Chanukah in Kitah Alef Bet

Potatoes are the stars of this holiday! We use them to make latkes, and we can also use them to decorate with pegs. We pressed so hard with our muscles in order to make them stick!

A tissue paper collage on a dreidel-shaped paper is a great way to practice our ability to choose and arrange the paper, and use glue to make them stick!

Potatoes are useful for so many things! We split red potatoes in half and dipped in paint to make colorful potato prints.

We love watching the colors mix!

We made colorful decorations for our windows. While choosing the colors, we used the words, "red," "yellow," and "blue."

Contact paper, sticky side up, was a great surface on which to arrange our colors. When we were finished, we removed it from the table and hung it in a window in our classroom.

Giving and receiving gifts is a big part of this holiday. At lunchtime, we read a gift from Ziva's Gaga and Poppie, I Want My Hat Back. We loved it and asked to hear it again and again! Thanks!

IJP Friday T-shirts

On Friday mornings when the children see their friends in matching t- shirts there are exclamations of "same shirt", "matchy matchy" "IJP today" "it's Friday", in short, it's happiness.

Rabbi Sollish visits KDH

A visit from Rabbi Sollish to KDH is always a special treat.

What did we discuss today? 

Why do we celebrate Chanukah? How many days do we celebrate? Do oil and water mix?  And finally, what lesson do we learn from lighting candles and fire?  

We watched Rabbi Sollish take one candle as the shamash and light the wick in the olive oil. Then Rabbi Sollish filled a cup with water. He poured some of the water into a second cup from the first cup. Now, there was less water in the first cup. But what had happened when Rabbi Sollish used the flame from the shamash to light the menorah? The fire from the shamash did not diminish! When we study and teach Torah or help others, what we have is not diminished! 

What an interesting Chanukah thought. Thank you, Rabbi Sollish. Please come back again, soon. 

Chanukiot and Open Ended Art

Open ended art is child directed, with choices of different materials, no models or samples are shown, creativity is fostered, there is no right or wrong way and children are given ample time to explore and use the materials.

How can we have the children make kosher*, fire proof chanukiot, and yet foster the creativity that open ended art inspires? We offered the children a choice of different colored tiles and each child designed his/her own menorah. Some children made patterns, others used one kind of tile on one side of the chanukiah and another on the other side. Some children stood the tiles up and other lay them flat to look like diamonds. The only requirement* was that the candles be on one level, in a straight line and the shamash on a different level.

Each chanukiah is a unique and beautiful work of art! Happy Chanukah!

By Morah Ruth - KDH

Chanukah Science Experiment: Oil and Water

This week in Kitah Alef Bet, we have been singing the "Sizzle Sizzle Sizzle" song that describes pouring oil into a pot to make latkes for Chanukah:

The oil goes in the pot,
It gets so very hot.
My mommy puts the latkes in,
Oh boy, I'll eat a lot!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle
 (We wiggle at the "sizzle" part!)
 Oh boy I'll eat a lot!

 Oil is a very important part of this holiday. What else can we learn about oil?

To answer this question, we did a science experiment together.

What happens when you combine oil and water?

We added a few drops of purple food coloring to the water, so we could see it really well!

Adding oil to the water. "I see bubbles!" some classmates exclaimed.

Let's shake it up!

What's going on in there? We look and wonder...

Everybody loves using their muscles to shake the bottle!

The oil-water-food coloring mixture gets frothy, but the oil always stays at the top

 Then we held the bottle steady for a few moments and watched the liquids separate. Kitah Alef Bet discovered: Oil and water do not mix!

To learn more about the significance of oil on Chanukah, go here.