Designing and lasercutting Chanukah menorahs with the MS Jewish Affinity Group at @BrearleyNYC! #STEAM #MakerEd

I am the Faculty Advisor to the Middle School’s Jewish Affinity Group at my school. The group is called Bonim Kitanim. Bonim is Hebrew for “builders” and Bonim is also the name of the upper school Jewish Affinity group. (Our school mascot is a beaver — a builder — so Bonim is such a great name!) Kitanim means “little” so the middle school group’s name means “little builders”. 😻

Bonim Kitanim gathers about once a week for lunch and to chat about family traditions, holidays, or other topics decided upon by the Class VIII co-heads. At a recent session, we talked about the upcoming holiday of Chanukah, and I mentioned we could design our own Chanukah menorahs — also called a hanukkiah — that could pack flat and wouldn’t require actual fire (so they’d be great for traveling or for keeping in their room safely.

Students made sketches with a marker on white paper, and I used the Trace feature on the Glowforge lasercutter to scan and cut their drawings. I also mocked up a stand (see prototypes in the last photo of the Gallery above) to hold their hanukkiahs upright. We used hot glue to affix velcro onto their candles and their hanukkiahs. Maybe next year, we could use magnets… I love the variety of their designs and how they decorated them!