Despite it being only two days to Christmas (!) I decided I’d do a bit about Hanukkah with the children, and invited our friends to join us.
It was a quieter meet than usual, not surprisingly as people have lots of other commitments at this time of the year. The meet followed the usual format; ‘teaching’, making a lapbook and some crafts. My friend also made some latkes for the children to try.
Teaching about Hanukkah
I spoke to the children about Hanukkah and it’s importance to those of Jewish faith. We had a look at a couple of videos that told the story of Hanukkah and another which showed a Jewish family lighting the Menorah.
The videos did a really good job of explaining the history as well as showing how the traditions translate into family life.
Lapbooks
For the front cover I used these bookmark templates from Activity Village and this Menorah colouring page from Twinkl.
I printed the pictorial story from this selection over at Twinkl to put on the inside and also created some simple inserts for the children to complete using the templates from Home School Share. The question I used for the inserts were:
- Which religion celebrates Hanukkah?
- How many days does Hanukah last for?
- What is Hanukkah also known as?
- What does the light of the candles symbolise?
I also chose some keywords for the children to write the meaning of; dreidel, Shammash, Gelt and Menorah.
Crafts
We then moved on to making a Menorah using a paper plate and the candles from this printable from twinkl. We talked about the Shammash which is used to light all other candles and how it must be a different size to the other candles.
Once completed, we made a dreidel using this template and I printed a copy of the instructions for the game for each child. Once everyone was complete we set up a game of Dreidel whilst I prepared the snacks.
Snacks
My friend had made some latkes which I warmed and I had bought some donuts (my google search suggested fried donut are eaten – I don’t know how true this is!). The children enjoyed eating these and the latkes were delicious – something I’ll be making in the new year I think for us all to enjoy.
I really enjoyed learning more about Hanukkah and it’s inspired me to look at World Religions in more detail next year with the children.
