Hanukkah Books For Toddlers
As a teacher and parent I have always been on the hunt for the best Hanukkah books for toddlers!
Hanukkah is the celebration of the miracle of light. It is celebrated for 8 days and nights because the Jews believed they only had enough oil to light a candle for one night but it burned for eight days!
Choosing Hanukkah Books for Toddlers
Books about Hanukkah will usually contain these key holiday items, activities, and themes:
- playing dreidel
- latkes (fried potato pancakes)
- lighting the menorah
- sufganiyot (jelly donut)
- gelt (chocolate coins)
- menorah and candle lightings
- eight nights
- presents
When searching for Hanukkah books for toddler I usually look for these elements:
- board books
- touch and feel
- lift the flap
- puppets
- real photographs
- familiar known characters
My Favorite Hanukkah Board Books for Little Hearts & Little Minds
Each book that I am recommending has been read and loved by my students or my own children! I hope that you love them too!
This is a playful book where children can lift the flap to help a baby find his dreidel that is hidden in this house. Great for toddlers who love peek a boo!
My Two Favorites:
The sweet sing a long in this text is to the tune of the itsy bitsy spider. It includes many elements of Hanukkah and how a family celebrates. The illustrations are beautiful and my kids ask for this on repeat!
THE SWEETEST! This story is a beautiful rhyming book about how much you love your little latke. Each page is a rhyme relating a Hanukkah element to how special the reader is to you.
More Hanukkah Books for Littles
This one is always a favorite! Every page has an interactive element! It includes lift the flap, touch and feel, pop ups, and pull the tab. Each page asks “Who is in the box on the __ ” night for all 8 nights. On each page the reader gets to open a flap to see how the bugs are celebrating that night!
We love this book! First, an animal drops off an ingredient to make latkes at bubbe’s door each day during Hanukkah. My kids LOVE to make the animal sounds as we read the book. Finally, bubbe can use all of the ingredients to make latkes and applesauce for everyone to enjoy.
Light The Menorah is a fun interactive book with pull tabs that show the candles being lit each night! On each night of Hanukkah the book tells what the family does to celebrate. It has more detail and information than some young toddlers will understand such as the prayer, but is such it a great explanation of the various parts of the holiday.
This story has a few short lines on each page telling something the family will do during Hanukkah and each page ends with “Hanukkah is coming”. Also it is a great book to discuss what to expect and to encourage the excitement kids inevitably get while talking about how it is coming soon!
Best for Older Toddlers
How to Dinosaurs Say Happy Chanukah?
This series of books is always a funny way to talk about how dinosaurs could do be destructive wrong things for little tasks that the kids can identify the right way to do them. This one in particular has quite a lot of wrong things to do in relation to Hanukkah and at the ages my toddlers are I think they give them some ideas.. so I like this book but am saving it for when they are a little older!
This book is a perfect Chanukah toddler book because it explains each part of the holiday. It is also in a simple easy to understand way!
Familiar Character Books
These Hanukkah books for toddlers incorporate characters from TV shows or other books they may know! This helps to make the connection that others celebrate Hanukkah too!
Each of the loved Pout Pout Fish characters join in an aspect of celebrating Hanukkah together! This short and sweet book is perfect for lovers of Mr. Fish or ocean animals.
As a lover of Corduroy myself, I enjoyed this right along side of my kids! Corduroy hosts a Hanukkah party and invites his stuffed animal and doll friends over to celebrate with him. Very simple and cute story!
Sesame Street has a line of books and videos called Shalom Sesame. Another reason to love this program is that it so many great stories with their characters celebrating Jewish holidays and traditions.
Grover uses the important Hanukkah number 8 in all of his planning for his party! This is perfect for toddlers learning to and loving counting books.
This cute story is about Elmo going to his friend Gil’s house to celebrate Hanukkah. This book tells a few of the holiday traditions but mainly focuses on playing dreidel. I LOVE that this books showing Elmo learning to play dreidel and it has what each of the Hebrew letters mean within the game.
Conclusion
I hope you found something in this list that you and the children in your life can enjoy together!
Looking for Hanukkah activities to do and information videos to watch check out this blog post!
If you teach elementary age kids, please know I HAVE USED THESE WITH 2nd- 5th grade! Don’t worry even if they talk like it is babyish they will enjoy it.
These stories pair perfectly with a Hanukkah nonfiction comprehension activity!
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