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Chanukah songs and games for children
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Here it is...the best Chanukah songs and games for your child's Chanukah celebrations and playgroups! Collect your dreidels and play a traditional dreidel game or make your own Chanukah BINGO cards by pasting Chanukah images on BINGO cards. Bravo to teacher Andie Baitz who uses chocolate Chanukah gelt instead of "bingo markers" to mark the callout cards (brilliant!)
Start with the classic Chanukah songs. These are the songs you sang as a child that bring back magical childhood memories when you sing them again with your children. I Have a Little Dreidel, Oh Chanukah and S'vivon are traditional and timeless. You'll find the best of kids' Chanukah music on Judy Caplan Ginsburgh CD, Chanukah Favorites, and Andi Joseph's CD, It Was a Miracle.
Andi Joseph also has two very fun "latke" songs, Sizzling Latkes and Listen & Do. The first song is an easy-to-learn-chant your child will be singing while cooking latkes. Yes, of course - have a cooking party for friends! Young children love mixing the ingredients from a simple latke box-mix or here's the best latke recipe from Zabar's for inspired young chefs. The latke-chant goes like this: Put the oil in the pot and let it get hot. Put the latkes in and you start to grin. Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...yum, yum, yum. In Listen & Move, children act out Chanukah themes: sizzle like a latke, spin like a dreidel, march like a Maccabee. You can plan a whole afternoon around the latke cooking theme. After cooking, singing and eating, play a game of "hot latke" instead of "hot potato".
For a new twist on Chanukah music, check out the Shirettes singing Cha Cha Chanukah. Who says you can't grab the maracas and start a Chanukah conga line? This CD also has my felt board story favorite: Red Candle sung to the tune of Brown Bear. Make an interactive felt board song that you can sing with the children or your child can play alone. Simply cut 9 different color candles from felt to sing: Red candle, red candle, what do you see? I see a ____ candle looking at me...And so on until you get to the 9th candle, then sing I see a ____ shamash looking at me. I like to finish the felt-story with another song: Light the candles, light the candles, on the chanukiah, on the chanukiah. It's time to celebrate, it's time to celebrate, Chanukah, Chanukah! The Shirettes are a fantastic resource for music and curriculum ideas for your school and offer fun concerts too.
So many songs - so little time! Here's two more favorites. I'm a Little Dreidel from Judy Caplan Ginsburgh's Chanukah Favorites: I'm a little dreidel, short and thin. Hold me in your fingers; now the game can begin. Then you give me a twist and turn me around. I'll spin and I'll spin till I fall to the ground. Combine this song with dreidel decorating kit from OyToys.com or a dreidel game board from ChaiKids.com.
Judy Asuleen taught me this last song for my favorites list - Herbie the Hanukkah Candle. It goes like this: Herbie the Hanukkah Candle had a very shiny light. And if you ever saw it, you would say it shines so bright. All of the other candles used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Herbie join in any Chanukah games. Then one foggy Hannukah night, the rabbi came to say, "Herbie with your light so bright, won't you light my menorah tonight". Then all the other candles loved him, as they shouted out with glee, " Herbie the Hanukkah canlde, you'll go down in history".
A Chanukah celebration isn't complete without talking about the miracle of light. Children are mesmerized by candles or lights in the dark. So be sure to retell the story of Chanukah. Here's a beautiful ritual suggested by Maxine Segal Handelman in her book for teachers called Jewish Every Day. Help the children to experience the meaning of Chanukah by sitting in the dark, or with one candle lit in the center of your circle, and talk about how the darkness feels. Ask the children, "how would you feel if there was no candle light at all?" Sometimes, children give us the most profound reminders of the real meaning of a holiday.
Happy Chanukah friends!
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