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Day One at CHA – Cool Glass and Stuff for Glass

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Today I spent half a day at CHA. Did my demo of macramé to promote my book, Mod Knots and then wandered around about half the show. I had a pressing engagement and had to run early but I’m returning tomorrow to finish and search for more interesting items. there’s so uch cool stuff at CHA. Every craft and art supply company is there. But my focus was glass, of course. First cool thing I came across is a bead buddy and the queen of dichroic glass beads, Paula Radke. She had a booth with beads and other interesting goodies. She’s got a resin thing going on and she’s using some of her laser etched dichroic glass in resin bracelets. The benefits of glass with the durability of resin. Very interesting. She’s off to Tucson next…

The next cool booth I came across sells adhesives for the glass and craft industries. They are Streuter and they have adhesive for stained glass, mosaic, and fused glass. Tomorrow I’m hoping the piece one of the ladies was working on will be fused. She was using their glue with glass frit. I’ll give you an update tomorrow.

I also wandered over to the Amate Studios booth where they sell findings that are used quite a bit for resin jewelry but they’ve started making their little frames deeper and they would be perfect for fused glass cabs and even some beads. Fun stuff. I want some of these for some of my upcoming classes. More CHA news tomorrow!

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Hanukkah Unit Studies for Kids

Learning about Hanukkah is important for people of all faiths as a reminder that December isn’t just about Christmas and that their are many other important holidays that happen during this time. Hanukkah unit studies can give you ideas for incorporating the holiday into your holiday studies that happen in December, or to use at home for learning about people of different faiths.

Homeschool Superfreak has a lot of basic ideas for how to build a Hanukkah unit study, as well as FAQs about what Hanukkah is and why it is celebrated. This list is a good stargint point but doesn’t include all the details you’ll need. For example it says you can play the dreidel game but doesn’t explain how to do that or why it’s important. (If you need that information, this post from Mama Smiles is a good source.)

Teachers Pay Teachers has lots of great lesson plans and activities if you’re willing to pay a little bit to get some good content. Two I really like are this Hanukkah PowerPoint presentation from Shelia Melton, which provides a good overview of traditions, food and the history of Hanukkah; and a virtual field trip to Jerusalem from MagiCore, which includes lots of videos showing the city and activities like playing dreidel, drawing a menorah and making latkes. It’s a Google Drive folder and also includes writing activities and more for kids in second to fifth grade.

Kids Activities Blog has some simple printables with facts about Hanukkah and things kids can color in like a Star of David, sufganiyots (jelly doughnuts) and a menorah. These are great for learning the basics.

Homeschool Giveaways has a printable ebook about Hanukkah complete with questions kids can answer after they read. This would be a good one for older kids with good reading comprehension.

NurtureStore’s Hanukkah unit study includes a printable mini book, tons of crafts, as well as math and writing activities. I love the dominoes game that’s part of the unit.

And check out our previous posts for more Hanukkah crafts and learning activities!