One Candle Burning Bright

Today, Sh excitedly arrived in school while holding a plastic bag filled with something colorful.

“Dreidel!” Shl announced, and he sang “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel” happily together with Sayaka after he was done doing his morning jobs.

“But do you know what a dreidel is?” Pauline asked us during circle time. We shook our heads no.

“This dreidel!” Shl proudly showed his plastic bag filled with colorful dreidels. We asked what we could do with it.

“You spin!” Shl said. He took one, and he spun it on the floor. He gave one to Pauline, who also excitedly spun it on the floor! It’s like the tops we play with in the class!

“But do you know why Shl brought a dreidel for everyone?” Pauline asked. Again, we shook our heads no. Pauline explained that today is the start of a very special holiday for Shl and our other Jewish friends. It’s called Hanukkah! If celebrations like Diwali, Christmas, and Eid are extra- special to other friends, then Hanukkah is the same. The teachers said that when Shl got dropped off in the morning, there was something that looked like candles on top of their van, and Shl’s dad lit them up! It looked really nice! Shl taught us that it was called a hanukkiah.

Pauline said that Petals Class has their own hanukkiah. It didn’t look as nice as the one on Shl’s van, but it had 8 candles, and 1 helper candle called the shamash. Hanukkiah lasts for 8 days, so they light one candle for each day until the last.

Before we could light up our hanukkiah, Pauline read a book so we could learn more about this beautiful holiday. She borrowed Sayaka’s book, “Sammy Spider’s Hanukkah Colors” by Sylvia A. Rouss. In the Shapiro’s house, there is a spider named Sammy, and he looks at what everyone is doing for Hanukkah. They lit up the Hanukkah menorah (We helped Sammy count the blue candles- there were 8!), Mrs. Shapiro made some yummy latkes, Josh ate a donut with a delicious red filling (Pauline wondered, what’s the filling made out of? Strawberry? *We nodded yes eagerly* Raspberry? Ketchup? *We looked a bit shocked by this, but then some of our friends were quite adventurous*)...

“I want donuts with ketchup!” Ri said.

“Me, too!” L quipped.

“And me!” H said.

…. And Mr. Shapiro gave Josh a purple dreidel to play with and spin. Sammy also wanted to spin a dreidel, but…. Spiders don’t spin dreidels, they spin webs! The end.

Pauline turned off the lights and she lit up the shamash, and the first candle. Usually, a prayer is said when the candles are lit up, but Pauline said, we can think of the things we are grateful or thankful for.

“I want to thank my Mommy and Daddy,” Co said.

“Maia, Daddy, and Kaia,” Ke said.

“How about Mommy?” the teachers asked.

“Mommy is working,” Ke said.

“Mama- thank you Mama,” Os said.

“Thank YOU!” K said.

“Mommy.. And Anaya,” R said. “Because she plays with me.”

“R- because I play with Ri,” Anaya said.

“Mommy, Daddy, and brothers,” R said.

“Mommy, Daddy, and L,” L said.

“I like L. Because I play park. We like swings,” H said.

“Thank you, mommy! Because I play with her ,” M said.

The teachers said that they are also thankful and grateful for their family- and the Petals family, too!

After that, we sang a Hanukkah song that went like this:

“One candle burning, one candle burning

One candle burning bright!

On a hanukkiah! On a hanukkiah!

On this Hanukkah night!”

After that, we had snacks and we went to the park. BRRR! It was a bit cold! But we enjoyed playing catch and tag with our teachers.

That’s all for today, and the first day of Hanukkah. How about you? How was your day?

Love,

All the happy children in Petals Class