If you want to make Hanukkah crafts for kids there is a way to do them that is very creative. The activity I am going to show you here is a Hanukkah (or Chanukah collage). If you are looking for Hanukkah decorations then this may not be a standard decoration but, can certainly be used as one.
Any time I want to make a craft or art activity with children that includes a similar replica of a real object I like to show them the real object in question.(or photographs of them) Since I don’t believe in making models of an adults craft it is important to give the children an idea of what it is that they may be making. Above is a picture of a few menorahs I would show the children. The point being that they know that a Menorah has 8 candles and one for the Shamash.
This Hanukkah crafts for kids takes one of my most favorite activities, collage and uses it to make the most fun Hanukkah crafts around.
When I do art collages that mimic reality, I always give them materials that are suggestive of the item. This way even if they children are very young, the materials they are collaging with sort of show the item. For example if I am doing winter crafts for kids then I would give them white circles. If I was doing Thanksgiving projects for kids I would give them feathers. no matter wherever they put these items you will realize what the kids craft is supposed to be.
I try to think of what materials I would give the children if I were giving them a copycat craft. I then give them these materials plus other and let them use them as they see fit. Each of the children will create according to their developmental level.
Below are some of the materials I gave them for this Hanukkah craft.
As it is a Hanukkah collage and the children would be making Menorahs, I prepared in addition to the Craft Sticks, Ribbon
Once the children see what is provided they can choose to use them from the variety provided or do something totally different. When they are very young they usually just paste things down in quite a random manner.
This is quite different from copycat arts and crafts where the completed menorah would be held up for the kids to copy or in process only arts and crafts where the kids may be told to may a Hanukkah collage with no other direction.
Once the children have their large tagboard they are free to collect from the materials what they need and can create their own Chanukah pictures as they did below.
Each child used their own creativity to create their own Hanukkah collage. I should point out, however that these children were not preschoolers but, were early elementary age children. I have had amazing collages from kindergarten age children as well.
You will always see a much broader range of creativity and skill in the younger children. The more sophisticated their collages, usually the more advanced these children are.
The blue one above was colored in with great concentration to add color to the artwork and the child who did the dreidel inside the gift box did so by adding each piece of the box and dreidel with separate pieces of ribbon.
Below was a way that a child learned to extend her artwork.
This child painstakingly worked on creating tiny little flames in two tones for her menorah on the windowsill .
She was finished but didn’t know how and what to add to it.
I asked her “If this is in a window are we looking at in from inside or outside?” She said it was a view from outside.
So I asked her what she could do to make us be able to tell that we are looking at her window from outdoors and this is how she finished it up.
Just a simple question helped her take her Hanukkah craft artwork to a greater creative level.
In my post of paper craft ideas I discuss torn paper collages. That may be another way you can have the children collaging Hanukkah pictures or decorations.
Be aware that younger children don’t create things so advanced and check out the newer post I did with kids on Hanukkah menorah art.
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