Hanukkah

I have two families this year that celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. I wanted to include their traditions with the class, especially since we were studying holiday traditions around the world. Since the parents were not able to come to school to share, I used what I had to decorate.

We made a menorah from wooden lacing beads, a large rectangle unit block and a few wooden bbq skewers. We dipped the tops of the skewers in yellow and orange paint to simulate flames.

 One of our parents later sent in an electric menorah for the last couple of days of Hanukkah.

We also played the dreidel game daily throughout Hanukkah with some lovely wooden dreidels loaned to us by families.

This was great fine motor practice, plus we got to practice using the mathematical terms "all", "none" and "half". We played with large buttons until the last day when we played with chocolate gelt.

Of, course we sang the dreidel song and another song called "Spin, Dreidel, Spin" which was a good large motor movement activity. We also read a few books about Hanukkah.

Admittedly, I don't have a lot of knowledge about Hanukkah, but I feel it's important to include the traditions form all my students' families. I always ask the families to come and share with us and it seems some years, families are more willing to share. Every year I learn a little more! :)