NOAH

Each year, I do something with the story of Noah's Ark when it comes up in the Torah--its the second parsha.

I've done edible Noah's Ark (I know, unbelievable, right?) which can be done several different ways--a tortilla or pita makes a good ark (cut in half), on which you can spread cream cheese or peanut butter or whatever and then stick on animal crackers. Pretty simple. Another ark can be created with graham crackers or wafer cookies to form a kind of square-ish shaped thing into which you can put animal crackers.

This year, having done so many edible crafts, I decided to do my "alternate" activity which is absolutely non-food related! :)

Class Noah's Ark 
large piece of butcher paper
blue and white tempera paint
paint brushes (one per child)
large piece of poster board cut into an ark shape (or simple boat shape)
magazines
scissors
LOTS of glue
bark from trees that "shed" (don't peel bark from trees at all--it is not good for the tree, but once the bark has been shed, you can pick it up off the ground, let it dry out (if it happens to be wet) and let the critters crawl out of it (a surprising amount of bugs will come along with you when you pick up bark from the grass or ground.

This project can be set up in "stations" if you have a large class or, if you have a smaller class, you can have the children wander from one activity to the other. If there is time, you can have this project take a week or several days to complete.

1. Have children cut out pictures of animals from magazines. It doesn't matter if they're all different sizes and if the children cut out 100 pictures of dogs and cats... its more the practice of cutting and looking for "animals". Kids can also be very "creative" and cut out pictures of TOYS or pictures of ART (especially for baby rooms) that has an animal look. Encourage them to cut out a variety of animals and to choose pictures that you can tell its a certain animal without too much effort.

2. Dribble lots of blue an white paint on the butcher paper and have the children mix and spread the paint all over it, encouraging them to cover the whole sheet all the way to the edge.

3. Have children LIBERALLY apply white school glue (Elmer's) to the poster board and attach pieces of bark all over it. Because bark is bumpy and doesn't always lay flat, I usually "scribble" the glue all over the top of the bark when its complete to help hold it all on. You can also come in after all the glue is dry and hot glue down pieces that are not sticking.

4. Move the ark to the painted paper (the paint does not need to be dry).

5. Have children stick the animal pictures "into" the ark. If the paint is still wet, the pictures will likely stick to the paint and more glue will not be necessary. The adult can show the children how they can tuck the picture just under the "ark" to make it look like the animals are IN the ark. The children LOVE to make the animals "fly" and "swim" so don't worry too much about the realism of the project.

6. After everything has dried, check that everything is staying on. The ark may need to be glued down more effectively given the weight of the paper + bark + tons of glue. I have stapled this to the butcher paper and I've used hot glue to really attach everything without more waiting.

This project can also easily be modified to accommodate individual ark projects using construction paper for the background, a piece of heavy cardboard for the ark, and "smaller" pictures of animals or merely animal stickers.

An additional "add on" could be to have the children paint a rainbow or, for younger children, the teacher can cut out the a very thick arc of red, a slightly smaller orange, slightly smaller yellow, etc. all the way to the purple or indigo and have children arrange the pieces to make the rainbow. Attach the rainbow to the large class project.

CREATION

I've been thinking about what to do with my class for "Creation". Now that Simchat Torah has come and gone, we're starting "Bereshit"--the first word in the first book of the Torah ("In the beginning...") and I usually do Creation this week and Noah's Ark next week.

In previous years, I've done Creation placemats and Creation posters. Both kind of the same idea--one year I cut large numbers and divided a 12"X18" piece of construction paper in 8 parts, had the kids glue on the numbers in each of the squares (in the first square we wrote "the Story of Creation" or something like that) On each piece, the kids drew what was created each day. Briefly:
Day 1: Light (they colored the square or the number or whatever yellow)
Day 2: Sky or Heavens  (they drew clouds)
Day 3: Land (and "vegetation") and Sea (they drew water waves and brown land with some green specks in it or something that resembled an island with trees and flowers on it surrounded by water)
Day 4: Sun, Moon, and Stars (they drew each of these--I think once we used star stickers, too)
Day 5: Sea life and Birds (the kids drew fish and birds)
Day 6: Land animals and people (the kids drew animals and people)
Day 7: G-d rested (Shabbat) (the kids drew the symbols of Shabbat--2 candles, a loaf of challah, and a glass of wine)

This year, I'm trying to change it up a bit so I'm thinking about an Edible Creation creation!

Edible Creation

Materials:  for each child
1 paper plate
blue tinted royal icing
green tinted royal icing
white royal icing

Day 1: 1 chocolate and vanilla cookie (either a "black and white" cookie or a sandwich cookie that is chocolate on one side and vanilla on the other--if this cannot be found, a vanilla sandwich cookie and a chocolate sandwich cookie can each be broken in half )
Day 2: small piece of cotton candy or, if you have them, a few kosher marshmallows to represent the clouds in the sky
Day 3: 1 small graham cracker piece (about 1/8 sheet)
green (tree shaped or regular) "sprinkles" or colored sugar
blue "sprinkles" or colored sugar
Day 4: star-shaped sprinkles (available in the cake decorating area of your craft store)
1 white candy melt or 1 white (vanilla flavored) tootsie roll
1 yellow candy melt or 1 yellow (lemon flavored) tootsie roll
(optional) 1/2 orange tootsie roll for "sunrays"
Day 5: Swedish fish
bird-shaped fruit snacks (Target brand makes a cute bird shaped snack)
Day 6: Animal crackers
Gingerbread men (and women) or, if you can't find them, you can cut out a small person shape from a fruit roll up or a fruit strip
Day 7: miniature challah (make ahead if you want a "real" one made out of baked bread) or tootsie rolls
"wax bottles" candy (available at Oriental Trading Company) or, if you can't find them, make one from a tootsie roll


1. Prior to class, divide each plate into 8 "pie piece" sections (the sections should ideally be equal but some could be larger or smaller as needed) Sections can be drawn in with Sharpie. Depending on the age of the children, numbers could be written in ahead of time or the kids could write the number in each space along with what was created each day.

Each representation will be adhered to the plate with a small amount of royal icing. Depending on the age of the child(ren) an adult may need to put the icing on the plate in the correct spot, etc. Tinting it blue or green makes it look like "sky", "water", or "vegetation" and looks much nicer if it is visible. The children really enjoy "painting" with the icing.

2.  As each "day" is discussed, give each child the item that represents that which was created. On the first day, the child sticks on the cookie. If using sandwich cookies, break the cookie in half and flip one over so that both sides can be facing up at the same time to represent dark and light. (I used one half of each half in my sample above.)

3. For Day 3, have the child crush the graham cracker and sprinkle the crumbs onto a dab of icing to represent the land. Or just use a small piece of graham cracker and sprinkle on a few "holly leaves" or "tree"-shaped sprinkles or a few regular green sprinkles to represent the vegetation. Add a bit more icing and have them add the blue sprinkles for the water.

4. For Day 4, have them place the whole yellow candy melt to represent the sun or, if using tootsie roll, mash it into a disk. Have them carefully bite the white candy melt to make a crescent moon or, if using tootsie roll, use about half to roll it into the proper shape, and attach that to the plate. Have them place a few stars on dots of icing or put them all down with a background of blue icing.

5. For Day 7, make a challah out of tootsie roll--kneed it until soft. Divide it into 3 pieces, braid them together to resemble a challah. Make a wine bottle from a wax bottle or pull off two corners (a very small bit) from one side of a tootsie roll then roll this thinner end to be the top of the bottle.  Help the child make "candles" out of the fruit roll or left-over bits of tootsie roll. Attach all pieces to the plate. I found that tootsie roll really STICKS to a paper plate and is quite difficult to get off without tearing the plate so I recommend, if you want the kids to actually be able to eat this craft, adhering everything to the plate with icing. At least that way the icing breaks off of the plate and you can eat it. Alternatively, you could use a plastic plate instead.

If eaten all together, I think I'd get a stomach ache, so this edible craft should probably be viewed  more like a gingerbread house--something they take home and share with their families or eat over several days--for this reason, I recommend using royal icing since it dries hard (as a rock) and lasts indefinitely without refrigeration. Its the same stuff they use on gingerbread houses.

6. On the last space, a teacher or older child could write "Creation" or something with edible marker or icing (or just in Sharpie).