Happy Hanukkah

in the blue room

This busy week in the Blue Room we learned about Hanukkah.  The festival of lights begins right after sundown on the first night of Hanukkah.  The center candle on the menorah is the shammash.  This helper candle helps to light the other candles, one added each night until the final 8th night of Hanukkah.

We practiced spinning dreidels; the four-sided tops with symbols on each side.  The symbols tell us how to play the dreidel game, using gelt, or chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil, for money.

We learned about some traditional foods, such as latkes and jelly donuts fried in oil.  One night (or day) of Hanukkah is celebrated by doing good deeds, such as volunteering or giving food or money to those in need.  Many children receive gifts, one for each night of Hanukkah.  What a wonderful celebration!

We decorated beautiful blue dreidel shapes with different blue and white collage materials in order to make decorations to take home.  We also painted little wooden Stars of David with blue and silver paints to make our own Hanukkah ornaments for the showcase on the preschool yard.  We used some fun Hanukkah stickers to decorate our paper dreidels.  We sang the dreidel song, too.  A favorite activity was making blue cookies with our Hanukkah cookie cutters!

Finally, on the last day of the week, we met a Silly Santa and decorated some paper stockings to hang up inside the classroom.  Next week we'll make some Christmas decorations to take home and put up for the holiday!