Lots of Gelt!: Hanukkah Sensory Bin and Activities

The Festival of Lights has long passed, but the remembrance of the fun my pre-k students had is still aglow. 

During Hanukkah, I presented the children with a sensory bin filled with blue and silver paint dyed pasta, golden gelt, shimmering blue and silver dreidels, plastic bead necklaces, and plenty of white and blue crepe paper that allowed the students to become aquatinted with the beauty and essence of this important Jewish holiday. 

The objectives that were met included social studies: understanding the importance of symbols such as the dreidel, colors (blue, white and silver) and gelt associated with the observance of the holiday and in Judaism and language arts: Making associations and becoming aquainted to the language of Jewish symbols such as dreidel, gelt etc. 

Other activities included using a stencil to create Menorah shapes and shadows using yellow paint and black paper, showcasing traditional Jewish clothing in the Children of the World Dolls colored with oil pastels shown inside the sensory bin, creating Jewish symbol puzzles, and playing a traditional dreidel game. 

A faux dreidel was created using a small white box and paper cutouts cut from the Winter Celebrations cartridge by Cricut. 

A favorite of the books I read during this celebration was Happy Hanukkah, Corduroy by Don Freeman.

Now that's a lot of gelt!