Materials

• One piece of 2" x 2" x 8' pine lumber *
• One 1/4" x 3' round wood dowel
• Sand Paper (medium/fine grit)
• Saw (Hand, power, or mitre)
• Preprinted labels (see below)
• White Glue

Construction

Cut materials to size. For this project precut all wooden pieces to length before class so that all the students have to do is assemble them in class. I used a tabletop mitre saw to make all the cuts and it did not take much time to cut enough for the entire class. Using a hand saw will take much longer but the result will be the same. If using a hand saw, try using a mitre box to help make your cuts accurate.

* Note that even though wood is advertised as being 2" x 2" in size, it is in reality only 1 1/2" x 1 1/2". Dimensions given above are actual sizes.

Depending on the quality of the wood, you should get approximately 30 dreidels from each 2x2x8.

Sand all cut pieces to remove any splinters and rough edges to preclude a student getting a splinter in class.

Cut the 3' wooden dowel into smaller 1 3/4" lengths. Again sand to smooth.

In class the students will place a small drop of white glue into the hole you predrilled and insert the wooden dowel.

Next you need to create label strips that the students will attach themselves to the dreidel. I used WordPerfect Presentations to create the graphic images and then printed them with a laser printer onto ordinary plain bond paper. You may also use a paper that has slight pattern to give the finished driedel some color. Each page contained 10 labels that I precut into individual labels for the students.

In class the students will apply white glue to the entire back of the label and wrap the label around the circumference of the dreidel.

Rules of the Dreidel Game

Perhaps the best-known symbol of Hanukkah is the dreidel, a four-sided top with a Hebrew letter on each side.

The letters, SHIN, HEY, GIMEL and NUN, stand for the phrase, "A Great Miracle There."

Dreidel is also a popular game of luck played during the Holiday.

Using pennies, nuts, raisins, or chocolate coins (gelt) as tokens or chips, players take turns spinning the dreidel and reading the letters that decides the player's fate.

If the dreidel spins:

NUN, nothing happens. The turn progresses to the next player.

GIMEL, the player takes all tokens in the pot.

HEY, the player takes half of the pot.

SHIN, the player must put one token into the pot.

My students really enjoy this quick project and the result was an original toy that they took home for the holidays.