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.