Happy Chanukah (Part 2)

Since last week we learned the story of Chanukah, this week it was their turn to tell it. We had 10 cards, each with a piece of the Chanukah story. The class organized themselves to tell the story and they did a great job!
We did some vocabulary work with the holiday:

'ner' - fire/light
'Chanukiah' v. 'Menorah'
'tamid' - eternal
'nessa' - miracle
'shemen' - oil

We also discussed the meaning behind dreidels, which we now only play as a game but used to disguise Hebrew studies. We talked briefly about how "dreidel" is a Yiddish word. What's Yiddish? Why do Jews speak both Yiddish and Hebrew?
We learned what each side of the dreidel means, and that each letter not only stands for what you win or lose in the game, but Yiddish words.
For example, "hay" is also the Yiddish word for "halb", which means "half".

We did some Judah Maccabee and dreidel coloring and finished two familiar games: Old & New and Tov/Lo Tov.
We did a Chanukah version of Old & New:
They play one-on-one, while the rest of the class comes up with a scenario with me. It can be a person, place, event, or Jewish concept.
For example, "Learning Hebrew" is both Old and New in Judaism - to win the round, the student would hold up both cards which are labeled Old and New. To answer "Giving presents on Chanukah" correctly, a student would hold up just "New".

Tov/Lo Tov is our King Solomon game. This was also Chanukah themed. I held the sign "Lo Tov" and Lucy held "Tov" (Bad and Good).
The students start in the middle of the classroom with us on either side.
I say a scenario: "King Antiochus said that everyone had to practice his religion and Hebrew was against the law".
To stay in the round, a student would have to pick the "Lo Tov" side quickly.

See you next week!

Erica

Happy Chanukah

Hello and Happy Chanukah!

This week was a Chanukah-filled class. We started off by reviewing vowels
and playing Quickdraw with different vowel/letter combinations.

After a few rounds against the teacher, we read two Chanukah stories -- one
folktale that takes place during Hannukah and the actual story of Chanukah.
We discussed all of the symbols, games and food associated with thr holiday
- it's not all about gifts!


But speaking of gifts, we took part in one of Ohabei's projects that had us
answer the question, 'what gift would you give to Ohabei Shalom?' And the
class decided a torah--which the students helped write out and draw our
answer.

This picture is GAN contributing to the Ohabei menorah project...very
enthusiastically! Bravo, K/1! See you next week!