So we spent our two weekday sessions this week focusing on the holiday across the curriculum - in our Hebrew Through Movement activities, our music session with Ben and the other two 5th/6th grade tracks, and in our own Edot part of the session.
Just before our Thanksgiving holiday break, I had been teaching Shabbat vocabulary. We began our HTM session by reviewing the vocabulary, especially those words relating to lighting the candles. We reviewed not only the words to the Shabbat candle blessing, but also the melody we sing at Temple Isaiah. It's not that easy a melody to catch onto quickly, so I've been singing it along with the students.
Then it was very simple for me to segue over to Hanuka vocabulary, comparing the word for a Shabbat (or any occasion) candlestick - 'pamot' - to the word for a Hanuka menora - hanukiya. The students already recognize the words for candle - ner - and "to light" - l'hadleek from our Shabbat vocabulary. There is just one word that changes in the first Hanuka blessing over the candles from the Shabbat candle blessing - the name of the holiday at the very end of the blessing. And the melody of the Hanuka candle blessing chant is different from that of the Shabbat blessing chant.
Of course, we couldn't even begin to review or introduce vocabulary until we had a warm-up session to get the blood running after sitting and listening to me read the story. Since I don't follow a script when I give commands, each day I issue commands that come to mind.
On Tuesday:
On Wednesday:
After our Hebrew Through Movement session, we immediately go outside and climb up to the lawn outside the Sanctuary for hafsaka (recess), where we now have a Gaga "pit" in which most of the children enjoy playing. Unfortunately, because of recent rains, we had to forego the game since the "pit" was filled with water. Luckily, we still have balls and jump ropes for everyone to play with.
Then it's time for tefillah (prayer service) in the Beit Knesset with Rabbi Greninger and Ben. This week, our warm-up songs as all the 3rd-6th graders gathered in the BK was a Hanuka song - "Seveevon, Sov Sov Sov" (the dreydl song). And before we began the actual service, Rabbi Greninger shared the happy news that in just two weeks we'll be holding our "Bring-A-Friend" days at JQuest (Tuesday, December 12th and Wednesday, December 13th) when each JQuest student can bring along one friend to class for a wonderful session filled with Hanuka games and songs and candle lighting.
Back in our own classroom after tefillah, I introduced the holiday by asking the students to share how Jews celebrate Hanuka. We made a list on the whiteboard as they shared: lighting the candles, eating latkes and jelly doughnuts and maybe chocolate Hanuka gelt, giving presents, and singing Hanuka songs. Then I asked the students to tell me which items on the list were required by the Rabbis to celebrate Hanuka. They all agreed that only lighting the candles and "making famous the miracle" (Rabbi Greninger had shared the Hebrew phrase "peersom ha'nes" during tefillah) were required. I then introduced the Hebrew word "halacha" and asked everyone in the class what they had to do in our Hebrew Through Movement sessions when I gave the command "la'lechet." They all immediately answered "walk." Halacha is the term for Jewish law - what is required of all Jews everywhere in the world. It is a "path we walk on" or, to bring up a metaphor I've shared in class before, "a line upon which we balance in order to achieve tikkun olam." So for Hanuka, the only "halacha" that is required of us, is to light one candle each night on a hanukiya until we have all 8 candles (plus a servant candle - a shammash) burning on the final night of the holiday, and to "make famous the miracle" by putting the hanukiya in a window or other location where as many people passing by can see it. (Of course, in times of danger, Jews were given permission not to follow this part of the law.")
I then introduced the word "masoret" (tradition/customs), and asked which items on the whiteboard list fit under this category. Again, all the students recognized immediately that every other item we had listed fit under this category. I then shared that this coming Sunday, we'll be doing an art project that will teach us customs for celebrating Hanuka of 8 other Jewish edot (Diaspora communities) - one community for each day of Hanuka.
Before it was time to go to music in Shira's classroom, we read a summary of how to tell the difference between a menorah (literally, a lamp in Hebrew) which is found in synagogues and which originated in the portable Sanctuary built by the Israelites in the wilderness, from a hanukiya, used exclusively for the Hanuka holiday. Each student then received a packet of worksheets which challenged them to answer questions relating to the menorah and the hanukiya. Since we didn't have time to finish the packet in class, I offered two stickers in our Stumpers/Challenge program to any student who could successfully answer all the questions either at home or in class, and hand in the packet. Almost everyone took me up on my offer, filing the packets in their folders to work on later.
We finished our session with Ben, learning two Hanuka songs:
Mi Y'malel (Who Can Retell) and "O Hanuka" a song describing several Hanuka customs. After Ben taught us Mi Y'malel, he challenged each track to sing it alone. Here's our Edot rendition:
And here's everyone singing O Hanuka using hand motions that Ben taught us:
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