Congregational School Curriculum

The Congregational School curriculum is based on a framework of exploration and adventure in learning. A robust arts program, including the visual arts, theater, movement and creative writing is woven throughout the curriculum. Prayer and Jewish music are integrated into a weekly Shabbat experience.

The current Wednesday Hebrew curriculum uses books and online materials from BehrmanHouse. Each grade has a curriculum theme, based on the framework of a journey or exploration into a particular topic. In each year, study of the holiday cycle is connected to the theme for each particular year.

Gan-Alef-Bet (K-Grade 2)

Currently, students in grades K-2 are grouped together because of size. The curriculum contains three years of themes and learning that can be differentiated for the ages of students. This way, whenever a child enters this class, they will experience new content each year.

• Year 1: Let’s Explore Jewish Values. Monthly units focused on selected Jewish values allow students to learn about the value in depth.
• Year 2: Let’s Explore Jewish Spaces. This theme explores objects and activities connected to life in the synagogue and rituals and objects used in the home.
• Year 3: Let’s Explore Jewish Stories. Exploring Jewish culture through folk stories from around the world, children tell stories through puppets, art and other modalities.

Gimel & Dalet (Grades 3-4)

Depending on the size of the class, students in Gimel and Dalet may also be combined. This two year study of Torah stories through texts and project based creative activities rotates so that students do not repeat content.

• Year 1: Journey through the Torah: Genesis.
• Year 2: Journey through the Torah: Exodus. 
• Dalet: Journey through Jewish American History. This curriculum explores the history and culture of Jewish life in the U.S. from colonial times through the civil rights movement, touching on issues of contemporary battles for religious liberty. Students also explore Jewish musicians, artists, writers and performers through project based learning.

Hay (Grade 5)

Journey through Global Jewish Communities. This curriculum explores non-Ashkenazic Jewish communities across history and geography, including the Jews of Spain and Portugal, the Ethiopian and other African Jewish communities and the Bene Jews of Israel. Learning culminates in a student led research project on a particular community.

Vav (Grade 6)

Journey through European Jewry. The curriculum begins with Jewish life in Eastern Europe in the late 1800s and progresses to the Holocaust era. Students learn about life in the shtetl, the Dreyfus Affair and Theodor Herzl. Our focus in teaching the Holocaust, while acknowledging that any education on this topic is difficult and painful, is a focus on creating tolerance for all people, courage and hope. At the end of the year, students will each do a research project on a "righteous gentile" who risked their life to save a Jewish person.

Zayin (Grade 7)

Journey through B’nai Mitzvah and the Jewish life cycle. This curriculum celebrates each student becoming B’nai Mitzvah and introduces them to the idea that there are many ways to be an adult in the Jewish community by inviting Mishkan members to share their Jewish journeys. In Zayin, students also learn about other important Jewish life cycle rituals from birth through death.