Chanukah in the Gan, and the world premiere of our first movie!

With all due respect for the phenomenon known as Thanksgivakah, the overlap of Chanukah and Thanksgiving is not exactly easy for a Kindergarten teacher. For many children, this is the first year they are learning the narrative of each holiday; finding time to teach both thoroughly, without confusing children, is challenging. (No, Squanto did not find the oil in the Holy Temple, and there were no Maccabees on the Mayflower...)

I chose to study Chanukah first. To start, we spent over a week reading multiple picture book versions of the story behind the holiday. We practiced retelling the story by collectively creating a list of the twelve main events in the story. Then, each child created a coloring book page (drawing outlines in black fine-line) to represent one page. Finally, I copied the coloring book and gave every child a copy to keep and color. Most children enjoyed coloring their books during rest time last week and then brought them home.

Once I was fairly confident that the children knew the story, I invited Clare's mom, Gretchen, to film the class telling the story in their own words. Gretchen is a professional filmmaker and she brought some tools of the trade, including setting up a green-screen in the library. I had a great time interviewing the children in small groups. Gretchen then edited the video and added the children's coloring book pages as background. I'm very, very pleased to share the video with you, and I hope you will share it with friends and family. Thanks so much, Gretchen and Ben!



In studying the story of Chanukah, I emphasized three key words that are themes of this story and many of the other holidays we will study this year, including Martin Luther King's b-day, Purim and Passover: Freedom, Heroes and Miracles. We talked a lot about the significance of these words, which are posted on the bulletin board in our meeting area. What is freedom? Who were the heroes of the story? What is a miracle, and were there any miracles in the story?

In addition to learning the story of Chanukah, children have become familiar with the significance of the Chanukiyyah - the "fancy" name for the eight branched menorah we light on Chanukah. We are currently working on memorizing the blessings we recite when we light the menorah. Children have also learned the songs Chanukah, Chanuka, Ner Li, Svivon Sov Sov Sov, and Not by Might (starts at 2:56). I've linked the song titles to videos of the songs for those of you who would like to learn them or review them with your child.

Lighting the menorah in a public place is part of the mitzvah of "publicizing the miracle" - or sharing the miracle of Chanukah with others. To do our part to publicize the nes (miracle), children created a giant menorah art installation which we delivered to our neighbor across the street, the YMCA. (Did you see us on tv?) We also made decorations for our homes (you can read more about this project, and my general philosophy about art projects in the Gan, over here)

Of course, we are also working hard on making our "real" menorahs. To be honest, these are always an enormous challenge for me, mostly part because it's hard to make the project both open-ended and functional. Ask me sometime about the menorahs that caught fire at children's homes. Or the menorahs that self-destructed. But do me a favor and please don't even say the words "plaster of paris" to me until at least January.

We've begun our study of Thanksgiving this week with the read aloud The Thanksgiving Story, by Alice Daligesh. Children have already noted some similarities between the Pilgrims and the Maccabees and their search for freedom to pray the way they wanted to. Today I asked the children whether there were any heroes in the Thanksgiving story - thoughtful responses ranged from The Pilgrims, to the Indians, to God. All great answers, in my opinion!

Children also noted some similarities between the story of the Mayflower and the story of Noah's Ark. I hope you've seen our giant cross-section of Noah's ark hanging on the wall. Next week, we'll learn more about the story of the Mayflower, and create a cross-section of that boat as well.

In other news - we are busy writing pattern books (more about those later!) and working on our first spelling packets of the year. Expect reading books to start coming home on a nightly basis in December - I know your children are looking forward to getting this optional homework assignment.

Have a wonderful shabbat. And just for fun, here's my own take on combining Chanukah and Thanksgiving - (though my girls and I actually made this for the shabbat after Thanksgiving last year, not for Thanksgivakah.)