dg21's Learning Journey Just another Milwaukee Jewish Day School Sites site 

Include AT LEAST 3 photos from Today. Make sure each photo has a CAPTION.

We need a certain drill bit for the 5-inch screws and this is us searching for it.

Some groups in the maker space made decorations this is one of the decorations that we made it ended up having a fake cactus on it.

One of our classmates painted a welcoming kind of sign because he had the forn wall it ended up saying Empathy, Wonder and Tikkun Olam.

1. Now that the Sukkah is finished, what would you do differently next time. Explain in at least three sentences why you think that.

I would definitely be more careful with how much money I’m spending because I know that my wall group ended up not having nearly enough plywood. Most of the walls did not end up getting completely covered. I think that a bigger budget would help.

2. Now that the Sukkah is finished, what are you most proud of and why! Explain in at least three sentences.

I am very proud of my wall. Actually, I’m kind of proud of it. The frame is looking amazing but the plywood looks like crap.

3. What are three pieces of advice you have for the current 6th graders as it relates to their Sukkah

KEEP IN THE BUDGET

Get enough plywood

use your money wisely

Include AT LEAST 3 photos from Today. Make sure each photo has a CAPTION.

My first task of the day was wood hunting. Kaufman gave 3 of us a saw and told us to find wood for the sekach. This is the small little tree that Mallory found. His name is steven.

Once we were done with wood hunting I helped my group with the plywood. One of my groupmates was having trouble so this is when I chipped in.

We also found this HUGE piece of plywood lying around the maker space o we grabbed it. It was originally gonna be Eitan’s group but it couldn’t fit so they handed it to my group however another group needed it more than us so we handed it over to that group. What a cycle!

1. Explain how the Sukkah represents Judaism to you. If it does not, explain why.

Well, I wouldn’t say that it represents me yet because there are no decorations! I feel like once we have put up my group’s decorations then I will feel differently about this question. I just love decorations so without them It doesn’t represent me.

2. What part of the Sukkah building process are you most excited to share with families/friends and why?

For me, it was the time when I finished my wall. I say this because it just felt like such a huge accomplishment and I was so happy! Telling my parents gave joy to me and spread it to them.

3. What aspect of the building have you felt most connected to and why?

I felt very connected to when we were building our own walls because I felt the most helpful then. There was always a screw to be drilled or a hammer to be nailed. It was better for me but now I stand around from time to time.

4. How has building the Sukkah as a class helped grow your sense of community?

It has helped a lot especially from the last year when we talked about community and groups. I think that building as a class has stayed the same because there was so much hatred and unlikeliness.

5. When your family comes to the Sukkah on Wednesday night, what is one thing you are going to tell them about and why?

I think I am going to tell them about basically the entire process because let’s be real this was very hard! I will tell them when things were great and when things weren’t so great so they can understand how hard we worked on this project! I would also ask their opinion on the decorations.

Today my group had to paint our plywood black. We are doing this so we can have a base color to spray paint vibrant colors onto.

We also needed to create corner stability wood and that was my job :3

This is one of the corners that I put it up. This looks like one of the 10 ft wall ones. those were really high!

Include AT LEAST 3 photos from Today. Make sure each photo has a CAPTION.

1. Sukkot represents impermanence (something that should not be permanent). Explain if you believe or disagree that our Sukkah, which is safely standing on its own, is violating that.

I think that it is not violating that because we put the sukkah up and it is very very stable.

2. Describe how this Sukkah project has changed your perspective (how has it changed, what has it changed about, has it changed for the better/worst).

I think it has changed my perspective because of the wood working. This has honestly been the biggest woodworking project I have ever done before! I was familiar with some screws and nails but some things were newly introduced to me such as Carriage bolts.

3. Explain how you have used your body thus far to build this Sukkah.

I have used my body by hammering nails, screwing in screws and cutting with the saw. I have also used a lot of strength to lift the walls, walk them over to a place, and put them up in a place.
4. How do you plan on getting guests into the Sukkah?

I plan on having the classes from lower school finding times to come in as it is their responsibility to get their kids into our sukkah. As for outside guests, I think we should decorate the sukkah in a way that makes it welcoming so when parents drop off their 7ht grader at school they can think that sukkah looks nice I wonder if they would let me go in it?

5. What are some activities you wish to do in the Sukkah?

I plan to do A LOT of celebrating. I am definitely not the only one when it comes to saying how long this project has been and honestly it’s also been very hard.

Include AT LEAST 3 photos from Today. Make sure each photo has a CAPTION.

Here are the sukkah walls all together in the back we are putting in little 2 x 4’s as stabilizers for the walls

Today we also started bringing the plywood over. we set it all down next to the sidewall in a pretty formal organized way.

Here is when my friend needed help with drilling in a hole for the carriage bolt to go into.

1. What did you do today (describe the process of what you accomplished)? – minimum of 3 complete sentences

Today we finished putting the corners together! During the process we also grabbed plywood from the back door. to think that we placed all that plywood next to there on the day we went shopping! It was so long ago!1

2. What is one thing you have done so far you were initially scared/worried about, but now feel more confident in after all this practice? – minimum of 3 complete sentences

I felt very scared about putting the walls up. I have a huge fear that they are going to fall down on me and give me a concussion. Now after putting the corners together it feels more stable and I feel safer.

3. Give a step by step account of what you have done so far to get our Sukkah up to where it is today.

1. Create a top plate bottom plate and side studs
2. connect the corners
3. connect all studs by screwing and nailing them into place
4. connect the other side of the studs to the top plate
5. you’re done! now you need to move it to the place where it will stand
6. get people to help you pt the sukkah wall up into place
7. put supports for the wall
8. Finally, connect each end of the wall to one of the other 2 walls!
9.  YOU’RE FINISHED!

Include AT LEAST 3 photos from Today. Make sure each photo has a CAPTION.

Today during the first class asher and I were in charge of gathering carriage bolts for the corners of the walls. However, along with the carriage bolts, we needed nuts and washers so we also grabbed those too and some hammer and drills. =)

Here are the other things we grabbed such as drills, hammers, and clamps

Wow! this is the front wall put up with stability wood to keep it from falling

1. What did you do today (describe the process of what you accomplished)? – minimum of 3 complete sentences

Today was THE DAY. We took the front wall and put it up shortly after we connected the first sidewall to the front wall. and just in the nick of time, we got a 3rd wall (my wall) connected.

2. What is one thing you have done so far you were initially scared/worried about, but now feel more confident in after all this practice? – minimum of 3 complete sentences

I felt very scared about putting the walls up. I have a huge fear that they are going to fall down on me and give me a concussion. Now after putting the corners together it feels more stable and I feel safer.

3. Give a step by step account of what you have done so far to get our Sukkah up to where it is today.

1. Create a top plate bottom plate and side studs
2. connect the corners
3. connect all studs by screwing and nailing them into place
4. connect the other side of the studs to the top plate
5. you’re done! now you need to move it to the place where it will stand
6. get people to help you pt the sukkah wall up into place
7. put supports for the wall
8. Finally, connect each end of the wall to one of the other 2 walls!
9.  YOU’RE FINISHED!

Include AT LEAST 3 photos from Today

This is when the other groups were not doing anything so they all came over to help us. Not gonna lie that really gave us a big boost!

This is one of the groups working on an mjds sign made of milk cartons

1. Explain in at least two sentences what YOU accomplished today.

I hammered in a bunch of nails. we got all of our nails in today and we’re almost finished with this project.

2. Explain in at least two sentences what YOUR GROUP accomplished today.

Our group is now finished with the building part of the wall. Now what we need to do is decorate the wall and put the plywood on.

3. Explain in at least two sentences what YOUR GROUP has to finish tomorrow. If you don’t know, ask a group member.

Tomorrow our group needs to probably start putting on plywood. I also need to help my original group put on plywood for MY wall. I need to help my own group now that everyone else is done! I’m so excited! I have so many plans for how to decorate our wall!

include AT LEAST 2 photos from Friday

1. Today, we worked on moving 3 of the 4 walls and it felt Really really great to do this because I feel like we are getting so freaking close to the end of the building process.

2. An example of when I worked well with a classmate was when I was talking with ari about something personal and after talking with him I felt much better. I think that we need to get along better because I know that when he helped me I felt much better.

3. I have only the plywood and decorations left on my Sukkah wall. I am feeling Not bad about the amount of work left because there isn’t that much left and we’re almost finished!

This is the entire group just hammering away at some nails! we got all of them done today!

This is after I was done hammering my nail and Oren needed some help so this is when I was trying to help him. Meanwhile, the other members of the group were still hammering away… (IM A STRONG HEALTHY BOI)

1. Describe what skills (s) you have learned so far. Who taught you those skills? How did they teach you those skills? How can you master those skills?

I have learned how to hammer in nails in the correct way and I learned how to drill in screws into big pieces of wood. I think Kaufman taught me these skills because really over this entire period of sukkah building Kaufman has been showing me how to put in carriage bolts, how to screw in a small screw, how to hammer in big nails, how to screw in big screws into big wood. He taught me all these skills by showing me and giving me examples and also being there to give me different methods on how to do things I am doing, for example, I was hammering a nail in to the wood and I couldn’t get it straight and Kaufman showed me a way to hammer it in that made it go in straight.  I think the more practice I get with these things, the better I get at these things. who knows? maybe one day I’ll be able to create my own entire table!

2. Explain if you believe your group is ahead or behind other groups. Explain why you believe you are at that point.

I believe that my group is ahead of the other groups. It seems as though my group is already on the second side of studs and corners while in the back one group is still putting in their first couple of studs. I think that we are ahead because it seems our group is getting along the best! It seems we are communicating clearly, asking each other for help or even asking permission from each other before making problems. I think my group is one of the only two groups who hasn’t had a BIG problem.

3. How effectively did your group communicate and collaborate with each other? Provide one SPECIFIC example to support your point.

I think my group (as I said above) is communicating the best out of all of the groups. I think we are definitely being nice to each other with an occasional yell. For example, I was going to start hammering in the second nail for the corner when Livi came out and asked if she could do it. I simply gave her the hammer and said sure. It made me feel good to be nice to my groupmate!

4. Today is a complete reset from last week. What is one goal YOU have for yourself? Explain why you picked that goal.

One goal I have for myself is to do less goofing off because as I remember from last week we didn’t get a lot done on Friday and I was mostly walking around asking other teams what they were doing. I felt like my goofing off got us a bit of a fail on Friday.

5. What is one goal you have for YOUR team? Explain why you picked that goal.

The goal I have for my team is to keep our eyes on the prize and get it done! We are SO close to finishing our wall!

Include at least 1 photo from yesterday, with a description for each photo (ex: where were you, what were you doing, what did you feel at that time).

Just one more side! Were so close!!!!!

1. What are the five steps to solving a problem (please list the steps)?

1. Define the problem
2. Try not to get heated or upset and tell yourself you can work it out
3. Think of 3 ways to solve your problem
4. Discuss solutions with a friend and agree on one
5. If your solution works, you are done. if not, try another idea

2. Your group identified a problem you were experiencing. What was the problem? What were your solutions?

Our group’s problem was confirmation from each other. we said that before we made any more changes ask someone in the group first. We also said to “be on the same page” meaning to confirm with everyone that what you are about to do is something we want to do. and the last one we made was to improvise with each other meaning that if someone already did something on accident we needed to talk and make a new plan so we can still have the wall look good.

3. Describe how it felt working with your group after you identified your problem and came up with solutions.

After this problem, I felt like I would always ask first. for example: “This drill looks like it’s in the right place.” “Hey _______! Does this look ok?”  and then he would tell me: “yeah that looks fine!”. Every single nail and screw that was placed was first put in a certain spot and then hammered or drilled in after getting confirmation first.

Include at least 1 photo from yesterday, with a description for each photo (ex: where were you, what were you doing, what did you feel at that time).

This is me drilling a pilot hole for a carriage bolt in after asking for confirmation from my group mates 😉