A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

The dreidel is used for a children's game.

Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet: נ (Nun) ג (Gimel) ה (Hei) ש (Shin), which together form the acronym for:
Nes Gadol Haya Sham - a great miracle happened there.

These letters also represent the rules of the game played with a dreidel: Nun stands for the Yiddish word nisht (nothing), Hey stands for halb (half), Gimmel for gantz (all), and Shin for shtel (put).

To make you own dreidel, download the worksheet opposite and follow the instructions.

The rules of the game are below, maybe you can play for chocolate money or buttons.

Any number of people can play the game.

Each player begins with 10 objects such as buttons or sweets.

At the beginning of each round, each player puts one object into the centre pot.

Each player then takes a turn at spinning the dreidel. The letter that the dreidel shows on top when it has finished spinning determines what happens:

• נ Nun - nisht (nothing) - nothing happens and the next player spins.
• ג Gimmel - gantz (all) - the player takes the entire pot.
• ה Hey - halb (half) - the player takes half of the pot, rounding up if there is an odd number.
• ש Shin - shtel (put) - the player puts one object in the pot.

The game ends when one player has won everything.

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