The ECLC Explores Chanukah

Chanukah is a fun holiday that has underlying concepts of joy, miracles and light that lead to expanding learning opportunities for our young children at the ECLC. One of our educator’s favorite parts is being able to join in on the JCC’s door decorating contest. It is always exciting to see the creativity of the children and educators as they have fun decorating for Chanukah and bringing the holiday’s spirit into the building.

From the beginning of the school year, our ECLC educators have been taking part in a variety of professional development evenings that offer opportunities to learn about Jewish holidays through multi-sensorial play experiences.  Beyond providing the histories and traditions of these holidays, our intentions are to offer new ways for our educators to think about deeper meanings and consider new connections that can be translated to our young students. During our recent Chanukah professional development evening the educators spent some time in our revamped light atelier – a studio space inspired by the Festival of Lights. In this space, the educators had an opportunity to explore small manipulative lights, including some that spin or project onto the wall, a shadow stage with Hanukkah shadow puppets, and light tables to use with colorful toys and Hanukkah items such as menorahs and dreidels. It is important to provide this time for our educators to explore the beauty and possibilities of light before introducing these concepts in their classrooms. Over the past week and for the upcoming month, small groups of children along with their educators will continue to visit the light atelier to engage in curiosity-piquing, playful explorations, as they engage their senses, and celebrate the miracle of light. 

We look forward to lighting the Hanukkyiah, dressing up for our ECLC Spirit Week, and cooking and eating fried latkes and donuts.

We want to wish everyone a joyful Chanukah as we try to bring in even more light this year.