In this week's parsha, Moshe Rabbeinu reviews the journeys of the Jewish people.  Moshe also reminds the Jewish people that Hashem has fulfilled his promise that was made to Avraham, that He has, "multiplied you and behold, you are like the stars of heaven in abundance."  So we decide to focus on how the Jewish people are similar to stars.  Firstly, Rashi explains that the stars are permanent heavenly bodies; so to the Jewish people have an eternal place in the world and an important mission to fulfill.  Secondly, just as a star provides a bright light, so to each and every Jewish person can use their special qualities and characteristics to light the way for others, and be a shining example for others to follow.  Like most kids our children love using their scissors and anything to do with stars so this project was a great hit.

Supplies:

• Paper towel roll
• String
• Construction paper - two colours
• Scotch tape
• Hole puncher
  

Pick a colour to wrap the paper towel roll with and use glue or tape to secure the construction paper to the roll.  Our daughter picked black so the stars would shine against their background.  Draw stars of a variety of sizes on another colour of construction paper and then cut them out.  We made 10 stars, and cut out 10 pieces of string of varying sizes.  Punch a hole in the stars and use the string to tie them around the paper towel roll.  Attach a string at the top of the mobile so it can be hung.  You can also decorate the paper towel roll with stars, as well as decorating the stars.  My daughter asked if she could write her name on one of the stars.  I love when children come up with their own additions to projects!  You may have noticed in one of the pictures that she also included a heart on the mobile.  After carefully writing her name, she also wanted to include the names of other family members.       

This week's parsha, Maasei, chronicles the Jewish people's 42 journeys from Egypt to the Land of Israel.  We decided to use traveling as a theme and explored and discussed the ways of traveling during the Torah era compared with nowadays.  

We bought two wooden cars from the $1 dollar craft section at Walmart. Bayla her own car, while we helped Shmuel Abba paint his.  After the paint dried the kids put different stickers on their cars to decorate them.  Bayla also painted a road on a piece of construction paper to replicate the path the Jewish people took from Egypt to Israel.  I wrote the numbers 1 through 42 to symbolize the 42 stops the Jewish people made on their journey.  Bayla and Shmuel Abba made chalk roads outside on the driveway and used their cars outside as well.  They have been playing with their cars every day so far!

Supplies:

• wooden car
• paint
• stickers
• construction paper

In this week's parsha, Pinchas, we learn about the five daughters of Tzelafchad who approached Moshe Rabbeinu with a question about inheritance in the Land of Israel.  Their father had passed away and since he had no sons, they wanted their family to continue to have a portion in the Holy Land.  Moshe asked G-d for direction, and G-d said that they should indeed get the inherited Land.  We decided to make a picture of the 5 daughters, Machlah, Noa, Chaglah, Milkah, and Tirtzah.  

Supplies:

• a large piece of construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• materials to dress the girls (can be from a variety of household items, ie: scrap pieces of fabric or ribbon, other construction paper, plain white paper that can be coloured, etc)
• 2 popsicle sticks

We first folded a large piece of construction paper in 5 and drew a picture of a girl on the front side being sure that the girl's arms extended to the edges of the paper.  By not cutting between the sides of the arms, when we unfolded the sheet of construction paper, we had a chain of five girls.  We then used stencils to draw shapes on some empty tissue boxes that had fun designs on them, cut them, out and glued them on.  We glued on some tops for the girls as well.  We have an aleph bais stamp set, and stamped the first letter of each of the girl's names on her shirt.  If you don't have Hebrew or English alphabet stamps, either you or your child can write the letter by hand if you'd like.  We then took circles and glued them on the heads and had fun drawing on the faces.  Lastly, we glued popsicle sticks to each of the sides to use as handles to hold up the girls.  

Our daughter really enjoyed making this craft because it involved so many different types of steps; designing outfits, stencils, cutting, gluing, stamps, drawing on faces.  Have fun!!!