Editor’s Note:  PediaStaff asked Jenna at Speech Room News to come up with a speech-language activity for the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah, and here it is! Thanks, Jenna this is great!
It’s that time of year! Hope you’re looking forward to the Holidays! A few of my students celebrate Hanukkah so when Heidi over at PediaStaff asked me to create some speech or language activities that incorporated the Jewish holiday I didn’t hesitate.
What I came up with is so flexible that I used it with EVERY group I saw yesterday! You can’t beat that!!

You start by letting your student draw the menorah on your white board. This is great for skills like problem solving, multi-step directions, sequencing, initiating and social communication. My students got a lot of experience negotiating with their speech buddies!

There are a few versions of this activity. The first one is generic! It just has candles that are blank. I suggest printing a few sets, laminating them, and then writing on them with dry erase markers, so you can just erase and write new targets with each group that you see throughout the day. I used them with articulation targets, vocabulary, pronouns, categories and basic concepts.

This picture shows how I used it for spatial concepts. The kids had to use my magnets to show the meaning of the concepts. The student wrote ‘between’ on the flame and then showed the meaning of between using the magnets!

Another version of this activity contains coordinating conjunctions on the flames. One of my groups has been working on creating complex sentences. Some students just created sentences orally. Some needed more structure – so I wrote two independent clauses on the board and they added the correct conjunction.
The last version includes articulation targets for the /l/ phoneme. To make any other articulation target, just grab a copy of the blank flames and add words with a marker. Or better yet have the students generate words with their targets!
Grab your copies here:
Menorah Activity Generic
Menorah Activity Artic
Menorah Activity Complex Sentences
Hope you get some use out of this activity! Check back later this week for a Christmas activity!