DECEMBER 2008 THEME CELEBRATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

Greeting cards jigsaw puzzle- cut up old cards and put them back together

Flip the Latke (potato pancakes eaten on Hanukkah) Materials: Small paper plate, tongue depressor, 2ft of string or yarn, heavy cardboard, and crayons. Glue one end of the tongue depressor to the paper plate to a make a frying pan. Color your frying pan. poke a hole near the edge of the plate and tie one end of the string though it. Cut out a circle about 2 1/2 in across out of the cardboard to make the latke. color it if you wish. Poke a hole though the edge of the latke and tie the other end of the string to it. How to play: try to flip you latke onto the frying pan. See how many times in a row you can make the latke land in the pan. Have contests to see who can flip the latke into the pan the most times in 1 minute.

Snow shoe races- The snow shoes can be cut out of large cardboard boxes and tied on with twine or elastic band

Kwanzaa Celebration sticks- Materials Red, black and green sprinkles, 1 cup white chocolate chips, 20 8in pretzel sticks. On a piece of wax paper, arrange 1 1/4in wide strip of red green and black sprinkles. IN a shallow microwave safe bowl melt the white choc chips on high 1 minute. stir until smooth then heat another 30 seconds and stir again. Use a knife to spread the choc over half the pretzel then roll over the sprinkles and chill. Then enjoy.

Outside activities for all ages: Caroling around the neighborhood, snowball throwing into plastic hoops (cut milk jugs would work too), Animal tracking hunt.

Holiday Candles. (elective 2 for tigers) Materials Toilet paper rolls, construction paper any colors, yellow and orange tissue paper, string, glue, scissors, spoon, small toys or candies. Cut a piece of the construction paper  big enough to wrap around the toilet paper tube. Cut out 2 15 by 15 squares of tissue paper 1 of each color. place the orange tissue paper at a 45 degree angle from the yellow. place both pieces on top of one end of the tube. Use a spoon to gently push the tissue paper into the tube, Be careful not to push the tissue paper too hard or the paper will rip. Once the paper is in the tube, fill the tube with small toys or candies. Then use a small piece of string to tie it to the paper. Arrange the extra paper to look like a flame of a candle.

Santa's Bag- Ten brown lunch bags each filled with an item and sealed so you cant see what is in it and mark 1 though 10. Then give each boy or family a pencil and paper mark 1 through 10 and let them shake the bag and guess what is in each . at the end the person or team with the most correct guess would win.

Craft stick snowman Elective 9b for wolves) Materials 6 sticks per boy, black and white paint, orange foam sheet, craft glue, cotton swabs, wire or string for hanging. Line up the 5 sticks horizontally to form a square. Glue together. Place the last stick about 1 quarter of the way down to form the brim of the hat. Paint the top hat black. Paint the snowman's face white. Add dots for eyes and mouth with a cotton swab. Cut a nose from the craft foam by first cutting a rectangle and then cutting it diagonally to form a triangle. Glue the nose into place. Tie string or wire onto the ends of the hat brim to form a hanger.

Snowman- Materials: Liter soda bottle, sand, dirt or pebbles, 2 to 3 in diameter foam balls white and black paint fine grain sandpaper black felt buttons, ribbon, plastic spray can lid and plastic tub lid. Sand the surface of the bottle, spay can lid and tub lid so that the paint can adhere to the surface better. Paint the spay can lid and tub lid black. paint the bottle white. Allow to dry. Cover the top sides of the spray can lid and the tub lid with black felt. Center and glue the lids together. this is the hat. When the glue has dried turn over the hat and cut a small hole in the bottom with a craft knife. Make the hole a little smaller then the top of the hat. Fill the bottle half way with sand dirt or pebbles. so that your snowman does not fall over. Remove the lid from the bottle and place the foam ball over it. use a ribbon to tie a  scarf (this would be on the part that the lid to the soda bottle screw onto) then another piece of ribbon should be tied around the hat where the lids were glued together. Attach the hat to the head. Glue buttons to the foam to make the face. Cut small circles of black felt and glue them onto the snowman's belly.

Jingle bell Bracelets- Materials Chenille stems, small bells. Boys feed the end of the chenille stem through the clasp on the bells and twist the stem. Then twist around the wrist to make and easy instrument.

Star of David ( Bear achievement 22b)- Materials- Drinking straws that bend (6 per star), string, yarn or ribbon. Fold and insert the shorter end of the straw into the longer section. Connect 2 sets of 3 straws this way, creating 2 triangles. Place 1 triangle over the other and tie each intersection with a square knot, creating the 6 pointed star of David. Tie a hanger on it and can be painted blue or use blue straws for effect.