Our Message to Parents and Hanukkah At-Home Scientific and Mathematical Activities

Hanukkah can provide opportunities to learn about the science of fire, oil, and candles.  These activities can extend our traditional spiritual and religious understanding of light with hands on scientific activities. Hanukkah can be a time to ignite your child's curiosity.


There are many sources of light, including natural sources such as the sun, and man-made sources such as electric light bulbs, gas and oil lamps, and candles.

Hanukkah candles are designed to burn for about an hour.

These Hanukkah candles are made out of beeswax.
Oil lamps of a Hanukkah Menorah.
The menorah is meant to be used to help publicize the miracle of the oil (pirsum ha-nes). 

Math and science can be connected to the story of Hanukkah and some of its deeper philosophical meanings. (For more detailed discussion of historical and philosophical themes of Hanukkah, please see the end of this blog.)  

Mathematical concepts:
  1. Candles in general have different physical attributes (and is linked to a different holiday such as birthday, Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Passover, Shavuot, Yahrzeit memorial candle.)
  2. Hanukkah is 8 nights.
Scientific concepts: 
  1. Candles have a wick and are made from wax.
  2. Every fire needs oxygen to burn and either wax or oil for fuel.
  3. Oil and water do not mix.
  4. Wax melts when it gets hot.
Due to the lighting of candles, Hanukkah is an appropriate time to teach about Fire Safety.  

Hanukkah Science/Math At-Home Activities - Candles (Nerot נֵרוֹת)

Candles come in a variety of shapes, colors and sizes and give us many opportunities to bring light and joy to our celebrations including birthdays and holidays.  When you engage in scientific exploration with your children, be sure to encourage your child to follow the steps of scientific inquiry by encouraging them to ask questions, formulate hypotheses, experiment, observe, and conclude whether their prediction was correct or incorrect.  

1.  Are all candles the same?  Gather together a large variety of candles, and ask the children: "How are these candles different?  How are they the same?"  Ask your children to describe different attributes of the candles, and find different ways to group them. Examples of attributes that can be used to sort are size, texture, color pattern, shape and holiday. Discuss with children how these attributes can be found with people as well. This is a lesson of diversity.  Everybody is different. Everybody is the same. All of the candles have a wick that burns and a body made out of wax.  All candles can give light.  All people can have brilliant ideas.

Candles come in all shapes, sizes, colors, textures, and smells. Candles are used for many different occasions. Ask your children how they are similar, and how they are different. 
2.  Candle pattern math.  Put out a box of Hanukkah candles and ask the children to make patterns with different candles. Patterns can be made of colors or shapes or sizes. 
    Younger children will need a color-coded guide to match directly with their candles.
    Older children can repeat patterns of longer complexity without a color-coded guide.  Pictured above is a pattern of three colors.  An outline of the candles will suggest how many candles to put down to continue the pattern; an even older child will not need the candle outlines.
    As children become more accustomed to the idea of patterns, they can be encouraged to create their own pattern to a level of sophistication that fits their cognitive ability.
    3.  What is inside the candle? Some children will know that a wick is embedded inside the middle of every candle.

    Ask your children if they can predict what will be inside a candle if they look inside.
      An adult should demonstrate how to gently dissect a candle.
      Gently roll the candle to remove the wax around a bit of wick to expose the wick.
    Was your child's prediction correct? If your child asks whether a candle can be made with other materials besides wax or oil, the answer is that as long as there is a source of fuel (such as whale fat) that can melt and be wicked up via capillary action into the wick to provide a source of fuel for the burning wick to slowly burn,  then that fuel can be used.   
                                     
    4.  Can a fire burn without air?  This simple experiment will demonstrate that a candle needs a wick, wax and oxygen. A fire cannot burn without oxygen.
      Ask your child to predict what will happen when the jar covers the flame. An adult covers one with an inverted jar.  The other is left uncovered. 
      At first, the flame will continue to burn off the oxygen that is inside the jar.  Wait a few seconds...
      The flame will burn out when the oxygen in the jar is exhausted. Ask: what happened, and why?
      5.  Wax and Oil comparison. In antiquity, oil was used for lamps. Candles were not commonly used until later.  An oil lamp also needs a wick to burn.  Compare what happens to two wicks in oil that are burning, one covered and one uncovered. Ask your child to make a prediction. What do you see? Why?  

      6.  Water and Oil comparison. At Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), students worked with a preschool kids to explore what happens when oil and water are combined.  They took two empty bottles and put some water in one and oil in the other.  Before combining the oil and water, they framed the question as follows, "What do you think will happen when we pour the oil on top of the water?" After taking note of predictions and pouring the oil on the water, the MIT students took two more bottles, and this time asked "What do you think will happen when we poor the water on top of the oil?" and some children made more predictions, they were very surprised to see that the water did not stay on top but instead switched places with the oil.  The third part of this experiment is to ask what will happen when grape juice is combined with oil and what happens when grape juice is combined with water.  This way children can learn that oil and water have different density and also different solubility properties.

      7.  How Does Wax Change With Heat?  Observe how the physical properties of wax change with temperature. Ask the kids to observe the candles as they are burning and notice the dripping of the wax and ask them what they think is happening to the wax.
        Fire Safety At-Home Activities - Fire (Esh אֵשׁ)
        Fire safety awareness is particularly important around lit candles.  Candles are lit every Shabbat and holiday and several are lit for Hanukkah.  The objective of the Fire Safety activities are to give children survival skills in the event of an emergency.  These skills can truly save lives.  The activities involved with Fire Safety can be fun and engaging.
        • Keep a safe distance from the flame.
        • Avoid lighting near curtains.
        • Place your Hanukkah Menorah on top of a fireproof surface such as a metal pan or tin foil.
        • Teach your children how to Stop, Drop and Roll - learn that fire needs oxygen to burn.
          From www.NFPA.org
          National Fire Protection Agency
        • Develop a Family emergency plan of where to meet (at a neighbor's house or nearby convenience store) in the event of an emergency.  
        • Teach your children to crawl and stay low in smoke.  Smoke rises.
        • Teach your children to recognize what a Firefighter looks like with an oxygen mask - a Firefighter is a safe person to crawl towards.
          http://www.prioritysafetys.com/images/FirehawkAirMask.jpg
        • Teach your children about smoke detectors - what they look like, sound like, what to do when one goes off.  Click here for an information sheet about smoke detectors.
        • Teach your children when and how to call 911, including how to identify self and explain what is wrong
        • Show your children what a firetruck looks like.
        • Show your children what an ambulance looks like (this can be linked to Magen David Adom.  If you call them at 866-632-2763, or email info@afmda.org and ask for cardboard ambulance shaped tzedakah boxes, they will send you enough for each child free of charge.)

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