The holiday season is a wonderful time to introduce young children to different cultural traditions and celebrations. In the nursery, this year, we’ve been exploring the beautiful Jewish festival of Hanukkah. The eight-day festival is filled with light, joy, and family traditions, and we’ve had so much fun bringing a little bit of Hanukkah magic into our classroom through creative activities. From making menorahs with handprints to creating our own candles with junk modelling, here’s a look at how we’ve been learning and celebrating Hanukkah!
Learning About Hanukkah
Before jumping into arts and crafts, we started by talking about what Hanukkah is all about. The children learned that Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, where Jewish families celebrate the miracle of the oil that lasted for eight days in the ancient temple. It’s a time for family gatherings, lighting the menorah, playing with dreidels, and, of course, eating delicious food like latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts).
To help make the story of Hanukkah come alive, we used simple language and colourful picture books. We talked about the menorah, the special candle holder with nine candles, and the shamash candle that lights the other eight. This gave the children a good understanding of the significance of the candles before they started making their own.