Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah
Hanukkah, Oh Hanukah is a simple song that Susan Roth has used to introduce children to the holiday. She created an adorable mouse family, very appealing to children, to take us through the celebration and the events that take place through beautiful illustrations. The actual song is included in the back and as the PPT mentions, it would be fun to have the children sing the song as well as read the book. Many of the words associated with the holiday are explained throughout the text, such as dreidel, hora and latkes.
This would be a wonderful book to use to explain Hanukkah to those who aren’t familiar with the holiday and to celebrate with those who are. As the PPT suggests it could be a springboard for the students to research other holiday traditions and celebrations such as Chinese New Year. Sorry, just had to throw that one in. I love the idea of having the students write a simple song as well as have them choose a song already written and make their own book from it. What a great way to celebrate different cultures. I hope to be able to do just that with one of my EC classes next year. Susan’s beautiful illustrations with their bold, bright colors and the simple illustrations would be very appealing to young children and would give them ideas for their own books.
Linda B's Blog 
Posted by tiffanymoore on May 30, 2011 at 12:54 am
I like the idea of having students illustrate a song that has already been written. If it is like “Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah,” they may need to research unfamiliar words in order to accurately illustrate the text. It would be neat to find various picture books about several different holidays and then break the class into a few groups, with each group illustrating a song from a different holiday. They could then do mini-presentations to show what they learned.
Posted by kbscott74 on May 30, 2011 at 5:36 pm
I like this idea also. We have students illustrate poems all the time, but I really haven’t thought about illustrating a song. It’s amazing what the lyrics teach. What a great way to learn about different holidays, and this is an objective in the first grade Social Studies SCOS. Thanks for a great idea!