Sukkah Day 19

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

Next time I would really either push to get plywood at the store or just buy it on my own. Our sukkah has so many holes in it and it just really makes it look worse. If we had real plywood I think it would look a lot better.

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

One thing I’m proud of is the MJDS at the front. It broke so many times and we’ve really been working on it for the past couple of weeks. I’m just so happy it works. I’m also really proud of the slanted roof. A lot of people said it was too hard and that we weren’t going to be able to do it but we did it and it looks great.

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

DON’T  MAKE YOUR SUKKAH 10 FEET TALL!!!!!!! We did and it was such a pain to do. It always doesn’t look as good if it’s taller than it is long.

The creation of our MJDS sign

Our holder for our dry erase markers.

Some of our drill bits

Sukkah Day 18



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

The Sukkah represents Judaism because the entire origin of Sukkot is from ancient Judaism. We are bringing back the tradition from thousands of years ago into the modern world.

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

I’m excited to show off our front and MJDS in milk cartons because we worked really hard on it and I think it looks really cool.

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

I’ve felt really connected to the sukkah’s plywood stage because it really just brings everything together and shows off all of our work and makes the Sukkah look almost finished.

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

It helped by making us face several problems. After solving those problems we were then able to become even closer as a community.

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 am going to tell my family about how we didn’t have enough plywood because I think it’s really cool that even though we didn’t buy plywood we were still able to scrounge up enough to (almost) cover our sukkah.

Part of our nature roof

Part of the front of our wall.

Some plywood for the side of our sukkah

Sukkah Day 17

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 don’t think so because after Sukkot is over we are going to take it down which makes it automatically impermanent.

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).

The sukkah has just completely smashed my perspective on building projects. It took 14 able human beings several months to make a tiny hut. Imagine how long it would take us to build an entire house.

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

These are the ways I have used my body so far:

  • Walking
  • Talking
  • Hammering
  • Nailing
  • Running
  • Jumping
  • Breathing
  • Lifting
  • Many more

4. How do you plan on getting guests into the Sukkah?

Well, my plan was to have them walk through the doors. To be less specific, we are going to have a potluck one night and all the families in the grade are going.

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

We all wanted to watch a late-night movie in the sukkah but the school wouldn’t let us. Eating and just sitting in a building that we made will be experience enough.

A small sample of the plywood we’re going to use to build our sukkah.

Our sidewall which was recently painted black and looks really cool

Me looking super cool while sawing off part of a whiteboard.

Sukkah Day 16

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

Today I measured where we need to cut our whiteboard. We need to do it in a weird way because little kids are short and our whiteboard is not so we have to trim it down a little and we also have to cut it around the window. After that, I faced the rather difficult task of screwing in our window. You wouldn’t think this is difficult but it is really hard to screw in upside-down pieces of wood.

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

At the beginning of this sukkah building, I was worried about making straight lines for all my cuts because previously whenever I work with Kaufman on a project he always makes me redo my lines about 4 times. I had to make straight lines in this project for both our studs and more recently the whiteboard. With all the extra practice I really feel like I’ve progressed in my ability to make straight lines.

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. We planned the design for our sukkah
  2. We decided on a design for our sukkah
  3. We figured out what materials we needed to build the sukkah
  4. We bought those materials
  5. We screwed in the top and bottom plates.
  6. We then put carriage bolts in the top and bottom plates
  7. We brought all the wood that we needed outside
  8. We connected the corner plates and the bottom plates
  9. We figured out how we needed to cut the studs
  10. We cut the studs
  11. We screwed and nailed in all our studs
  12. We Cut out the space for our window
  13. We screwed in our windows top and bottom plates
  14. We painted our MJDS
  15. We measured out our whiteboard to be cut
  16. We screwed in our window

What our screwed in window looks like

A nice little view of what our sukkah looked like before the window came in.

The beautifully painted MJDS on top of our whiteboard.

Sukkah Day 15

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

Today I was able to get the window completely ready to be put in the wall. I wasn’t able to put it in the wall though because for some reason we’re going to wait to do that until the wall is up or something like that. After that was done I was able to help SM21 and SE21 with painting the giant MJDS the correct colors We were then able to finish that and get it ready to be hung up.

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 was really scared about being able to screw in all the screws. In the past, I am not good at stripping screws. It definitely helped that then screws we were using were unstrippable (I still managed to strip one). Other than the one screw that got stripped because we were using the wrong drill bit, I was able to get in all the screws without a hitch.

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. We planned the design for our sukkah
  2. We decided on a design for our sukkah
  3. We figured out what materials we needed to build the sukkah
  4. We bought those materials
  5. We screwed in the top and bottom plates.
  6. We then put carriage bolts in the top and bottom plates
  7. We brought all the wood that we needed outside
  8. We connected the corner plates and the bottom plates
  9. We figured out how we needed to cut the studs
  10. We cut the studs
  11. We screwed and nailed in all our studs
  12. We Cut out the space for our window
  13. We screwed in our windows top and bottom plates
  14. We painted our MJDS

 

SM21 attaching the much troubled “S” in MJDS together.

A sneak peek at our MJDS

YG21 and I screwing in our window’s top and bottom plates.

Sukkah Day 14

1. Explain in at least two sentences what YOU accomplished today.
Today I was able to cut the studs where the window needs to go. I was then also able to help Yosef get the bottom and top plates for the window cut. Then I screwed those into the studs by the window.
2. Explain in at least two sentences what YOUR GROUP accomplished today.

Besides what I already did, my group was also able to connect a lot of our milk cartons. The tops were also cut off of all of them too so that they’re easier to connect.

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

Tomorrow we need to finish connecting our milk cartons. There is also a possibility that we may be able to start painting them.

 

Sukkah Day 13

1. Today, we worked on boy getting our window in and finishing our studs and it felt good to do this because after we were done with the studs Kaufman said I did a good job.

2. An example of when I worked well with a classmate was when while I was working on a project that only 1 or 2 people could do at a time my other classmates were able to work with another group.

3. I have the window and plywood left on my Sukkah wall. I am feeling optimistic. about the amount of work left.

Sukkah Day 12

This is yours truly trying to get a gosh darn nail in a board straight. Apparently, we haven’t been able to get in nails straight enough so Kaufman had us practice today.

CW21 hammering in a nail while I stand on it to keep it steady.

SE21 also working to get her nails straight in the board. Surprisingly harder than you’d think. I also had trouble with this.

 

CW21 successfully getting all of his nails in straight so he can continue working on the wall.

One of our other groups moving their wall out straight onto the road area so it’s level ground.