable mini book, tons of crafts, as well as math and writing activities. I love the dominoes game that’s part of the unit.

And check out our previous posts for more Hanukkah crafts and learning activities!

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