“New Activities Will Create New Educational Connections”

Education is all about connections.  As educators, it is our job to create a variety of connections.  We connect concepts so that students learn how different disciplines relate to one another. It is also our job to connect what they learn in school with the world outside the classroom. Nothing exists in isolation in the real world and it shouldn’t in a learning environment.  In preschool, students learn about Jewish Holy Days, Festivals and Shabbat through stories, songs, art and play. We connect what they are singing and painting to the book they read and the craft they are making.  Our Religious School students learn that Hebrew is connected to everything they do and is part of every class.  You cannot, for example, teach about being a mench or Jewish lifecycle events without using Hebrew words.  They learn that Torah stories and ancient peoples teach us by connecting to our values.  Our Hebrew High students take the subjects learned in grades K-7 to the next level.  Through such classes as Conversational Hebrew, Comparative Religion and Tzedakah & Social Justice, their learning scaffolds.  Teachers help them to recall what they learned in Religious School and add to the knowledge with students who can now think more deeply and abstractly.

It is time to take the interwoven fabric of learning one step further.  Our students need to connect to current events, to Israel, to Jewish people and issues worldwide.  Children today are bombarded with media and yet, they often know surprisingly little about current events. Children born in the 1990’s and after are removed from the generation of people whose suffering during World War II led to the creation of a Jewish homeland.  Connecting our students to Israel & its history and events that impact Jewish people everywhere is a goal that needs to be broken down into steps. You will notice new activities in the coming months that will begin us on the road to more student awareness of their Jewish world.

In our preschool, we can use technology to show real pictures of what we describe and learn through pretend.  Our annual “Trip to Israel” week will still include simulated cities in our classrooms.  We will enhance that learning with huge, projected photos thus connecting replication with reality.  Technology can also be used to show Jewish traditions and celebrations in action. 

Religious School & Hebrew High School students will be encouraged to take the Jewish Facts and Events Challenge.  One bulletin board in the hallway will have a question that students will be asked to answer. Questions will change approximately every 2 weeks.  Questions will relate to Israel as a nation, current events and Jewish history in the 20th century.  Students will earn Religious School Dollars when they submit correct answers by the due date.  Religious School Dollars can be saved and/or spent on prizes.  Be sure to watch the dollars for some well-known Temple Shalom faces – a way we can connect our students to the people they see in their community.

We hope you will encourage this learning by using our activities and questions as a basis for discussions at home.