Rebuilding Masada for Israel week

Our book for Israel week is ‘Let’s visit Jerusalem’ – one of the Bella and Harry adventure series – see my post book for Israel week. It features a great double page spread on Masada – an ancient fortification in the Judean desert, built by Herod the Great. It is now in ruins, but was once magnificent and is one of the most visited sites in Israel.

We talked about what Masada is and was, and decided that we should make our own fortress out of sugar cubes. Once made, my son wanted to colour it yellow – so we used water with some food colouring and pipetted it on. The water started to dissolve the sugar (a bit of science then too!), and made it look a bit more like a ruin.

After this, my son decided he wanted to dissolve the sugar using different colours, so I went with it. We talked about what it means for water to dissolve the sugar as he was intrigued by the gloop that was forming. He loved the colourful mess that ensued!

I don’t mind starting with one idea and ending with another, so long as fun and learning are had in the meantime!