How to Make a Dreidel

What You Need:

• White modeling clay
• Blunt butter knife (plastic is fine)
• Short pencil or piece of dowel, about 2 inches long
• Blue marking pen

What You Do:

1. Have your child form a piece of modeling clay into a cube about one and a half inches wide. (It may be easiest for your child to use a butter knife to cut the straight edges.)
2. Ask your child take the small pencil or piece of dowel and insert it about halfway into the cube. Make sure it is as centered as possible, so that the dreidel spins evenly.
3. Now it's time to create the pointed end of the dreidel. Have your child take another piece of clay and form it into a cone shape. Attach this to the bottom of the cube. Do your best to make sure this is firmly attached, so that it stays together as it dries.
4. Once the clay has dried, use your blue marker to make the Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hay, and shin. (See photo). Let the ink dry, and your child is ready to play!

Playing Dreidel:

Traditionally, no work is to be done while the Hanukkah candles are lit; playing dreidel with friends and family is a fun way to pass the time. Dcide on the number of rounds you will play before you begin, or you will be playing long into the night!

Players take turns spinning the dreidel and collecting or giving game pieces. (You can use pennies or candies, like chocolate gelt!) If a player spins a nun they take nothing; gimel they take the pot; hay they take half the pot; and shin they put one into the pot.

The player with the most coins or candies at the end of the game is the winner.