The kids have been in school a couple of months and the class is getting in a groove and it is just the perfect time to reinforce the concept of being "one family" that accepts and celebrates all of our diversity, cultures, and traditions.
Since Hanukkah is starting on December 6 this year, I thought I would blog about what I like to do in my class to introduce Hanukkah and how I do it in a way that still meets common core!
When we get back from Thanksgiving Break, here are the things that I will be doing in class.
1) Years ago, I stumbled upon an amazing book that reviews colors, numbers, counting and Hanukkah. It is called "Sammy Spider's First Hanukkah." You can find it on Amazon here. I will be using this book as a Math Read Aloud to tie it into counting and cardinality and then doing a craftivity. You can find the craftivity here at my tpt store. I love doing the craft on 12 X 18 black construction paper. The one below is on 9 X 12 for those of you who don't have access to 12 X 18 paper. I just love how the colors pop against black!
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| I know this is a bad photo! It's from over 10 years ago! I'll definitely update with a better photo when we do this next week! |
2) I also love to teach the kids how to play the dreidel game which I'm sure many of you do as well. This year, I decided to buy dreidels instead of making them. The paper and pencil ones never spin very well and I found an awesome deal on amazon here. I know 100 dreidels may seem like a lot but I thought it would be fun to have enough for the whole class to play during a lesson, as well as set it up as centers, and then have some left over to give as gifts. When we play the game, we will be using a variety of things such as m & m's, plastic gold coins, marbles, gems, etc to play. I know they aren't made of wood and are plastic but they spin really well, are colorful and bright, and are a great price!
3) And of course....I always love finding an excuse to eat! We will be doing a taste test to decide which Hanukkah food we like the most. I'll have the kids try latkes (from trader joe's) with sour cream, with apple sauce, and plain and see which one they like the best. As soon as I finish making the survey sheet for this activity I will post it here as a freebie!
4) Some great read alouds that I always enjoy reading for Hanukkah are listed below:
Well I hope you all enjoy the rest of this Thanksgiving break! Be sure to come back and check my blog to see if I can really do what I have planned which is to celebrate holiday traditions in the United States (Kwanzaa and Christmas), Mexico (Las Posadas), Sweden (Santa Lucia), and the Philippines (the country that celebrates Christmas the longest!). I know...I'm crazy! But like I said...I just love this time of year!!!!
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