This week its no surprise our heads and hands were full of Sukkot projects! Each קבוצה (kevutzah- group) did several rounds of yetzirah projects and explorations to create sukkah decorations- and, even, an actual sukkah!
Shorashim built a life-sized sukkah last week… and then they “ate sukkah dinner” inside of it, made paper chains, painted/stamped a לולב (lulav) and אתרוג (etrog) banner and colored so many Hebrew letters (a Shorashim boy then unscrambled the Hebrew letters to create ופרש עלינו סכת שלומך (Ufros Aleinu Sukkat Shlomecha- Spread over us your canopy of peace)!
Nitzanim did leaf rubbings in yetzirah and built a sukkah Beyt Nitzanim last week… and this week they cut out their leaves and hung them from the schach (the special roof of a sukkah made with leafy finds and branches) and explored the tzeva’em and shapes of the לולב (lulav) and אתרוג (etrog) with pastels!
What shapes do you see?
“an ovalish shape”…
“well, with this point it”…
“it looks kind of like a heart but squished!”
And, finally, Anafim has been exploring, studying, conversing, and thinking really hard about the 4 species. Each child chose a part to illustrate with a reason why, of course!
“I chose the etrog and lulav because I have reasons… I like sour things, and I chose the lulav because I like to stand up straight!”
“The etrog because I like the heart… and because a lemon can save your life. I saw that on a commercial once, it was for a book called ‘Who Knew?!’ ”