The Story of....

I was invited to my son's school to read a book and share the story of Hannukah to his class.

Now I remember the story how I was told as a child and built on the reality and details of that story as I got older and it became more conceptually age appropriate for me. 

Much like the Maccabeats sing it, it's all about the Nais (the miracle). But how do I (a non educational trained person convey the story of Hannukah to a group of 5 year olds. I'm sorry, a group of 5 year olds who most of their native language is not English and never heard of Hannukah before. 

Initially, I contacted a teacher friend of mine who teaches this age and asked if she had a book I could borrow. She came to the rescue and shared it with me, "Chanukah Lights Everywhere" by Michael L. Rosen. 

Reading it was more about family, being together and the symbols of Hannukah, applesauce, driedels, menorahs and gelt. All a great message to convey but not about Judah and the Greeks or oil lasting 8 days. 

It made me want to look and see what of our books at home might work. PJ library has been a wonderful resource for holiday books. Most are big hits in our house like "The Schmutzy's" and "And Then Another Sheep Turned Up".  Turns out the two Hanukkah books we have from PJ are similar to the book my friended shared with me. "Melly's Menorah" not such a winner for this crowd and I'm not a fan of the message, blow off the youngest child all day until that child ends up saving the day, forget that the book did not touch on Judah and the Macabees at all.  Maybe at 5 years old the kids aren't ready? 

I felt like this was an opportunity to share our experience as Jewish with kids from all over the world, a unique experience. 

I told the kids about the Greeks trashing all the oil and how there was only oil left to last one day. But by a miracle it lasted 8 days. I brought in the awesome menorah my son made last year at MDS day school in Morah Yehudis class and we demonstrated how we put the candles in and light them each night. 

I hope our sharing will leave an impression on these kids so they'll be able to say " yes, my classmate and his mom told us about Hannukah".