Sukkot Extravaganza 2011
On Sunday Temple Emanuel of Providence, RI brought their Hebrew School students to Camp Ramah in New England to take part in our annual Sukkot Extravaganza. On Monday Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford also brought their 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classes to take park in the program.
Sukkot Extravaganza, a free program which we open to communities throughout New England, featured a series of hands on Sukkot challenges. Students first needed to determine how tall or small their Sukkot could be by measuring their own Amot (length from one’s elbow to the tip of their middle finger) and Tefachim (width of four fingers on one’s hand). Sukkot must be higher than 10 Tefachim, but no higher than 20 Amot.
Students then learned about what could be used to create the roof of a Sukkah– known as Skach (only organic materials that have not been previously used for another purpose). The Skach must be placed in a manner that blocks out more sunlight than it lets in, but still allows one to see the stars in the sky. After collecting their own Skach, students created their own Sukkot roofs and tested them to make sure they allowed the appropriate levels of visibility
Using what they had learned about the rules of building a Sukkah, students then investigated the 6 different Sukkot that were set up around camp to determine if they were Kosher (build to proper standards) or not Kosher.
Lastly students used a variety of materials to try to build their own Sukkah in less than 20 minutes.
Looking at the 6 different Sukkot below, see if you can determine which ones are or are not Kosher, and why. Email your responses to beng@campramahne.org. The first correct submission will win a prize.
If your community is interested in participating in next year’s Sukkot Extravaganza, please contact Ben Greene, Director of Education, at beng@campramahne.org.