School Sparks - Kindergarten Readiness

Why I love Hanukkah worksheets

Hanukkah worksheets provide a great opportunity to combine a child's love of holiday celebrations with his love of learning. Whether your family celebrates Hanukkah or other December holidays, these worksheets can be great fun for children. Those who celebrate the Festival of Lights will enjoy seeing some of the familiar Hanukkah symbols on the worksheets, including the Menorah, dreidel, gelt, latkes and the Star of David. Children who do not celebrate Hanukkah may have seen some of these symbols in store displays.

Children enjoy hearing about holidays that others celebrate, as well as learning about their own, so these worksheets can be a perfect introduction to the concept that there is another holiday celebrated in December.

Tips for using the Hanukkah worksheets

The tracing words worksheets are are great way to introduce the symbols of Hanukkah, as each word is paired with the appropriate picture. Read the word to your child and ask him to say it as he traces over the letters. These sheets will also introduce some of the sight words that are to follow in the next two worksheets.

As with other sight word pages, copy onto heavy weight paper before cutting into cards. Show your child the cards to see if he recalls any of the words from the tracing pages. Then introduce the sight words slowly, showing your child additional cards as he learns some of the words. You may wish to read all of the cards to your child and ask him which words he would like to add to his sight vocabulary.

When asking your child to complete the following directions page, cut the pictures and let your child place them on the page, listening to your directions. Once he has completed the page correctly, he can go back and paste each picture in the proper square.

For the pages asking to identify the first letter sound and the number of syllables in words, point to each picture and say its name. Then ask your child to repeat the name of the picture after you before he sets out to complete the worksheet. This is especially important if the pictures are new to your child.

Extra activities to supplement the Hanukkah worksheets

• Ask your child to spot some of these familiar Hanukkah words in store windows or newspaper ads. He can practicing write the words on a blank sheet of paper.
• Draw a large Jewish star for your child and challenge him to trace over it a few times. Then ask him to draw his own Jewish star on the same sheet of paper, using your star as a guide.
• When setting the table for a Hanukkah dinner after lighting the candles on the menorah, purposely omit a fork or napkin or glass from one of the place settings. Ask your child to spot the mistake.
• Say aloud one of the four letters on the dreidel and ask your child to keep spinning his dreidel until he lands on the letter you said. He will need to keep spinning while remembering the letter.
• Say aloud a word and challenge your child to respond with a Hanukkah-themed word that begins with the same sound. For example, you could say “grandma” and your child would say “gelt.”
• Give your child a bag of gelt, a dreidel, a menorah, and a potato pancake (or a picture of each) and ask him to put them in order based on how many syllables each item has.