Kindergarten Worksheets > Holiday Themes > Hanukkah math
Hanukkah is a fun holiday filled with traditions and time with family. Pictures are an easy way to teach young children about the holiday, since Hanukkah has many holiday-specific items such as a dreidel, gelt, and menorah. Since these items naturally capture a child’s attention, worksheets that feature these items are a fun way to encourage math learning around the holidays. The following Hanukkah math worksheets will give your child an opportunity to practice important early math skills like counting, sorting, graphing, and pattern creation.
For added fun, try some Hanukkah worksheets. They feature the same adorable illustrations and provide wonderful opportunities to practice following directions, improve handwriting, and begin introductory reading activities.
Counting
Counting
Counting
Bar graph
Pictograph
Patterns
Classifying
Bar graph template
Why I love Hanukkah math worksheets
I love Hanukkah math worksheets for one simple reason: They are hard to find! When December rolls around each year, it seems that all math worksheets turn into Christmas-themed worksheets with Santa and Rudolph on nearly every page. As a teacher, I always tried to incorporate all major holidays into my lesson plans and a few wonderful Hanukkah math worksheets were always a big hit with my students.
For example, I always loved when children asked if they could count each piece of gelt instead of just counting each bag of gelt, or when they would come to school with a bar graph showing how many latkes each of their family members ate the night before. Hanukkah is simply a wonderful holiday to celebrate with math worksheets.
Tips for using the Hanukkah math worksheets
The Hanukkah pictures can make counting interesting and fun. Encourage your child to use the pointer finger of his dominant hand to touch each picture as he counts. This encourages one-to-one correspondence and increases accuracy when counting. Also, direct your child to touch the pictures going from the left side of the page to the right when possible. This is the direction eyes move when reading and counting in the same direction is wonderful reinforcement for young children.
The sorting and classifying Hanukkah worksheet can be challenging for children because there are several ways to categorize the pictures. Your child may decide to use size, color, or item material (wood vs. non-wood, for example) as the criteria. Perhaps he will decide to sort the pictures into outdoor items vs. indoor items. Your child can really stretch his imagination with this worksheet. Let him place the cut pictures onto the worksheet and explain his categories to you before his pastes them on the page. You can copy this worksheet several times before cutting the pictures at the bottom to give your child several opportunities for creating different groups and categories.
Extra activity suggestions to supplement the Hanukkah math worksheets
- Some say it’s not Hanukkah without gelt! For an easy (and delicious!) Hanukkah math activity, buy several bags of gelt and let your child count the total number of coins you have purchased by adding the total number of coins in each bag.
- Empty a box of Hanukkah candles and challenge your child to count how many candles are in the box. Typically there are at least 44 candles in a box, so this activity requires advanced counting skills. Or, give your child a box of Hanukkah candles then challenge him to create a bar graph of the different colors of the candles in the box.
- Using a calendar, ask your child to count how many days remain before Hanukkah. Then increase the difficulty by asking questions such as “How many days before the third night of Hanukkah?”
- Give your child yellow dot stickers and let him record on a blank graphing sheet the amount of Hanukkah latkes each person in the family eats. Each yellow dot equals one latke.
- Using a box of Hanukkah candles, ask your child to create a pattern that repeats at least twice. For example, red candle, blue candle, green candle, red candle, blue candle, green candle.
- Challenge your child to sort the Hanukkah cards your family received. He can sort by shape, size, color, or any other attribute he wants.
- Challenge your child to great a bar graph of everyone's favorite Hanukkah food. Latkes, gelt, corned beef, and grape juice will likely get many votes.
