Super Sukkah

Celebrating Sukkot in Division 4

Last week, Division 4 learned about the holiday called Sukkot, a cultural celebration to remember both the huts Jewish people built during the time of the harvest so that they could have shade at the sides of their fields and the 40 years of wandering in the desert after leaving Egypt.  Jennifer came in to our class and read us a story and then we both posed a challenge to the children-can you build a sukkah (a hut) out of nothing but newspapers and masking tape?  Well, not only did the students build an amazing creation, they also passed another challenge that Jennifer posed-will it survive the weight of 4 real branches?  It did!  Amidst much cheering, we served apple slices in the sukkah and every one of the children crawled in, enjoyed their apple, and left our sukkah standing.  It survived over night and then sadly, collapsed as we tried to move it to a new place in the classroom.  The most wonderful part of this event was watching all 23 of our kids work so beautifully together to create our structure.  They chatted while rolling their newspaper tubes.  They discovered that some of the tubes weren't strong enough and needed to be rolled more tightly.  They figured out that triangles are strong shapes.   They worked together to hold up sides and bottoms.  They discovered that a strong foundation was needed and so the big blocks were brought out to brace the bottom.  But best of all, they discovered that working as a team yields fantastic results.