In today’s blog, I will be sharing 2 Primary and 3 Upper Elementary Lesson ideas to incorporate learning about Hanukkah into your General Music classes! If you are new around here, my name is Jessie and I am an Elementary Kindergarten through 6th Grade General Music Teacher in Arizona and, along with this blog, I also have a YouTube channel where I share modern lesson ideas, planning and organizational tips and everything in the General music world!
Before we get going, I believe it is important for me to share that I am not an expert on Hanukkah and am still learning myself every year, as I do not celebrate Hanukkah myself. However, I feel it is so important and valuable to research and share what I can about the musical traditions associated with Hanukkah with my students and, particularly for my students who celebrate at my school, I always want them to feel seen and feel it is the least I can do for them to be represented. It is so important to me that I expand my scope of lesson repertoire to allow my lessons to be culturally relevant to all my students. Of course, I will still make mistakes, but I am trying my best to find authentic content to be teaching whenever I feel I am not an expert!
Primary Lesson Ideas
Lesson Idea #1: “Nu in the Middle” – Song by Rachel Buchman
I want to shoutout Aileen Miracle and her blog for the initial inspiration for this lesson idea, as I first saw it over there and found a wonderful recording by Rachel Buchman, which you can find below. It has a really cute melody and the first verse is a riddle, which after singing to my students, I prompt them for what holiday we are talking about. There are 4 verses and it gives a great little overview about various Hanukkah traditions like the menorah, latkes, dreidel, and presents. I find it such a joy to sing with my students and a wonderful introduction song for them to first introduce them to Hanukkah.
Lesson Idea #2: Song and Instrument Activity from the Kindergarten – GamePlan book
First, you’ll need to set up 8 students to sit in a row to simulate the 8 candles of the menorah. Whoever is the student in the middle will be in charge of “lighting” the candles. Next, go ahead and give each student a little paper “flame” that they’ll put on their heads during the song, meaning that their body is the candle! The student in the middle of the menorah is in charge of “lighting” each candle (perhaps tapping on the students’ heads) throughout the song. Finally, the students who aren’t the candles will be given a Metal percussion instrument (Triangle works great!) to play along on the numbers within the song.
We start singing the song, which is additive in nature as the number of candles increasing, corresponding to the eight days of Hanukkah.
One little (2, 3, 4…) candle(s) burning bright
One little (2, 3, 4…) candle(s), it’s Hanukkah tonight
After each candle added, the triangles play that number of times before singing “burning bright” and “it’s Hanukkah tonight”. It’s a wonderful segway into discussing a little bit about the menorah and the meaning behind it, along with adding an instrumental focus within our lesson.
Upper Elementary Lesson Ideas
Lesson Idea #1: “Hanukkah, O Hanukkah” – Song adapted from a Yiddish folk song
This song allows for all kinds of great introductory conversations about the traditions of Hanukkah celebrations. My district recently adopted Quaver Music as its curriculum and they have a neat version of it with a video, which helps to see and begin talking about the various symbols and customs that are associated with the holiday. If your district doesn’t use Quaver, there are variety of great versions on YouTube, including, I believe, an arrangement from Music K-8. I love singing the song with my students and having it organically lead to further discussions.
Lesson Idea #2: “Bim Bam Bom” – Israeli Folk Dance in AB Form
This dance is actually choreographed for kids, is in Hebrew, and showcases the words “Bim Bam Bom” often within the song. For setup, you’ll have your students in a Double Circle / Concentric circles, meaning that they are shoulder to shoulder with a partner, facing the same direction.
During the A section, everybody walks around the circle with their partner and on each repeat of the phrase “Bim, Bam, Bom”, you stop, face your partner and do a “Pat, Clap, Double Partner Clap” to the words “Bim, Bam, Bom”. This happens 4 times during the A section (32 beats total [8×4]; 4 beats of walking and 4 beats of “Bim, Bam, Bom”)
For the B section, students face their partner and take 4 steps Backwards and 4 steps Forward. This makes the inner circle get smaller and the outer circle larger. Next, the students do a Right Elbow turn with their partner for 8 beats, ending in the same spot. This repeats one more time for a total of 32 beats (16×2).
Teacher Tip:
- If your students have a difficult time with a Right Elbow turn, I like to help them visualize it by saying they’re pretending to give their partner a handshake, but then “Sike!” and skip the hand and connect elbows instead!
- During the B section, emphasize that the inner circle students make sure and take small steps so that they don’t run into each other.
Here’s a great web resource with videos and more information:
https://folkdancemusings.blogspot.com/2016/02/bim-bam-bom-israel.html
Lesson Idea #3: The Dreidel Song – Introducing the Dreidel with a Game
In addition to learning the real Dreidel game using the symbols on the dreidel and chocolate coins, which is super fun and valid in of itself, I also like to challenge my students with a game after learning the Dreidel Song.
For setup, I put my students into small groups and give them one dreidel and a whiteboard to spin it on, since I have carpet. I give them a short amount of time just to spin it a few times, since I know this is what they want to do anyways! Next, I challenge everyone to start spinning the dreidel, start singing the Dreidel song and notice what word in the song the dreidel stops spinning on. Whatever that word is, I challenge my students to “beat” that word that it stopped on by seeing if they can get it to spin longer. After a while, my kids are usually able to sing the whole song in the time span of the spin, with some even figuring out that they can sing it through twice if they sing it faster!
It’s a super engaging and just plain fun way for my older kids to be singing and practicing this song, with the game aspect serving as the hook!
Final Thoughts
Those are my lesson ideas for incorporating learning about Hanukkah in the Elementary Music classroom. I hope you found them helpful and, as always, if you have any questions or lessons of your own, feel free to share them down in the comments below!
Jessie Powell
Music and Motivate
