Hanukkah Is Here!

 Dear Parents,

This week we learned all about Hanukkah.  Hanukkah starts on December 10th and ends on December 18th.  Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday known as the  Festival of Lights. People light their menorah , say special prayers, and eat fried foods such as potato latkes or sufyganiot (doughnuts). The menorah holds the nine flames, one of which is the shamash (helper candle ) which is used to light the other eight candles. We light one candle for each night until the eighth night, which all eight candles are lit.

On Hanukkah, people play the dreidel game.  The game is usually played for a pot of coins, nuts, or other things which is won or lost based on the letter the dreidel lands on.  Each player spins the dreidel once during their turn. Depending on which side is facing up when it stops spinning, the player whose turn it is gives or takes game pieces from the pot: If נ‎ (nun) is facing up, the player does nothing. If ג‎ (gimel) is facing up, the player gets everything in the pot.

On Tuesday, the children decorated craft stick shaped like trees and a Star of David with sequins, gems, and glitter.  They look incredibly sparkly on our bulletin board. 

The children also created Christmas elves.  The children cut out a circle for the belly, folded four strips of paper for the arms and legs, glued on gloves and mittens, a sparkly hat, and buttons.  

On Thursday, the children cut out snowmen, a hat, and a carrot nose.  They added a colorful scarf and glued it on to a snowy background.

***We would like to give a special thank you to Daniel's family for bringing in delicious potato latkes on Thursday for our special Hanukkah celebration. In addition, we would also like to thank his grandmother Gail for bringing in yummy marshmallow dreidels and Hanukkah cookies.  

Have a wonderful weekend,

Love,

Ms. Boodman & Ms. Drago