Kitah Daled Designs Mitzvah Costumes
The children have been creating masks out of cardboard the entire year. They love dramatic play and are constantly playing family and hospital. Recently the children were also introduced to sewing. They even embroidered their own pillows for Pesach.
The children wanted to make their own costumes for Siyum. Morah Dawn suggested they use Mitzvahs as inspiration. Morah Jessica asked each of the children for a Mitzvah that they have done or like to do. Each child had their own unique answer. Following this, each child drew their own design for their costume.
Ezra said he liked caring for plants, so he decided to draw a tree for his costume. Abby enjoyed helping her parents cook, so she drew a chef costume. Zev said he gives tzedakah, so he drew a giant coin. Mosie said he kissed the mezuzah so he drew himself as a giant mezuzah.
We began talking about what materials to use to create each costume. Most could be made out of cardboard, but a few would need to be made with fabric. Carmi said she needed both because her mask could be made with cardboard but she needed fabric for her sleeves.
Next class, the children began working with cardboard drawing, cutting, and gluing pieces together. They used their designs as reference and painted the cardboard to match their drawings. Some children added some unique materials. Westley covered his entire heart with a very thoughtful tape pattern. Elah glued rainbow feathers all over one side of her cardboard wings. These projects took multiple days to finish, needing drying time in between sessions. The children were very detail oriented. Ezra brought moss from home to glue onto his tree costume. Tali wanted her dog mask to look like her pet, so it needed to have small, pointy ears.
All of the children using fabric for their costumes met during the next Atelier session. Tali sewed together two pieces of faux fur to create a vest for her dog costume. Abie chose a long piece of green fabric to wrap around his waist like a skirt. We added some velcro on the side so it could be taken on and off easily then we cut fins in the bottom to make a mermaid tail. Abie insisted his tail needed to be shiny, so he sprayed the entire thing with glitter.
Zev wanted to make a giant pillow since he helped a friend finish his pillow for Pesach. He chose a piece of fabric that looked similar to the Pesach pillow. Morah Jessica hot glued lining on the underside of the fabric creating two giant pockets. Zev stuffed these with Poly-Fil. We cut a neckhole into the center and added velcro to one side. He was immediately so cozy when trying it on he didn't want to take it off!
After the costumes were completed we had a photoshoot. Everyone was very excited and proud to try on their costumes. They can't wait to show them off at graduation and are especially excited to bring them home afterwards!
