Celebrating Hanukkah in Your Classroom

Let’s talk about celebrating Hanukkah! I love teaching my students about different cultures’ holidays. I love how I can provide my students with knowledge while promoting acceptance of diversity.

Hanukkah books and activities

If you do not celebrate Hanukkah yourself, the first thing that you should do is learn about it! You want to model for your students that you know it is important to learn about different holidays that is why you know so much about it.

PJ Library is an excellent resource for information, books, videos, recipes, and activities!

How I teach about Hanukkah in my classroom:

  1. Read Aloud

I start with The Night Before Hanukkah. This book is perfect for explaining the basic traditions and what celebrating Hanukkah looks like.

2. Game

Then I teach my students how to play dreidel! I have my students use colorful cubes instead of coins while they are playing. You can get wooden dreidels and use them year after year with your students!

This video from Sesame Street explains the directions of the game well in a fun way for students! I suggest writing the Hebrew letters (symbols on the dreidels) with their meaning on the board or somewhere the students can see them while they play.

This video explains in more detail for you so that you know what all of the letters mean and more about the traditions of playing the game.

3. Music

I play this music and video while the students are playing dreidel!

4. Video

There are so many Hanukkah videos you can show to teach your students more about the traditions and fun of the holiday. If you can access the Rugrats Hanukkah episode (season 4, episode 1) that is always a hit with my students! It is super cute!

There are a lot of video suggestions on PJ Library with real family examples too!

5. Extras

I usually let my students do a coloring page at the end of our lesson. I use the page from this coloring pack.

You can give your students gelt, small chocolate coins to celebrate the holiday.

More book suggestions:

Want to celebrate Hanukkah during Morning Meeting? Read about how I change up morning meeting for winter holidays here!

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