Happy Hanukkah!

As promised, here is the Hanukkah song-play I wrote last month:

This can be a finger-play or a game, depending on the age of the kids and how many are in the group.


Happy Hanukkah

Happy Hanukkah, it's the first* night,
How many candles do we light?  
(hold hands out)
We light one!  
(hold up 1 finger)

Happy Hanukkah, candles burning bright!  
(let candle finger "flicker"/ wiggle)
Burning down and out of sight!  
(lower candle finger and hide hand behind your back)

Change the words for the 8 nights, until you have 4 fingers up in each hand.

Here is a video of the finger-play version.

You can also use this song as a group game.

Variation 1:
 -Place 8  paper plates in a line.  Put 1 plate in front or to the side.  These are the "candle holders"/ menorah.
-Choose 1 child to be the "Shamash"- the candle that lights the other candles.  Have them stand on the plate set apart.

All: Happy Hanukkah it's the first night, how many candles do you light?
Shamash: I light one!
[The shamash taps a friend on the head ("lights the candle") and they go to stand on the first plate on the right.]
All: Happy Hanukkah, candles burning bright! Burning down and out of sight!
[The shamash and candles sing and wiggle/ "flicker", then slowly bend down and fall to the ground on "sight!"]

-Next, the Shamash taps another friend on the head to be the second candle, and so on, until there are 9 children up, making the menorah.


We have 28 kids in our classes, and I tried this, changing the Shamash and candles each "night".  I'll be honest.  It took way to long.  I think it would be great with older elementary children.  And perfect for a group half the size.  Even if you have more than 9 kids, you could make a group of Shamash candles- why not?!

Enjoy!

*My husband takes issue with singing "we light one!" when we are actually lighting 2 candles: the shamash and the first candle.  I always imagined it was the shamash singing, and, therefor, the shamash (which is the lighting-candle, after all) lights one.