Hanukkah Learning Activities for Kids

It seems especially important this year for all of us to reflect on the story of Hanukkah (if you need a refresher here’s a quick video on the subject) and incorporate Hanukkah learning activities at home or in the classroom.

Homeschool Superfreak has a great post all about explaining the Hanukkah story to kids, a list of activities you can do with kids and some Hanukkah facts. They also have a Hanukkah for kids printable pack available for purchase, which includes the Hanukkah story, recipes, coloring and activity sheets.

Happiness is Homemade has lovely printable Hanukkah prayer cards, which includes the words for the blessings shown in Hebrew characters, in Hebrew with the Roman alphabet, the phonetic pronunciation and the English translation. The cards are free when you sign up for emails.

24 Hour Family has a Hanukkah printable bundle, which includes a word search, hangman, unscrambling words, mazes and more. In all it’s a free 10-page printable of Hanukkah fun.

3 Dinosaurs has printable Hanukkah dot marker pages featuring a menorah, dreidel and gifts, as well as a menorah coloring page where kids can color in a candle each night.

Get color by code printables from Fantastic Fun and Learning to help with different skills. There’s a color by shape, numbers 1-5 and 5-10, and addition of sums with numbers 1-5 and 5-10 to choose from.

Everyday Jewish Mom has a great collection of Hanukkah learning activities for toddlers, including using craft sticks as candles to practice counting to eight, making the Hebrew letters from the dreidel with play dough and more.

And Living Montessori Now has collected a bunch of great Hanukkah related activities with a Montessori twist, including printable pictures with definitions available for purchase, ideas for sensory bins, labeling the parts of a menorah and more.

I’ve also shared printables from Active Littles and free Hanukkah vocabulary cards if you need more ideas!

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Teach the Teacher Printable Worksheets: A Fun…

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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