We’ve been sharing a lot of holiday printable activities lately, and this Hanukkah word scramble is one more! Winter holiday season is upon us! Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, or something else entirely, this is a joyous time for many. It should not matter what you celebrate, learning the history, traditions, and meaning of these events should be at the center of the lessons. Kids can unscramble the Haunukkah words and work on visual perceptual skills and handwriting.
Hanukkah Word Scramble
In order to be interesting and motivating to young learners, fun worksheets can be incorporated into lesson plans. These not only provide a relevant lesson plan during the holiday season, but can incorporate many important goals and objectives in one single task. This is most important, as therapy sessions are often limited or short, as well as the attention span of young learners. Therapy sessions in school can be as short as 15 minutes, just enough time for a warm up activity and a fun worksheet such as the Hanukkah activity sheet with scrambled words.
This Hanukkah activity sheet which involves matching Hanukkah words, is an excellent idea!
Let’s explore the many different goals and skills that can be addressed using the Hanukkah word match:
- Letter formation – the worksheet has lines for correct letter formation
- Sizing and spacing of letters to fit in the provided boxes
- Copying from a model
- Decoding to use strategies to determine how many letters in each word and the size of the corresponding boxes
- Bilateral coordination using one hand to write and the other to hold the paper
- Visual perception – being able to visualize the words once they are scrambled
- Social skills – working on frustration tolerance, attention to details, and following directions
- Fine motor skills – building hand muscles through writing
Ways to adapt and change this activity:
- Laminate this page to use wipe off markers as a different medium as well as reusability. Note: some children love wipe off sheets, while others become upset that they can not take their work with them.
- Put this activity on the smart board to make it a group task or invite students to come to the board and write.
- Make space to draw the items on the page to work on visual motor skills.
- Work in pairs or in a small group to address problem solving, turn taking, and negotiation skills.
Many times, it seems Hanukkah takes a back seat to Christmas based on the number of participants or popularity. This special traditional celebration can be incorporated into an inclusive lesson plan that includes many holidays, or as a stand-alone unit for learners celebrating Hanukkah. This is a great opportunity for anyone to learn about different cultures and traditions no matter what is celebrated.
What is Hanukkah?
Check out this article about what Hanukkah is. This is a great tool to add to your lesson plan about holidays.
Holidays like Hanukkah can be exciting and fun to incorporate into treatment sessions. Be mindful that too much of a good thing is not so good after all. Scatter fun holiday activities into regular tasks to help students modulate their arousal level and stay on task during these busy times. Holidays can be a lot of fun but can also cause stress for many. There are added responsibilities, money woes, social stressors, increased expectations, and changes in schedules that can set adults and children off of their routine.
Turn your holiday stress into a teachable moment
One article outlines how to turn your holiday stress into a teachable moment. Don’t let stress get the best of you and turn a great time into a mess.
More Holiday Activity Sheets
The time leading up to the holidays between Thanksgiving and these winter celebrations can last two to three weeks. In order to feel well prepared for this season, having several activities planned ahead of time will ease stressful planning or running out of meaningful activities. The OT Toolbox offers the Winter Fine Motor Kit full of handouts and PDF files providing several visual motor tasks to be used throughout the winter season.
In addition to these handouts, you can also read this article on Winter Fine Motor Activities for more great ideas and suggestions:
For me, the most difficult part of therapy sessions is trying to plan them and come up with novel ideas that are going to be appealing to all my different levels of learners. Once I have several sessions planned for the week, the time flies by and sessions go much smoother. I am able to adapt each task to meet the needs of most of my different learners. Take this opportunity to streamline your sessions by downloading activities and ideas from the OT Toolbox today.
Free Hanukkah Word Scramble Activity Sheet
Happy Holidays!
Victoria Wood, OTR/L
Victoria Wood, OTR/L is a contributor to The OT Toolbox and has been providing Occupational Therapy treatment in pediatrics for more than 25 years. She has practiced in hospital settings (inpatient, outpatient, NICU, PICU), school systems, and outpatient clinics in several states. She has treated hundreds of children with various sensory processing dysfunction in the areas of behavior, gross/fine motor skills, social skills and self-care. Ms. Wood has also been a featured speaker at seminars, webinars, and school staff development training. She is the author of Seeing your Home and Community with Sensory Eyes.
*The term, “learner” is used throughout this post for readability, however this information is relevant for students, patients, clients, children of all ages, etc. The term “they” is used instead of he/she to be inclusive.