This is my flannel board story and illustrations that I used when I taught 3 and 4 year old children about Hanukkah. I hope it will be helpful to you with your students or your children.
A long, long time ago a mean king ruled over the Jewish people in Israel. His name was Antiochus. Antiochus was not Jewish. He did not read the Torah and he prayed to many gods. The Jewish people loved to study Torah and they prayed to only one God.
One day Antiochus told the Jewish people, “You may no longer go to the Temple or study Torah. You must no longer pray to your God. You must pray to my gods. This made the Jewish people very sad.
The leader of the Jewish people was an old man named Mattathias. He told the Jewish people to pray secretly. “If Antiochus sends his soldiers, we shall hide the Torah and pretend we are playing a game with this little spinning toy called a dreidle.”
Then Antiochus did a terrible thing. He placed statues of his gods in the Jewish Temple and brought pigs into the Temple. The Jewish people were even sadder than before.
Mattathias had five very strong and brave sons. The strongest and bravest was Judah Maccabee. Mattathias told Judah, “Go to Antiochus. Tell him were sad, were mad, and were not going to take it anymore.” (Ask the children to go with Judah to see Antiochus by stamping their feet and as you place Antiochus on the flannel board, have them repeat Mattathias’ words, “We’re sad…..)
Judah said to Antiochus, “We’re going to make you leave our land!”
“Let’s see you try!” said Antiochus. He sent his soldiers after Judah. They were riding on huge elephants but Judah and the Maccabees were even stronger than the elephants! (Ask children to help the Maccabees get those elephants out of the land by showing their muscles).
“Yeah! We did it! Antiochus is gone and so are his elephants!” shouted the Maccabees. They went to the Temple. It was a mess! They took out all the statues and the pigs. (Ask children to help clean the temple and have them volunteer for different jobs—-cleaning floors, walls, ceiling, etc.)
After scrubbing and cleaning the Temple, the Jews still couldn’t pray until they lit the Temple menorah. They searched for oil. (Ask children if they have seen any oil).
Finally they found a small container of oil with only enough for one day. But that little bit of oil burned for eight days—that’s a miracle! (Place the seven branch menorah on the flannel board and ask children if they think it will burn longer—children can pretend to go to sleep and wake up to see the menorah continue to burn for eight days).
Today we remember this time by lighting a special menorah call a Hanukkiyah. It holds nine candles—one for every day the oil burned and a ninth candle called the shamash which is used to light all the others. We eat foods fried in oil, latkes and donuts. We spin the dreidle. Sometimes we receive presents or Hanukkah gelt. Best of all we get to wish everyone a “Happy Hanukkah!”
Questions for Discussion:
- What could Antiochus have done differently, so the Jewish people would not have made him leave their land?
- How do you feel when someone makes you do something you don’t want to do?
- Discuss miracles. Has a miracle ever happened to you?
