Chanukah Fun in K1!

 Chanukah Activities:

Kindergarten learned all about the Chanukah miracles that took place many many years ago in the land of Israel. The Greek people, led by their wicked king, Antiyochus, did not want the Jews to act like Jewish people, but rather like Greek people. There was a group of people called the Maccabim who refused to change their Jewish practices and continued to serve Hashem! These Maccabim hid in caves and used playing top/ dreidel as a cover, to be able to do the mitzvos. There would always be one person standing by the entrance of the cave and as soon as a Greek guard would come the children would take out their dreidels, pretending they were playing a simple game. This way the Greek people did not see that really the Jews were practicing doing mitzvos in the caves. Kindergarten learned how to play this game of dreidel.

 We had a fun time as we won pennies when we played dreidel and learned about the 4 letters on the dreidel (Nun, Gimmel, Hay, and Shin) and what they symbolize.  

Click this link to learn about the history of the dreidel game, features of the dreidel and instructions for play: Jewish Dreidel Game Instructions

We also learned about one of the Chanukah miracles. After the Jewish people fought a war with the Greeks, they returned to the Holy Temple and wanted to light their holy menorah. However, all of the olive oil jugs were either broken or not pure. They were devastated that they would not be able to light their holy menorah. Finally, after searching the Holy Temple, they were able to find one small jug of oil that would be enough oil to last one day. (It would take the Jews eight days to make fresh new pure olive oil, so they thought for seven days they would be without oil to light the menorah.) The Kohanim (Holy Jewish priests) decided to light the menorah with the amount of oil they had, that they should at least be able to light the menorah for one day. Hashem made a miracle that not only did the oil last for  one day, but for eight full days- until the Jews were able to make new and fresh olive oil! It was a huge miracle, which is celebrated till today with the holiday of Chanukah!
 Each child created a real menorah using ceramic tile, mosaics, nuts and bolts.

Kindergarten lighting the menorah- Every child got to take a picture with the menorah... "lighting" the oil wicks!!

CHANUKAH RECITAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chanukah recital was a huge hit in K1!
We had a busy few weeks practicing our dance and song and had a great time performing for our Daddies, Mommies, Grandpas, Grandmas and everybody else who came to watch our show!
The song "Oh Chanukah, Oh Chanukah come light the menorah" will continue to be a fond memory in our hearts:) 
                We had a super fun and exciting time dressing up in our special costumes! Being a candle, dreidel or Maccabee, each had their own unique costume, which made our experience that much more exciting. 

Chanukah tablecloths:
For the last day of Chanukah we got to color our very own lunch Chanukah tablecloths! We had a great time making the Chanukah pictures on the tablecloths very colorful:-)

Chanukah Carnival:
Thank you to the middle school who prepared a fantastic and exciting carnival for us! We had a great time hopping from booth to booth, participating in the activities and collecting some of the prizes.