Chanukkah is right around the corner, and Shorashim is getting ready. This week we focused on familiarizing ourselves with some of the objects and traditions associated with Chanukkah.
One of the most popular, as is with many Jewish children around the world, were the dreidels.
Nearly every Shorashimer got a kick out of seeing how long they could get their dreidel to spin for, a real fine motor skill. We got to try it out with both the big dreidels…
…and the more difficult to grasp tiny dreidels.
Some Shorashimers learned how to play the traditional dreidel game with chips.
When it lands on נ (nun) you get none, ג (gimmel) you get all, ה (hay) you get half, ש (shin) you have to put one back in the pot.
Playing with the chips gave us a lot of practice counting in Hebrew!
We got even more counting practice with the chanukkiah.
It was tricky keeping our numbers straight: we had a lot of discussions about how there are 8 nights of Chanukkah, but 9 spots for נרות (nerot – candles) since you need the shamash to light the rest.
We even made our own chanukkiot by coloring popsicle sticks with dot paint…
…gluing the sticks onto a piece of paper…
…and tearing up little pieces of tissue paper for the flames!
Morah Naomi put magnets on the back of our chanukkiot so they can be put up at home and be used like a real chanukkiah each night of Chanukkah!
