Religious School

Curriculum Guideline, Aleph – Daled

(3rd grade public school – 6th grade public school)

3rd – 6th Grades meet 3 times a week for a total of 6 hours (either Monday & Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday, everyone meets on Saturday for Junior Congregation and a “Shabbat class” where the weekly Parasha is introduced and discussed).

It is the goal of every educational professional to get children to learn. The problem with that goal is the method of how to accomplish it. At Temple Beth Shalom Religious School (TBS), we have bridged the gap between, having the goal and accomplishing it.

The overall objective of these grades is to provide our students with the knowledge and love of the Hebrew language, Bible, Israel, Jewish History, Jewish customs, rituals and values as well as the make-up of the Siddur and the synagogue service. We want our children to develop positive attitudes toward Jewish tradition and Jewish Values.

Family activities are included to help support and promote learning in the classroom, including Aleph Consecration and Bet Shabbat Service. Every Shabbat the third through sixth grades are together for Junior Congregation. A different class leads the Junior Congregation each week while another has invited their families to join them and pray together.

The basic school curriculum is as follows:

• Aleph - Hebrew language, Holidays, Prayers, Bible (Torah), Values & Israel
• Bet - Hebrew language, Holidays, Israel, Bible (Prophets), Prayers & Values
• Gimmel - Hebrew language, Israel, Trope (Torah), Holidays, Prayers, Values & Jewish history
• Daled - Hebrew language, Jewish history, Holidays, Israel, Prayers, Values & Trope (Haftorah)

Our curriculum is a spiral one in which the older grades review what was taught in the past and learn new skills, ideas and concepts that add on to the older ones. Various textbooks, supplemental materials and teaching aids, enhance all aspects of our curriculum. At T.B.S., we have the unique trait that most of our faculty also teaches at various Jewish day schools throughout the area and are able to additionally supplement the curriculum to an even higher standard.

Throughout the school the children go to our Library and Media Center. While they are in the upper grades the children visit it frequently, as well as one of our four computers, to assist them in projects and research for their classes. Our Library and Media Center are not only available to the children who attend our Primary & Religious School, but it is open to our entire congregation.

Through the leadership of Rabbi Spector, Temple Beth Shalom has been the essence of Conservative Judaism. To help meet these standards, T.B.S. has created a guideline with details the process of becoming a B’nai Mitzvah.

In trying to meet these standards our religious school is now housed in the Carol and Paul Miller Educational Center. This new building allows us to have computers in every classroom as well as in our Media Center and our State of the Art Learning Center which is used to meet the individual academic needs of our children with special needs.