4th Grade: Sukkot – and Ha’azinu, on the wings of eagles
Happy Sukkot, 4th Grade families! For those who are curious about what’s up with the beautiful treehouse-on-the-ground looking thing outside our synagogue, that’s a sukkah. Welcome in! The plural of sukkah is sukkot, which is where the holiday gets its name. It’s our major harvest/Thanksgiving festival.
The various 4th Grade classes did slightly different Sukkot activities, but all were delightful. Sarah’s classes talked about the idea that Sukkot is a time for happiness and what it means for God (or someone) to tell us that we need to be happy right now. We had great discussions about feelings on command and the idea that there are things and people around us who contribute to the way that we feel. Then we discussed the rules of building a sukkah and created 3D fantasy paper sukkot, which would contribute to happiness — because, turns out, there isn’t any rule that says you CAN’T have a baseball-themed sukkah, or ones with whimsical beds and couches, or ones with campfires and chocolate fountains, or waterslides and pools…! They were having such a great creative time with it that Morah Leora continued those projects, too.
Parsha: Abby’s class talked about Ha’azinu as a pep-talk — or a prep talk — from Moses to the People of Israel, and designed their own pep-talks, too. Morah Leora’s classes explored some of the poetry in Ha’azinu, creating spiral-shaped mobiles to depict the way that eagles teach their baby eaglets to fly, carrying them upon their wings in ever-ascending circles (to which Moses likened God carrying the people of Israel). The ascending spirals can also depict cyclical time in Judaism (whether repeated reading of Torah, or holidays every year). Each year, we read the same Torah portion again, or have the same holiday, but, we’re older and wiser than last time — we’re higher up, we can see more, as though an eagle is circling us upwards. The words haven’t changed, but we have.
Lauren Hart’s classes made their own candy sukkah (which I’m sure you saw when they brought them home). She writes: “I apologize for the sugar high they made have had, but we had a blast! We also spoke about what sukkot is and why some people live in their sukkah during this festive week. We’ll be starting with creation next week, and I’m super excited to dive into Bereshet!”
All of our 4th Grade classes got to visit our beautiful Sukkah on Tuesday or Wednesday, where everyone who wished got to smell the lovely etrog and shake the lulav in all directions.
Discussion questions:
– Ha’azinu – For poetry and imagination: Try watching point-of-view videos together of eagles flying. (For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0wCikzaUhA .) What would that be like? If you were in the desert, watching eagles flying like that, and listening to Moses’s song — how would that feel, to imagine that God was taking care of you, and flying you around?
– Ha’azinu – For growth and change: What transitions have you and your child faced in life? What skills and support helped you or your child get through the transition, to become wiser or stronger on the other side?
– Sukkot – For creativity and happiness: Ask your child all about their dream sukkah. What would it be made of? What shape would it be, what furnishings would it have? These tend to get terrifically creative!
– Sukkot – For world awareness: There is a great tradition of welcoming guests into our sukkah to share our harvest foods. This can be an opportunity for you to talk together about inclusion and immigration – which could be your politics, and/or your own familial immigration stories.
In Hebrew Through Movement, 4th grade has been working on verbs, including ‘to pick up’ and ‘to put down’, plus reviews of to stand, to sit, to walk, to stop, to run, to jump, to spin, to point. Nouns: apple, candle/s, honey, lulav. Additionally they were introduced to the preposition ‘under’, and words like everyone, team (A/B/C), Door, table, chair, teacher, counselor, board, window, head, hand\s, leg\s, book, pencil. Additionally they were introduced to the adverbs slow, fast, in place, and connecting words: to, no\yes, and ‘and’.