Chanukah finally arrived and Shorashim could not have been more excited! We honored the arrival of the holiday in many different ways. Some friends decided to independently (without any prompts from the morah) draw their own chanukkiah.
One friend put his up on the wall for everyone to see. He specifically drew 7 flames (for the 6th night) on the 9 candles, and announced he would light the others later in the week.
We cut out the dreidels we decorated in Yetzirah, a tough fine motor task given all those slanting lines!
Every Shorashimer present cut out his/her own dreidels all by himself with no more assistance from the morah than some vocal support and/or a hand holding onto the paper. Boy, are we skilled with the מספרים (misparayim – scissors)!
Each child was encouraged to find a space in the classroom to put up his dreidel. Everyone chose to place theirs near each other, creating a dreidel display reminiscent of our close community here at the Jewish Enrichment Center.
Most importantly, each evening this week Shorashim was honored with one of the most important jobs: lighting the chanukkiah.
All who wanted to were invited up to help light the נרות (nerot – candles) and make sure we lit the correct number for each night.
Happy Chanukah from Shorashim!