DIY Menorah Craft Using Cardboard

Oct 23, 201945 min activity

Celebrate Hanukkah with this cute DIY craft. You can make this menorah from toilet paper rolls and give it to your child to decorate, or you can just enjoy the menorah as is!

In the series "Arthur," Arthur's friend Francine and her family celebrate the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which is also known as the Festival of Lights. During the eight days of Hanukkah, Francine and her family light candles in a hanukkiah, which is a special kind of menorah. They also play games with a toy called a dreidel and eat delicious food such as latkes.

During this holiday season, craft a safe-to-touch cardboard menorah with your preschooler to help them learn about the many traditions of this special celebration.

Materials

Directions

Gather the cardboard tubes. 1 will be used to create a template for the candles for the menorah. 9 will be used to create the menorah itself. 1 of the 9 tubes should be taller than the rest.

Draw a candle on the template tube.

Cut out the candle piece.

Use the cutout piece to trace identical candle shapes on each of the nine remaining tubes. Cut out the space around the candle with scissors, making sure that part of the tube remains intact at the bottom for stability. If you'd like, you can leave a little bit of cardboard behind the candle that you will paint or color in with markers to help the candle stand out.

If you decided to leave some cardboard behind your candles, paint or color the cardboard with blue and white paint or markers. Blue and white are the traditional colors of Hanukkah.

Trace the flame part of the candle on yellow paper. Create 9 flame shapes. Cover the flames in glue and sprinkle glitter on top, then let dry. Or use glitter glue or glitter paper instead! Cut out the flames and glue a flame onto each candle.

Assemble the menorah by gluing the tubes together. Glue four of the short tubes together, connecting them at the sides. Repeat with the other four short tubes. Finally, glue the Shamash candle (the tallest candle) in the middle of the two sets of connected tubes.