Chanukah is alive in Pre Nursery 2

In our classroom, we started off the unit by learning the story of Chanukah. We learned that the Beit Hamikdash was taken over and desecrated by Antiochus and his army. The Jewish people hid in the hills and created their own army, the Mighty Maccabees. We marched to the music of the Maccabees and entered our Beit Mikdash.

 Our Drama center looked like the Beit Hamikdash, and we loved to play with the Menorahs and beautiful dishes. We painted our very own menorah using gold paint and we had such a great time. 

We then cleaned up the mess in the Beit Hamikdash and looked everywhere for a small pure jug of oil in our classroom. We searched up and down, left and right and all around till we found it. We then polished our menorah and lit it up!

The children learned through art, music, movement, science, and math.  We counted and sorted candles, we even began to make small patterns with the candles. The children created a huge dreidel using loose parts on the table and they were so excited to see the final product.  One of the exciting morning activities we did was putting candles into soft clay. This helped the children to develop and strengthen their muscles and work on their fine motor skills. 

In our classroom. we worked on various skills throughout the Unit;

• We created our crowns using patterning skills

• We sorted dreidels by colour and size

• We painted our Menorahs with brushes and spray bottles

• We counted to 8 using our candles and our dreidels

• We sang and danced to our Chanukah songs with our Morahs and our music teacher

• We jumped and hopped on our large dreidels on the floor.

• We learned to share and take turns with our friends when we played dreidel.

• We measured and counted ingredients for our Chanukah cookies.

• We used droppers to create our Chanukah Drip mats. 

"From the beginning, children demonstrate that they have a voice, know how to listen and want to be listened to by others" Caralina Rinaldi, Reggio Emilia

  Through this unit, the children really began to understand the story of Chanukah and were able to share some ideas about their experiences.  They engaged in all the activities and at times, shared their excitement with their friends and teachers. In Reggio, the process of learning involves making connections and relationships feelings, ideas, words, and actions.   Through various Chanukah activities, the children were able to understand the story of Chanukah, build connections and learn new words. It was very exciting to watch the children learn and grow through different experiences.

 We loved Music and Movement with Morah Bryna and we enjoyed our Chanukah Yoga with Morah Rachel. We read so many books about Chanukah and especially enjoyed reading our small book of the story of Chanukah. The children sat and read to one another in the book center. They loved to share the story with their friends. It was such an exciting unit and the children had a great time.

Music with Bryna

We hope that you enjoyed the unit as much as we did. As teachers, we also learned so much from playing and observing the children. The experiences we provided were rich and inviting, and the children were engaged in all the activities. 

Best Love,

Morah Batya
Morah Elisheva