HANUKKAH BEGINS!

 Dear Parents,

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I am the line leader!

This week we learned all about Hanukkah.  Hanukkah begins  in the evening of Sunday, November 28th and ends in the Evening of Monday,  December 6th.  Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday known as the Festival of Lights.  People light their menorah, say special prayers, and eat fried food 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.

The children enjoyed listening to the story "What is Hanukkah?" by Harriet Ziefert.

                               

On Hanukkah, people play the dreidel game.  The game is usually played for a pot of coins, nuts, other things  which 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 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 get everything in the pot.

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

On Wednesday, the children created 3-D dreidels using Hanukkah stickers, glitter, and various other decorations.  They look spectacular displayed across the top of our classroom window. 

We also made edible dreidels using a marshmallow, a Hershey kiss, and a pretzel.  Mmmm.... were they good.  A couple of children became so excited with the project that they ate it before they even made it.  Then, the children each painted their own wooden dreidels with many different colors. 

The children practiced writing the letter "S" and sounding it out.  Some of the words they came up with beginning with the letter were:  Spider man, sand, snake, shark, and sun.

       

On Friday, we read The Miracle of the Potato Latkes,  by Malka Penn and then we made our own potato latkes.  This is a traditional food that is eaten during Hanukkah. The children absolutely loved making them as well as eating them!

Jakey is washing the potatoes.