How To Make A Wooden Spool Menorah (Kid Friendly)

Tonight is the first night of Chanukah.  It came really early this year!  In our home we celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas so it gets pretty busy.  I wanted to share a fun, easy and fast Chanukah craft you can do with your kids and it will even be ready for tonight!

To make this kid friendly menorah, you will need 9 wooden spools, craft paint (acrylic) , number stickers, sponge brushes, colored pencils and eraser tops, and finally foam core and glue which may be optional.  Check your local craft store for these items.

To get started, place the number stickers on 8 of the spools.  This will represent each of the 8 nights of Chanukah.  Remember to number them from right to left!  Make sure that the sticker is flat against the spool.  Smooth it out with your finger.

Next, choose your paint colors.  Here I went with blue, yellow and white – traditional Chanukah colors.

Decide how you want to paint them.  I did  a pattern of every other  color alternating between blue and yellow.   You paint the tops last so you can hold the spool on the top and bottom while painting.

A sponge brush makes it easy to paint across the middle of the spool.  A one inch brush works great.  Make sure to paint directly over the number sticker.  This is why it is important to have it flat against the spool to make sure no paint gets underneath.

Once all of the middles are painted, you can now paint the tops with the color of your choice.  I used white.

Set everything aside to dry.  Once it is dried completely, it is time for the big reveal!!  Peel off the stickers and the numbers are revealed beneath.  I did this project with a group of kids and they decided to mix the colors to get a wider variety of interesting shades of blue, yellow and green.

The menorah can be free form or if you want to mount it, cut a piece of foam core and glue the spools to it.

For “candles” use colored pencils with colorful eraser tops.  For a more whimsical look you can use assorted colors.  For a more authentic flame, use only yellow or orange.

That was easy, right?

Happy Chanukah!