Sukkot is a fun harvest holiday that gives us opportunities for arts and crafts, nature study, and an appreciation of the food we eat and where it comes from. Traditionally on Sukkot we build a shelter, sukkah in Hebrew, and decorate it with fall and harvest-themed decorations. We are also meant to invite visitors, or ushpizin. We decided to invite the wildlife in our yard to be our ushpizin this year - birds an squirrels. So we focused our decorating on edible decorations for them!
We pushed a mixture of birdseed, flour, water, and peanut butter into cookie cutters and made holes to tie them up with string.
We laminated some of our watercolor leaves with contact paper and strung them up on the sukkah.
Reaching to hang the decorations.
The birdseed "cookies" held together very well!
After hanging our decorations, the children we inspired to continue decorating with colorful chalk drawings.
His own lulav and etrog from paper.
Shaking the lulav and etrog and saying the blessing!
Everybody wanted lots of turns to hold the four species - date palm, myrtle, willow, and etrog (citron).
We shook them in all directions!
Smelling the citrus-scented etrog. Holidays invite us to use many senses, including smell.
All our birdseed cookies, as well as the strings of peanuts and cranberries we made, were gobbled up by birds and squirrels! This scrub jay lives nearby and made frequent visits.
