WDS held its second triennial Chanukkade over Chanukah week. What is Chanukkade? It’s a student-designed arcade crafted entirely of cardboard boxes! In the week leading up to Chanukah, students in grades k-eight had the opportunity to design arcade games during science class. This activity was inspired by the short film Caine’s Arcade, which documents a 10-year-old boy who created his own cardboard arcade in his father’s car-parts shop. The students first watched the film, then learned about the engineering design process.

On the first day of the event, each grade got an hour in the gym to bring their designs to life. Middle school students were assigned to assist the elementary students with their builds, and both helped the younger students flesh out their ideas as well as use the tools like box cutters and glue guns.

On the second day of the event, the middle schoolers ran the arcade while ganon-fifth grade students had the chance to come and play the games, earn tickets, and cash them in for prizes. All the students, from the youngest tots to the oldest eighth graders had fun playing the games, which included Skee Ball, basketball, Nok Hockey, bowling, a claw machine, a ball maze, Whac-a-Mole and even a Barbie runway game! The middle schoolers really rose to the challenge of assisting the younger students, both on the building day and on the playing day. As one seventh-grader noted at the end of his session, “Working with little kids is exhausting!”