Learning about Hanukkah

This week we have been learning about the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

We learnt the story of Hanukkah and the miracle of how the oil that should have lasted for only one day lasted for eight whole days.

We have made Hanukkah cards and coloured in beautiful pictures of menorahs. We also looked at a Jewish prayer that is said when the menorah is lit. We looked at the Hebrew writing, which looks different to English, and listened to the prayer being sung.

We made potato latkes - they were delicious! You can find a recipe for potato latkes here.

We played a game with the dreidel. Some of us made a dreidel of our own to play with. We took home instructions on how to play with our dreidels so we can play with them at home! We also took home the template so we can make our own at home. The dreidel game is great for practising counting and finding half of a group of objects.

We have talked this week about Hanukkah, like Diwali, being a festival of lights. We made the classroom very dark and talked about how we feel in the dark, and how it can sometimes be scary. We carefully lit a candle and talked about how the light can make us feel better. Outside, we used poles and blankets to make a dark den. We took torches inside so we could make it light.

We also had some black paper and lots of light, colourful and shiny resources. We used them to make the dark paper light and bright!

We enjoyed learning about a different festival of lights and are developing our understanding of how different people have different faiths and beliefs. From next week we will be learning all about the Christian festival of light - Christmas!