Franklin Lakes Jewish Preschool: Sukkot


After a discussion on the Holiday of Sukkot, Aiden remembered that he saw a Sukkah in the parking lot. The children all ran to the window to check it out. Sukkot is a holiday of Gratitude and Joy. We eat in a Sukkah to show Gratitude to G-d for surrounding the Jewish People with clouds of protection while traveling in the dessert. Using props and our dry erase boards, we depicted the dessert scene and what the Jews would need protection from. We used this as a springboard for discussion on the weather in the dessert and animals found in dessert land. Use this to initiate a discussion with your child. We used our Deena and David puppets as a lesson on a gratitude.

After checking out the Chabad Sukkah, we decided that we'd like to build our own. We went outside to collect branches for the Schach (roof).

Amanda found a large branch and began to SING: "I'm the princes warrior!"

Hannah is excited to find another large branch. After finishing the song, they measure to see which was longer.

After, Sammy encourages her friends to balance on the stones.

Morah Stephanie helps us with our collecton.


We go into the Sukkah to experience it. We also used it as our track for our bikes! Morah Mimi: What are some things we can do in a Sukkah? Chana: Eat Amanda: Read Stories Hannah: Play Aiden: Build from Home Depot Jordan: Play Sammy: Sleep, My sister Jessie loves to sleep in the Sukkah

The children created a sukkah out of colored Popsicle sticks (they loved it:), sticks, and leaves they collected, and glue.
This lead into great discussion.
Sammy: I will put my sticks next to each other so I can make a wall.
Hannah: I want a few walls so I'll put them around.

Aiden was fascinated how he can mix the Popsicle stick with the glue to create blue glue.
Aiden: I want to make a blue wall.

Using balloons and newspaper we tried to create an Etrog. Some of the children really enjoyed smearing the paper mache mixture and glueing the paper over the balloons. While some of the chidlren did not want to get their hands dirty. We will be introducing more projects like this and encouraging the children to get involved.

Hannah adds the glue to our flour and water mixture for the paper mache. Aiden helps us mix the mixture. Thank you to Jordan's Mom for the Newspapers!!!

After Jordan created a few interesting models out of clay and sequins, the children were all interested in it. We decided to created Sukkot decorations out of their creations. The children sorted through all kinds of sequins to find the ones they liked. This lead into conversation about size, color, weight and opinions:)