Yosef's Multi-Color Coat & Dreams, Tie Dye Tshirt, 12 Tribes Dolls (Parshas Vayeshev)

Yosef's Coat of Many Colors

Yosef is the apple of his father's eye, and Yaakov makes him a beautiful coat of many colors. We made our own version this week.

Supplies:

• 1 sheet of white paper
• streamers or tissue paper of a variety of colors cut into squares
• glue stick
  
• scissors

Cut the paper into the shape of a coat. Either you or your child can cut or rip pieces of the streamers or tissue paper into squares. Glue down the pieces to make a beautiful coat of bright vibrant colors.

Tie Dye T-shirt

Having a tissue paper coat wasn't enough for us, we wanted a real life multi-color garment, so we tried our hand at tie dye.  It was a first for my daughter and me, so definitely a learning experience.

Supplies:

• white t-shirt
• elastic bands
  
• tie dye colors
• ziplock bag
  

You can purchase a simple white t-shirt at a store like Michael's for $4 or you can use an old undershirt.  Each tie dye package will come with its own instructions, but here's roughly what we did.  I got mine at Walmart for $1 per color (my daughter naturally chose her favorite colors, pink and purple).  Gather fabric in various places on the tshirt and wrap them in elastic bands. You will have bulges sticking out all over the place. Then take your tie dye solution and you will dip the tshirt areas into it or squirt it on, depending how it's packaged.  We did this leaning over the bathtub to contain the mess.  Put the t-shirt into a ziplock bag and let it absorb the die for several hours.  We left it overnight so that the colors would be more vibrant.  Take out the elastic bands and wash and dry twice to set the color.  My daughter has decided that this t-shirt is her favorite pajama.  There are a variety of designs and patterns that can be made using tie dye, if you'd like something on the fancier side, just do a quick internet search for tutorials.   

Yosef's 2 Dreams

Yosef has two dreams, one about wheat and the other about stars.  In his first dream, there are 12 bushels of wheat and suddenly his rises up, while the other bushels bow down to it.  In the second dream, the sun, moon, and stars bow down to him.  This was a craft my friend sent me, so unfortunately I don't have a link for the templates, but you can find the pictures in clipart.

Supplies:

• a sheet of construction or cardstock paper
  
• cotton balls
• star stickers
• a picture of the sun, moon, and 12 bushels of wheat, and 2 big empty blurbs for each dream
• glue
• scissors
  

Cut out the pictures and glue one bushel of wheat in the middle of one of the blurbs with the 11 other bushels bowing down to it.  In the other blurb, place the star stickers, the sun, and the moon.  Glue down cotton balls around the perimeter of the page.

12 Tribes: Playing with Dolls

My daughter has quite the doll collection, this seems to be a popular birthday gift for a preschooler and she is happy to receive 2 or 3 at each birthday.  She enjoyed dressing up her dolls (and some stuffed animals) and then practiced singing the tribe's names and acting out scenes from the parsha.