Nature's Menorah - KB

As the overriding theme in our class for this year has been nature, children apply nature to many of our curriculum units.  For Chanukah, children requested to make a menorah out of sticks collected from outside.

After gathering as many sticks as they could from the playground, children decorated them with blue-toned paint and glitter. 

After the paint dried, we worked together to arrange them on a large black poster board and glue them on with lots of sticky glue.  “I need more glue!” one child called.  Using paint brushes, children spread the glue in long strokes across the poster board.  “There’s a bunch of glue there!” another child noted, pointing to a large spill of glue with her paint brush. 

We reviewed how many days there are of Chanukah, how many days the oil lasted in the Chanukah story, and how many lights there are on the menorah.  The answer to all of them is 8!  In response, we made sure that our stick menorah had 8 “branches” (plus one for the tall shammash candle).

Adorning our menorah with fire-colored nature “lights” was next.  Taking pine cones and large seed pods we collected from outside, we dipped each in flame colored orange paint.  Our menorah now looks ready for Chanukah!

Reflecting on our work centered on the bulletin board, children pointed, “Look—our menorah!”  Regarding the black poster board paper which stands out sharply against the colored sticks and flame-colored pine cones, Morah Adi explained, “Black reminds us that we only light the menorah at night, not during the day.”  May the Chanukah lights we kindle this year bring sparks of light, hope, and joy to the dark nights.