Hanukkah at Beansprouts

I just love the holidays and the built-in curriculum that goes along with them.  Here is what we did at Beansprouts this Hanukkah season:

Shoe box lids make great dreidel platforms as they keep them contained.  It was also fun doing on the table and doing spin passes to each other.

Candle crowns adorned with foil stars

The wooden menorah with wooden candles was fun and meaningful once they had seen us light the real menorah.

We also made a new Hanukkah candle work for number matching, counting, and one to one. They used the helper candle (or shamash in Hebrew) to light the other candles.

 We made latkes on the 8th day of Hanukkah.

 One of the families brought these great styrofoam dreidels with plastic colored pins.

 A menorah collage

 Making the star of David with triangles and decorating with glitter.

Each day at circle time we would light candles for Hanukkah.  We don't know the prayer to sing so we sang "This Little Light of Mine" while the teacher lit the candles.  We would let it burn during circle and then in a very untraditional manner would blow them out at the end of circle for "safety".  During circle, we would also sing different Hanukkah songs in English and Hebrew and occasionally talk about what our Jewish families do at home to celebrate the holiday.  We tried to keep the focus on spending time with families because sometimes the history behind the holiday is hard for them to understand.  By next year we will be able to give more meaning to the miracle of the lights.

Happy Holidays!
*Stephanie*