No Time For Flash Cards » Hanukkah

Books About Hanukkah

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 08:31:46 +0000

The Miracle of Hanukkah by Seymour Chwast is a great non fiction book about Hanukkah. It explains the history behind the holiday in an easy to understand format. My favorite part is how the book has many different layers of pages to explain the fight between the Maccabees and Antiochus, it’s a fun way to keep kids into it while explaining the history. Great book !

Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat: A Chanukah Story by Naomi Howland is a Hanukkah story about kindness repaid and how things can go awry. Sadie is a kind young woman and after she offers her fire wood to an older woman who is cold the older woman repays her with a magic frying pan. This pan magically makes latkes , as many as you want if you say the magic words . Her hungry brothers are overjoyed, their bellies are full but as often happens, they get greedy. See the frying pan will keep cooking and cooking unless you know the magic words to make it stop, and her brothers didn’t hear those words. Mayhem ensues but the family and village find a way to make the mountains of latkes into a celebration. Beware you will be craving latkes after reading this, luckily there is a recipe.

A Confused Hanukkah: An Original Story of Chelm by Jon Koons is a delightful story about the village of Chelm, known by some as the village of fools. The people of Chelm aren’t the brightest and when their Rabbi is away they have no one to guide them about Hanukkah. So they send a villager out to find out how to celebrate it, only he misses the nearby village and ends up in the big city where there are Christmas trees. After he returns the village gets ready for Hanukkah with a dreidel covered Christmas tree, and they select the biggest fattest villager to be dressed as their version of Santa. Luckily the Rabbi returns , and gets the village back on course , explaining the proper Hanukkah traditions and the reasons behind them all. I love this book, I think it’s a great comical look at Hanukkah while really teaching much about it as well.

Hanukkah Lights by Ben Lakner is a book that is fun for a variety of ages and explains so much. For someone like me who has grown up with friends who celebrate Hanukkah but doesn’t herself, I know a little bit about the holiday but am fuzzy on the details. This book clears up those fuzzies! There is so much in this board book, little kids will love lifting the flaps to reveal fun details. The text is too long for the average toddler though, so if you are reading it only to a tiny one, I’d focus on the pictures and flaps, they are wonderful. If you are reading this with an older preschooler it’s perfect and they still love the flaps too!

Hanukkah Lights by David Martin is a new book to us and perfect for my toddler. Even though we do not celebrate Hanukkah I want my kids to be familiar with various religions and celebrations that go with them, this is a perfect first Hanukkah book . My daughter loved it and it was fun to read with my son and have him read unfamiliar words. I was so excited to find a great Hanukkah book for toddlers.

The Only One Club by Jane Naliboff is a cute book about a little girl named Jennifer who is the only one in her class who celebrates Hanukkah. Soon she finds out that there are lots of “Only Ones” in her class , like the only one with red hair, the only one who wears dresses every day and the only one with a unique last name. I like the message this book has, that we should celebrate our diversity and tell our kids it’s not a bad thing to be unique.

Hanukkah Haiku by Harriet Ziefert is a bright and cheery look at the traditions surrounding the holiday within the parameters of a haiku on every page. The illustrations by Karla Gudeon are so detailed I spent ages just looking at all of it. Each page is a haiku that goes along with a night of Hanukkah and it also explains briefly some of the other traditions like playing driedel , eating latkes and chocolate gold coins!

Hanukkah Crafts

admin — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 08:01:01 +0000

Sent In By You!

These crafts come from Michelle from Chic Baby New York who is a former teacher and mom who generously shared her creativity – she mentioned that a No Time For Flash Cards craft last year inspired the Star of David craft , can you tell which one? Yes our Snowglobe Snowman! Thanks Michelle.

Hanukkah Star of David

Materials:

1 Sheet of white card stock, paint (I used roller paint), pencil, ribbon, sequence, tape, glitter pens ( or regular glitter), hole puncher, contact paper & scissors.

1) Trace out a star of David

2) Paint it (we used blue) and let dry.

3) Cut out a piece of contact paper about a rectangular size since you will be folding it over…make sure it will be big enough to cover the center of the star (folded).

4)Add glitter and sequence to the contact paper and fold over in half when done, making sure there is no exposed sticky areas. Just so you know, the glitter pens leave a little glue film when dryed, so if you want it clearer, you should use regular glitter.

5) Cut out the center of the star and attach the glittered contact paper part with tape.

6) Punch a hole at the top and put a string through it to hang it up.

A Menorah of shapes.

Materials:

2 pieces of construction paper, 1 piece of white paper, 9 sequences, glue, scissors and a marker.

1) Trace out the shapes for the Menorah on 1 piece of paper. You will need to draw a semi circle, a large square, a long rectangle, a small square.

2) On the other paper, cut out 9 rectangles for the candles, I just eyed them instead of tracing them like on the Menorah. Cut everything out.

3) Start gluing. I outlined the Menorah in glue but the little one did the candles. I was told I didn’t make the glue outline ‘big enough’.

4) Add the round sequences for the flames, which is a great fine motor skill practice. You could cut out little triangles for the flames (to take the ‘shape’ theme all the way) or even using crumpled tissue paper or glitter.

5) Completed (with a lot of extra glue everywhere…which is how we like it)!

Hanukkah Crafts and Books!

admin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:01:52 +0000

Old Crafts – New Books

These are my Hanukkah kids crafts from last year, mixed with books I have recently found. Hanukkah is fast approaching and I wanted to make it easy for you to find what we have to offer. I am eagerly looking for guest posters for Hanukkah themed posts , if you are interested email me Enjoy!

Foam Menorah

Dreidel

Popsicle Stick Star of David

Books

The Miracle of Hanukkah by Seymour Chwast is a great non fiction book about Hanukkah. It explains the history behind the holiday in an easy to understand way and I love how they have this book laid out. My favorite part is how the book has many different layers of pages to explain the fight between the Maccabees and Antiochus, it’s a fun way to keep kids into it while explaining the history. Great book !

Holiday Book Sneak Peak

admin — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:58:11 +0000

Guess Who’s Coming to Santa’s for Dinner? by Tomie dePaola is a funny book about the classic family gathering. I don’t know about you but our family Christmas dinners were more comical than Norman Rockwell and I related so well to all the different family personalities, and quirks. My son thought the fact that one of Santa’s friends brought a polar bear was hilarious, but was perplexed by the absence of any elves. I like that Santa is exhausted by his family but in the end happy he hosted such a large family gathering. My son liked it, and loved the illustrations but it is a longer book so take a flip through it to see if your child is ready yet.

Cock-A-Doodle Christmas by Will Hillenbrand is a really unique Christmas story. A little rooster is at the center of this book, he is so little that his cock-a-doodle doesn’t wake anyone up. He is very sad about his inability until that night he finds himself in the manger with Baby Jesus and finds his voice. It’s a simple book, with profound meanings. This is a great book for a Christan family or to read at Sunday school.

Bear Stays Up for Christmasby Karma Wilson is such a heartwarming story about friendship. Bear is hibernating but his friends wake him up to celebrate Christmas. It’s not easy at first , Bear is super sleepy and wants nothing more than to cuddle back up and fall back to sleep. They get a tree, decorate it, hang their stockings and sing carols. When all the other animals snuggle in and go to sleep Bear stays up. He is busily making gifts for all his friends, he is so busy he doesn’t even notice Santa coming and filling the stockings. He delights in the friendship and when his friends present him with a lovely quilt, he snuggles under and goes back to sleep happy and filled with friendship. This is such a wonderful book , I love it’s focus on friendship and the excitement of giving gifts!