Festival of Lights

Someone recently asked me for suggestions for fun and creative Hannukah activities for use at home with their children.
Here is something I did in my classroom which could easily be modified for use at home.

In a physical, historical, and spiritual way, Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights. Google it if you want some deep insights on the topic. But here you can read about it for activities.

It is hard to appreciate light without darkness, so today my class celebrated light (ohr) and darkness (chosech).
I blacked out the classroom windows before the students arrived, and set up our 'brightest' activities.

 The light box with stacking tubes.

 The Lite Brite.

 Bubbles with glow-sticks solution inside.

 The students LOVED it.

 Here they took the flashlight (for shadow puppets) and were exploring their magna-tile creations.

 Loving the Lite Brite.

 Combined stacking tubes with magna-tiles on the light table

 Everyone got a glow-stick. Although this picture looks like a rave, they are actually a Channukiyah, with the shamash lighting each student/light and them holding their stick up high.

 Morah Racheli prepared snack in the dark, with the cutting board on the light box.

And we ate in the dark.

Did I mention I loved it? From a sensory point of view, the experience was phenomenal. The change in sensory input was marked and caused for more relaxed environment.

In your own home you can do anything. Every house has its own assortment of glow-in-the -dark and/or light-up toys.
The idea of shadow puppets was Cohava's. She said that was her favorite thing to do in the dark.