THE CONSERVATIVE SYNAGOGUE RELIGIOUS SCHOOL

Welcome to the TCS Religious School, where our youth and teens in grades K-12 connect to Jewish history, Israel, culture, Hebrew and prayer through a program rich in experiential learning.

Grades K – 2

Grades K-2 meet once a week for two hours, with an interactive, hands-on curriculum that covers introduction to Jewish history, holidays and mitzvot as well as a specially designed Hebrew language program that is geared to prepare our youngest students to have the ability to read Hebrew letters and words by the time they enter the third grade.

Grades 3-6

Students in grades 3-6 meet twice a week for two hour sessions, where they study Hebrew language, prayer, Jewish history and culture. All of our students have a unique prayer experience; each session focusing on the mechanics, essence and meaning of prayer, which is led by either our rabbi, cantor or religious school director. In addition, we have two music specialists who use music and dance to connect us to our Jewish roots and create a bridge to Jewish communities around the world.

To foster a partnership with our families, our curriculum is enriched with Family Education programs, designed to engage the entire family. We begin with Shabbat which is brought to life through our class Shabbat services and dinners. Each class Shabbat gives our families the opportunity to join together and celebrate Shabbat as a community. This year we have implemented a new Saturday morning Shabbat experience— Mishpacha (Preschool), Be’yachad (K-2) and Kehilah (3-6)— which bring our students and families together for a spiritual Shabbat morning experience.

Our experiential learning comes alive in our cultural and holiday programs. This year's highlights include the making of sufganiyot and our own olive oil and candles for Hanukkah, virtual class trips with our new 30 foot life-size map of Israel, and a hands-on a 5th grade Living Museum program, which features a trip to the Museum of Jewish Heritage and the Lower East Side. We also have special visits from various community leaders, such as our sofer who wrote our new Torah.

To engage our families in preparing for their upcoming Bar/Bat Mitzvah we have introduced a B’nei Mitzvah seminar for our six grade students and parents. Through this seminar, the group explores conversations such as what it means to become a Bar/Bat Mitzvah and why we wear tallit and tefillin. Each workshop introduces a new theme of Bar/Bat Mitzvah, which is highlighted through an experiential process such as learning to tie our own tzitzit and writing our own mezuzah, as well as engaging in Tikkun Olam (social action) projects.

Atid and Kollel Teen Programs

Our teens in our middle school/high school program continue their Jewish learning and connection to TCS. The 7th and 8th graders in our ATID program meet once a week from 6:15pm until 8:30pm, where they choose from electives such as You Be the Judge, Holocaust studies, and Israel: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. The 9th through 12th graders in our Kollel program have the option of selecting from Ulpan or our Madrichim leadership class, which provides training to work as an aide in our religious school classrooms, as well as a special weekly seminar run by the Rabbi, focusing on modern ethical issues, politics and more. Both age groups enjoy a half hour social break to connect with friends and end the evening with a fifteen minute school-wide discussion led by Rabbi Tobin. For details on our Atid and Kollel programs, click the link below:
 

RELIGIOUS SCHOOL NEWS

It is hard to believe that we are already beginning our third month of our educational experience for 2008-09.  We have persevered through the opening of school and the Jewish holidays, and we can now begin to concentrate on our work at hand.  One of our largest goals is to help our children become as proficient as they can in Hebrew.  This is no small task— not only for our teachers but for the community as well.  For those who may not be familiar with our Hebrew program, it begins in Kindergarten and continues through sixth grade.

We know, through educational research, that children have the best language acquisition at younger ages.  In response to this research, for the last several years we have implemented a special Hebrew program created and coordinated by our Hebrew Specialist Naomi Vogel.  This program takes our youngest students in Kindergarten through our second graders and begins to bring Hebrew into their worlds.  If you are the parent of a Kindergarten through second grader and would like to see this educational process in progress, please let me know so we can schedule some classroom time for observation.  As our students transition to third grade and begin coming to our program twice a week, our Hebrew program focuses on teaching Hebrew as a modern living language.  In our educational settings, we focus on modern Hebrew reading and Siddur Hebrew.  Our Hebrew teachers are also looking for new ways to engage our students in Hebrew language, so if you have walked our hallways and classrooms, you may have noticed Hebrew words on various objects. These modern Hebrew words help bring the language alive and connect us to our community in Israel.

Here is where we need your help.  It is crucial that our students reinforce their Hebrew skills. Each week our students are given review exercises for things they have covered in class.  We highly encourage our parents to sit with their children and review.  We do understand that not all of our parents are comfortable with their Hebrew reading, and so we offer the following options:  If you feel that your child can gain by having some Hebrew reinforcement, we can make arrangements to have extra Hebrew review during Sunday second session (11:15 am – 1:00 pm) or on Tuesday or Thursday between 3:15 pm and 3:45 pm.  Our goal is to have every child be comfortable enough to enter any synagogue and participate as an active community member.

In addition to creating a program for reinforcement, we are very excited to start an enrichment Hebrew program for those families and students who would like an Ulpan style interactive Hebrew program.  This program would focus on Hebrew vocabulary and conversation.  If there is enough interest, we would try and kickoff this program in January.  This could take place either second session on Sunday for an additional hour, or on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons before 4:00 pm.  If you are interested in more information on this Hebrew enrichment program, please contact me in the TCS Religious School office (227-6964 x181).

Even though we are into the third month of our Jewish education, there is still a lot to come with our class Shabbat celebrations, family programs, holiday festivities, guest speakers, and much more.  Please follow your school calendar and emails for all of our exuberant, fantastic, and fun educational experiences.

Shalom,

Danny

Religious School Director

Important Religious School Dates

November 4 – No School; Election Day

November 8 – Shabbat Experience *

November 9 – Grade 4 Family Program 10:00 am –

     12:00pm

November 14 – Grade 6 Shabbat

November 22 – Shabbat Experience *                 

November 23 – Grade 5 Ellis Island

November 27 – No School; Thanksgiving Break

November 30 – No School; Thanksgiving Break

* Please refer to the Services box on this page for a complete schedule of Shabbat offerings for children and their families.

Download our Atid and Kollel Brochure and Registration Form.

Download our Religious School Handbook.