DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Purim Gragger Ideas

When the Purim story ("Meglliah") is read, everyone boos and shakes their graggers whenever Haman's name is mentioned. Use one of the ideas below to make your own gragger.

SHAKER type gragger - youngest children

Materials:

margarine container, small yogurt container or similar plastic container
dried beans, sand, rocks (these are a lot of fun to collect outside!) or something like that
stickers, paint, markers, construction paper, etc to decorate
glue

Instructions:

Decorate outside of container as desired.
- You can cut out shapes from construction paper or paint it or glue on white paper and color with markers.
- Add stickers for extra fun!
Fill about 1/4 or less of the way full of dried beans (or similar material)
Put a bit of glue around the edge of the lid and put it on tightly.
You can put a thick rubber band over it to ensure the lid stays on tight if the kids don't want to wait for the glue to dry.
Shake your gragger

TAMBORINE type gragger - kindergarten

Materials:

two paper plates
hole punch and string/wool OR stapler
dried beans, sand, rocks or something like that
Optional: stickers, paint, markers, construction paper, etc to decorate
glue

Instructions:

Decorate outside of paper plates as desired.
- one idea is to draw an angry face for Haman on one side and a happy face for Esther on the other
- or paint your plates (at age 2, Kaitlyn couldn't get enough paper plate painting -- she begged to do it every day. I finally ran out of ways to use the plates so just started piling the painted creations in the craft room for future use. Five years later I still haven't used them all!)
Fill one plate about 1/4 or less of the way full of dried beans (or similar material)
Put the other plate over the first and punch holes all the way around the plates. Lace the plates together (tightly) with string or wool.
OR
staple the plates together. Even if you are going to let the kids lace the plates, you may want to put three staples in to hold it together as they're working on lacing.
Shake your tamborine!