When we returned from our Thanksgiving break, the children discovered some very exciting and interesting things in the classroom.

Morah Tzivie: We have a special holiday coming. What holiday is it?

Eliana: Chanukah.

Morah Tzivie: We have a very important thing we use on Chanukah. What do you think it is?

Sophia: It's a menorah.

Morah Tzivie: What's another important thing we use on Chanukah?

Moshe: Candles.

Morah Katie: What was it like to live in Israel when Judah Maccabee lived?

Lochlan: You got your food from orchards.

Clive: You made your own oil to light the menorah.

Moshe: Oil from olives.

Lochlan: You had to grind it.

Lochlan: You had Shabbat. 

Clive: Sing the Aleph Beis.

Moshe: Celebrate Yom Kippur.

Lochlan: You had to walk or ride a horse or camel. No cars.

Morah Katie: Why do we remember the Maccabees every year and celebrate Chanukah? What happened?

Moshe: Soldiers and Anitochus!

Morah Katie: What did Antiochus do?

Clive: Made new rules like no more Shabbat or learning the Aleph beis.

Lochlan: NO more reading the Torah or doing mitzvahs, AND they broke the menorah.

Makayah: Everyone was sad.

Morah Katie: What do Judah and the Maccabees do?

Evan: They asked for help.

Lochlan: From Hashem.

Moshe: CHASED Antiochus away!

Evan: Then they saw the knocked over menorah and fixed it and cleaned

Emily: But they had to search for the oil and it takes a long time to get more.

Evan: 8 days to get more oil.

Emily: They found one thing of oil and used it.

Clive: And it lasted for 8 whole nights.

Evan: It kept filling up! 

Emily: We remember that it kept staying lit all those days, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8. It kept burning.