For many years, I received by mail a colorful, lavishly illustrated gift catalogue of upscale Judaica. I never ordered any of the pricey items, but I did save the catalogues. The illustrations made wonderful classroom visuals, especially for Holiday lessons. Fancy, artistic dreidels were a popular item and their pictures provided the raw material for a classroom Savivon Scavenger Hunt.
Savivon Scavenger Hunt
Set-up:
Cut out 18 different pictures of dreidels.
Arrive in the classroom early and stick the dreidels up around the room, by putting a little circle of tape on the back of each.
To place the dreidels, think camouflage. (Eg. a picture of a silvery dreidel on the metal frame of the chalkboard; a colorful dreidel on a map of Israel; a crystal dreidel in the corner of a window). Place all dreidel pictures so that students don’t have to move anything or climb on anything to see them. Having to look above or bend down to see below eye level is ok.
When students arrive, don’t mention the dreidels until it’s time to play.
To Play:
Students may play individually or in partners.
Tell students they will have a certain amount of time (3,4,5 minutes) to look around the room and hunt for the camophlaged savivonim (dreidels).
As they find each savivon (dreidel), they are not to touch it, but rather to record its location on a sheet of paper which you give them.
When time is up, the student or partners who have correctly located the most dreidels win a prize (chocolate gelt, plastic dreidels).
Suggestions:
If students are “hunting” in partners, make the time limit less than 5 minutes.
Suggest to students that they increase their chances of winning by not revealing to other players that they’ve found a dreidel, but just quietly record the location, once they’ve moved away from the actual spot.
Use a timer to signal to everyone that time is up.
To make the hunt easier, color copy a master sheet with all the dreidel pictures on it. Students may view this sheet during the hunt.
NOTE – Judaic gift catalogues seldom arrive in the mail these days, because shoppers shop online. However, your synagogue gift shop may have wholesale catalogues with dreidel pictures which you can color copy.
or
you might print out dreidel pictures from Judaic gift websites.
or
The week before you plan to have the Savivon Scavenger Hunt, give students an outline of a dreidel shape on a piece of paper about 1”-2” square and ask them to color it in in an interesting way. Once they’ve colored in the shape, ask them to cut it out and hand it in. Don’t tell them how their dreidel shapes are going to be used.
Extensions:
After the Savivon Scavenger Hunt, sing dreidel songs – “Savivon, Sov, Sov, Sov” “I Had a Little Dreidel”
Play the dreidel game with M & M’s or chocolate chips as prizes.
Give students an 8 1/2” x 11” piece of paper and have them design their own dreidels for a classroom or hallway display.
Go on a “field trip” to your synagogue gift shop so that students can see the variety of dreidels on display.
Happy Second Night of Hanukkah!
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