Hanukkah is another well-known holiday among our school community. I explained why Hanukkah is 8 days long and how it is based on the Jewish calendar, the lighting of the Menorah, as well as the food (latkes, sofganiyot) that is eaten to celebrate it.
Video taken from youtube.
I also read a simple online book on Hanukkah from Epic books so that students could see how all these aspects come together in its celebration. Because of its connection to the Bible and similarities with Christmas, this Jewish holiday was a good compliment and comparison to Christmas.
Image taken from ebay.com
For the Y5s an Y6s, I also introduced the German-speaking legend of Krampus, who is half goat and had devil with horns who beats naughty children with a stick and carries them away chained and in a basket. Teachers decided that although this would be too frightening for EY students, JYP teachers agreed that it would be fun for older primary students to learn about this Alpine folklore from Bavaria and Austria.
As we do not have any books on Krampus, I did show a light-hearted travel video about the Krampus march in Munich.
Image taken from http://www.ilovehalloween.net.
As we do not have any books on Krampus, I did show a light-hearted travel video about the Krampus march in Munich.
Video taken from Youtube.
However, we did not forget Christmas, but I did want to add a dinosaur twist to Christmas. There seems to be a fascination of dinosaurs with Santa Claus and the students, both EY and JY, thoroughly enjoyed both these poetic rhymes featuring Father Christmas and the popular giant extinct reptiles.
Image taken from Amazon.in.
Image taken from Amazon.com
Happy Hanukkah and merry Christmas to all. May Krampus never take you away in chains, and no dinosaur poop on your Christmas tree.
