Hanukkah prompts by age
“Use this prompt” fills in the generator and sets the detail level. Every page is drawn fresh, so if one misses, change one detail and try again.
| For | Prompt | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Ages 2 to 5Simple | a Hanukkah menorah with exactly nine candle holders: four on the left, four on the right and one raised holder in the middle, all nine candles lit, big simple shapes, no background Spelling out four, four and one in the middle helps the generator get all nine branches right (see below). |
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| Ages 3 to 6Simple | a plate of potato latkes with a small bowl of applesauce, big simple shapes, no background Round latkes and a bowl: a few big shapes for small hands. |
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| Ages 5 to 8Simple | round jelly doughnuts dusted with sugar on a plate, big simple shapes, no background Sufganiyot, the jelly doughnuts of Hanukkah, with sugar dots to color. |
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| Ages 6 to 9Simple | a dreidel with four blank sides and no letters, next to a few round coins, big simple shapes, no background Blank sides, so children write the Hebrew letters themselves (see below). |
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| Teens and adultsMedium | a Hanukkah menorah with exactly nine candle holders, four on each side and one raised in the middle, standing in a window with a border of Stars of David drawn as outlines, clean bold outlines A window scene with a patterned border. A menorah in a window facing the street publicizes the miracle (My Jewish Learning). |
Count the branches before you print
A Hanukkah menorah, or hanukkiah, has room for nine candles: one for each of the eight nights and the shamash, the helper candle used to light the others. The eight stand at the same height, and the shamash is often placed higher or set off to the side. A menorah with seven branches is a different lamp, the one used in the ancient Temple in Jerusalem (My Jewish Learning).
When we made the examples on this page, the generator drew seven branches until the prompt spelled out four on each side and one raised in the middle. Count them on screen before you print a class set.
A candle-counting page for the eight nights
On the first night, two candles go in the menorah: the shamash and one candle at the far right. One more is added each night, until all nine burn on the eighth night. Candles are placed from right to left and lit from left to right, and the whole holiday takes 44 candles for one menorah (My Jewish Learning).
- One page, eight nights. Print the menorah once and color one more candle each night, plus the shamash.
- A counting sheet. Print eight copies and number them 1 to 8; children color the right number of candles on each.
- The 44 question. Ask older children to work out why one menorah needs 44 candles for the whole holiday.
Write the dreidel letters by hand
A dreidel is a spinning top with four sides, each marked with a Hebrew letter: nun, gimel, hey and shin. Together they stand for a Hebrew phrase meaning “a great miracle happened there”; in Israel, a peh replaces the shin, for “a great miracle happened here” (My Jewish Learning).
The generator cannot be relied on to draw Hebrew letters: in our tests it drew shapes that looked like letters but were not. Ask for blank sides, copy the four letters from a real dreidel, and play a round once the page is colored: nun, nothing; gimel, take the whole pot; hey, take half; shin, put one in.
Foods fried in oil
Hanukkah, the festival of rededication, recalls the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem in 164 BCE. Much later rabbinic tradition tells of a small amount of oil that burned for eight days, and in memory of it, foods fried in oil are traditional: potato pancakes, or latkes, and jelly doughnuts, or sufganiyot (My Jewish Learning). Both are among the example pages above.