Hanukkah Activities for ELA, Social Studies, and STEM

You can start teaching about Hanukkah with a story, a question about its traditions, or a closer look at the holiday's lights. You can help your students learn about Jewish experiences while giving them something specific to read, discuss, or investigate.

These Hanukkah activities pair Newsela resources with lessons you’re already teaching. Start with the holiday’s cultural context, then choose an activity that fits your students and your learning goals.

[Teach Hanukkah through literature and poetry in ELA](id-ela)

A poem and a history article can describe the same Hanukkah tradition while giving readers different insights. Use these Hanukkah stories and lessons to help your students examine how writers use details and language to communicate the holiday’s meaning.

What does the Hanukkah menorah symbolize?

The Hanukkah menorah recalls the Jewish tradition that a small supply of oil kept the Temple’s lamp burning for eight days. Also called a hanukkiah, it holds eight lights for the holiday’s eight nights, plus a helper candle called the shamash.

Pair a story about a family’s candle-lighting experience with an article about public menorahs. Ask your students to examine how a tradition’s meaning comes through in a character’s experience and in reporting about a community.

Why is Hanukkah also spelled Chanukah?

Hanukkah and Chanukah are different ways to write the same Hebrew word in English. This process, called transliteration, produces several spellings because Hebrew sounds don’t always have exact English equivalents. Both spellings refer to the same holiday.

Use the spelling question to help your students distinguish transliteration from translation: Representing a word’s sounds differs from expressing its meaning in another language. The article gives students a specific example to examine before considering other words we’ve borrowed in English.

Compare Hanukkah poetry and nonfiction

Reading about a holiday’s history and reading a poem about its traditions call for different kinds of attention. An article asks students to follow explanations and facts, while poetry asks them to consider how a writer’s language shapes their understanding.

Pair the article “The History of Hanukkah” with Ilene Bauer’s poem “On Chanukah.” Move beyond identifying traditions in both texts by asking students what each writer’s approach adds to their understanding of the holiday.

Compare and contrast Hanukkah and other holidays

Comparing holidays asks students to look closely at what people celebrate and why. Shared customs, such as gathering with family or preparing special foods, can give students a starting point. Have them use evidence to explain each holiday’s distinct history and meaning, too.

Use the holiday comparison text set to pair a Hanukkah reading with another holiday. The collection extends beyond December, so students can choose a comparison based on the traditions they want to investigate.

Explore cultural traditions through fiction and nonfiction

A tradition can look different when you read about its history, follow a character taking part in it, or hear a poet describe it. Use this traditions text set to broaden your Hanukkah lesson with writing about celebrations throughout the year.

Ask your students to notice whose experience each text presents. A character’s story or a family’s account offers one perspective on tradition. This gives students a reason to consider what they can and can’t conclude about a whole community.

[Explore Hanukkah history and traditions in social studies](id-ss)

Learning why a holiday began gives students context for understanding its traditions today. Use these Hanukkah history resources to connect the holiday’s origins with contemporary Jewish experiences, then examine questions about holiday spending and Judaism’s broader beliefs and practices.

How do people around the world celebrate Hanukkah?

Jewish families and communities celebrate Hanukkah by lighting a menorah over eight nights. Celebrations may also include playing dreidel, exchanging gifts, and sharing foods such as latkes and jam-filled donuts. Students can explore how different communities observe these traditions and what they mean to them.

How do holidays affect the economy?

Holidays affect the economy through spending on gifts, food, travel, and celebrations. They also increase demand for goods and services, which can affect businesses’ supply and prices. The effects reach beyond retailers to household budgets and community services.

Use the Hanukkah retail article to examine whose traditions stores represent during the holiday shopping season. Then invite students to compare evidence from other readings about holiday costs and supply challenges.

Learn about Jewish beliefs and traditions

A Hanukkah lesson can lead students to questions about other Jewish holidays and practices. Use the Beliefs and Traditions of Judaism lesson to extend their learning beyond one celebration and examine how traditions carry meaning over time. 

Have students identify what each observance commemorates. This gives them a more specific way to discuss the readings than simply listing foods, ceremonies, or other customs.

[Connect Hanukkah to science and math activities](id-sci)

Hanukkah’s lights and traditions can serve as starting points for science and math investigations. After introducing their cultural meaning, choose a question your students can test or model. Good options include how a wick draws up liquid or what patterns emerge from repeated dreidel spins.

Investigate air pressure with a drinking candle experiment

Candles are associated with Hanukkah and can introduce a science question: What happens when you cover a burning candle with a glass filled with shallow water? In this activity, students observe the flame and water level, then use readings about fire and pressure to investigate what they saw. 

Ask students to separate their observations from explanations. “The water rose inside the glass” describes evidence, while explaining why it rose requires them to connect that evidence with science concepts.

Explore oil and water with a homemade lava lamp

Oil’s role in Hanukkah connects to an investigation of how liquids behave. A homemade lava lamp helps students discover two ideas: Oil and water don’t mix, and oil floats because it’s less dense than water.

When a fizzing antacid tablet reacts with the water, it releases carbon dioxide bubbles that carry some colored water upward. As the gas escapes, the water sinks again. Use these movements to help students explain what changes during the reaction and what stays separate.

Model a candle wick’s capillary action with a rainbow experiment

A candle wick draws liquid fuel upward through tiny spaces between its fibers. You can model that movement with colored water and paper towels, letting students observe capillary action without a flame.

Keep the explanation focused on how the water travels. Adhesion helps water cling to the paper towel’s fibers, while cohesion keeps water molecules connected. The rainbow readings offer a separate extension into light and color.

How does a candle produce heat and light?

A candle produces heat and light through combustion. Its fuel reacts with oxygen, releasing energy. In a wax candle, the flame melts wax, the wick draws it upward, and the heat turns it into vapor that burns.

Help students distinguish melting from burning. Melting changes wax’s physical state, and combustion forms new substances. The readings help students explain why burning a candle involves both physical and chemical changes.

Explore light and energy with Generation Genius science videos

Choose a video around a question students can investigate after watching. How does light help us see a Hanukkah display? What happens when light reaches different materials? Connecting the video to a specific question gives students something to explain beyond naming forms of energy.

For an electric-menorah investigation, focus on circuits. For candles or oil lamps, use energy-transfer and thermal-energy concepts. Keep the scene focused on how the light source works while treating Hanukkah’s religious meaning and cultural context.

Explore counting and probability with Generation Genius math videos

Hanukkah’s eight nights give students a growing number pattern to model, while dreidel spins produce results they can collect and compare. Choose the video that matches the mathematical questions you want students to answer.

For counting tasks, clarify whether students should include the shamash, the helper light, so everyone models the same quantities. For dreidel investigations, students shouldn’t expect a small number of spins to produce equally frequent outcomes.

Investigate light and circuits with PhET simulations

PhET simulations let students change one part of a model and observe what happens. Ask them to make a prediction before each change, then use what they see to explain their thinking. That gives their exploration a purpose beyond trying the controls.

For a battery-powered menorah model, start with a DC circuit simulation. Save the AC versions for more advanced investigations of alternating current. Light and color simulations offer another option when your lesson focuses on how students see an illuminated display.

Examine light and energy with science diagrams

A diagram gives students a model they can return to as they explain an investigation. Ask them to connect a specific part of the visual to something they observed, such as a bulb lighting in a circuit or light reflecting from an object.

You can also use diagrams to check understanding after a video or simulation. Have students explain the relationships shown by arrows and labels in their own words, rather than simply copying the labels.

Plan lessons beyond Hanukkah with Newsela Learning Suite

The questions students explore during Hanukkah lessons can carry into the rest of the year.  Use Newsela Learning Suite to find readings and activities that connect those questions to your next unit.

If you’re not a Newsela customer yet, sign up for free to start a 45-day trial of premium content and activities for Hanukkah and beyond.