Well, Camels, and Jewelry (Parshas Chayei Sara)

Eliezer's Journey to Find a Wife for Yitzchak;.

Avraham and Sara ask their trusted assistant Eliezer to travel to find a wife for the son Yitzchak.  In this parsha we learn of a beautiful scene where Rivka assists Eliezer and all 10 of camels by providing them with water.  He recognizes Rivka's kindness and he asks if she will take Yitzchak's hand in marriage. 

My kids love doing pretend play and acting out scenes from the parsha.  Unfortunately, we don't have any camels to use as props, so we called in our ducks, sheep, cows, giraffe, and moose to act out as camels.  We used mitzvah kinder toys for Eliezer and Rivka, and we had no shortage of jewelry to be the gifts that Eliezer gave to Rivka.

Camel Cards

I thought this would be a great opportunity to practice a few different skills with my children.  My 25 month old enjoyed sorting the camels into piles of 1 hump and 2 humps, counting the cards, and a basic matching game.  My 4 year old worked on patterns.  I set up different patterns for her and had her place which card she thought would go next.  For example, 1 hump, 2 humps, 1 hump, 2 humps, 2 humps, 1 hump, ______ . 

We also learned about traveling in the dessert, camels, why they are the perfect travel companions in hot places, what they store in their humps, etc.

Supplies:

• printer
• white paper
• coloured paper

This is more of an activity than a craft, but children (depending on their ages) can help.  My daughter helped with cutting and gluing.  Use a clipart image of a camel with one hump and copy and paste it five times to fit on one paper.  Do the same for a camel with two humps.  Cut out the camels, and glue them onto another square to make them a little more sturdy and colourful.  Children can also colour in the camels. 

Eliezer's Gifts for Rivka - Beaded Jewelery

Eliezer presented Rivka and her family with a variety of gifts, some of which included jewelry.  My kids enjoy making bracelets and necklaces throughout the year, but it was extra special this week.  It's also a great activity to work on fine motor skills.

Supplies:

• String, shoe lace, or plastic lace
• Beads

Edible Necklaces

What's better than jewelry and a snack?  When the two are combined!  My kids started off their morning by making Cheerios necklaces and got to eat them right after.  Breakfast and a craft!

Supplies:

• String, shoe lace, or plastic lace
• Cheerios
  

Dessert Diorama

This project was entirely my daughter's idea.  She wanted to create the well scene from the dessert in 3-dimention, so we decided to make a diorama.  She gathered a variety of materials from our home and asked me to help her cut some them them, but otherwise this project was her unique creation.  A diorama can be made from a variety of household and crafting items, but I'll include the supplies that we used.

Supplies:

• a box (shoebox, produce box, paper box, etc)
• construction paper
• pipe cleaners
• empty tape roll (to create the perimeter of the well)
• beads
  

Sara's Shabbos Candles

In this week's Parsha, we learn that Sara Imeinu passes away.  She leaves a true legacy and her Shabbos candles stay burning the entire week!

Supplies:

• 2 colours of construction paper
• liquid glue
• glitter
• aluminum foil
• scissors

Take two pieces of aluminum foil and shape them into two circles.  Press down and glue at the bottom of your paper.  Cut out two tall candles from the other piece of construction paper and glue them to fit into the candle holders.  Put some glue at the top of the candles and sprinkle on the glitter, shaking off the excess.  You can also decorate the candle holders with glitter in the same manner.
 

Book Recommendation: Kind Little Rivka

* Kind Little Rivka, By Dina Rosenfeld, Illustrated by Ilene Winn-Lederer, Hachai Publishing

Given that we have this book both in English in Russian, I am sure that you guessed that it's one of the favorites in our home!  We all love the beautiful stories of kindness and the bright pictures in this book.