Hanukkah Activities for Kids

Hanukkah starts this year on Christmas Eve, so it’s a great time to incorporate a little spinning science and other Hanukkah crafts and activities into our learning.

Share it Science has a great post about spinning dreidels and other tops, which involves using different tops and determining spin time, as well as making your own spinning objects to see how different factors change how long a top spins.

If kids want to make their own dreidels, they can use the easy instructions at What Do We Do All Day. She also has instructions for a LEGO menorah and how to make your own gelt.

And Planet Smarty has a look at a Hanukkah book for preschoolers, as well as an easy Star of David craft, and activities and books for older kids, including a perler bead star and a different LEGO menorah.

Do you do Hanukkah activities with your kids? We have one Hanukkah book (it’s a Sesame Street one) we read as part of our book advent calendar but probably should do more.

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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