Chanukah is here!

Chanukah has arrived!

Abigail: The Kohen is lighting the menorah with the oil.

We spun dreidels in a block dreidel. 

We all win with gimmel.

We pretended to be Chanukah candles, slowly burning low.

We attempted to make green by pouring blue water into yellow oil.

Sroli: It's not turning green.

Morah Katie: Let's try it with paint. 

Natan: Blue and yellow make green but the oil is just sitting on top. It's not green.

We took our experiment to group. 

We explained what we did.

Morah Katie: Let's try it with red water and yellow oil.

Kids: It's not turning! It's not mixing.

Amelia: Oil and water don't like to mix.

Sroli: The oil always comes to the top.

Morah Katie: What would happen if we mixed the blue water and yellow oil, with the red water and yellow oil?
Sroli: It will turn brown.
Natan: A blackish color.
Abigail: It will be purple water.
Morah Katie: Why do you think that Abigail?
Abigail: Because when I was painting I mixed red and blue and it made purple.
We tried it, and we made a very dark black purple, with yellow oil rising to the top.
Evan: It is still not mixing.
Amelia:The oil and water just don't like to mix!
Natan: The oil always comes up.

We began to "light" our picture menorah.
Amelia: That's me and Clara.
Sroli: I see me an Natan.
Evan: I am wearing glasses.
Ari: I'm there too.
Morah Katie: I enjoy our picture menorah so much, so many happy smiles.
Amelia: And because it's made up of our faces!
Morah Katie: That is true.

We played dreidels.
We won pennies.
We put some in our tzedakah box, kept some for our banks, and traded some in for fruit gusher treats.

The Menorah, the Holy Temple and the Oil

Morah Katie: Why is 8 a special number during this holiday?
Anton: We celebrate it for 8 days.
Morah Katie: What are we celebrating for 8 days?
Abigail: The oil was STILL there.
Moran Katie:  Where was the oil?
Sroli: In the menorah in the Beit HaMikdash ( Holy Temple).

Morah Tzivie: Let's see if we have a miracle happen in our classroom. We will keep an eye on our candle and oil and see how long they stay lit.

Isaac: Our oil doesn't last 8 days, it just lasts for 1 day.

Morah Katie: What happened in the Holy Temple?

Natan: The Greeks broke the stuff up.

Abigail: The bossy king said "Don't read the Torah".

Anton: "No more learning."

Sroli: "No more doing mitzvahs."

Isaac: "Don't celebrate the holidays."

Morah Katie: What did the Jewish people do?

Abigail: They go to caves, and hide the Torah. They play dreidel's to trick the Greek soldiers.

We went on an oil hunt.

 

We created spinning dreidel paintings.

We continue to play, learn and celebrate Chanukah.

 
We have been creating our very own menorahs to bring home and light with our families.

Ari: This is the shamash.

Evan: I have a menorah at my home.

Anton: You start at the right.

We created Chanukah shapes with play-dough.

Chanukah is coming

'One little candle for each night,

on this holiday of light,

Eight little candles shining brightly,

come light them with me."

This past week we have been exploring the exciting and special things we use to celebrate Chanukah.

We practiced putting candles in the menorah, right to left.

We made our classroom tables into one big menorah.

Anton: I'm the shamash, I'm the helper candle.

We made paper plate and clothes pins menorahs.

Dreidels were played with.

We counted dreidels; and spun and graphed them.

We wondered about the oil. 

We watched a video about how oil was made in ancient Israel, during the time of the Maccabees.

Natan: The big wheel squished the olives.

Sroli: The donkey was helping pull the stone.

Amelia: All together we could make oil.

We experimented to see if we could press some oil from olives.

We used a garlic press and pressed 2-3 olives into a squashed olive paste.

We scooped the paste out, and re-pressed it over a second jar, we did this 3 times.

We added a little bit of water to our jar, and let it sit for a few minutes.

We looked in our jar and saw sparkling drops of OIL! 

We read a book about how all Jewish people, all over the world, celebrate with menorahs, dreidels and latkes and donuts.

A few of us were inspired by the book to make candle flame hats and candle stick costumes.

Next week we will continue to explore all the exciting things of Chanukah, and continue to learn about Judah Maccabee the great miracle that happened.