Religious School Updates

Kindergarten – Noah’s Ark & Caring for Living Things

Kindergarten heard Noah’s Ark, retold the story with movement and explored the rainbow as a sign of God’s covenant—a lasting promise—with living creatures. Through their illustrated journals and caring actions, children considered how they can help protect and care for living things. We also practiced recognizing the Hebrew letters Kaf and Lamed.

Ask your student: What does the rainbow remind us of in Noah’s story?

First Grade –  A Place at Our Table

During our family program, first graders and their families explored how Abraham and Sarah welcomed visitors and connected their example to our own Shabbat tables. Together, families designed challah covers with meaningful symbols of Shabbat and welcome. These covers offer a lasting reminder of hachnasat orchim—welcoming guests—and the everyday actions that help others feel included.

Ask your student: What does your challah cover remind our family to do?

Second Grade – Babel & The People Who Build 

Second graders explored the Tower of Babel through storytelling, discussion, cooperative building and visual midrash—art that expresses an interpretation of a text. We compared different understandings of the builders’ choices and considered how a group can work toward a shared goal while caring for each person. Students practiced distinguishing details in the story from their own interpretations and used their journal artwork to communicate their thinking.

Ask your student: What idea did your Babel picture show about building together and caring for people?

Third Grade – Deborah & Asking for Help 

Third graders read Deborah’s Help, explored Deborah’s leadership and Barak’s request for support, and noticed parallel ideas in Deborah and Barak’s song. They practiced choosing an appropriate helper and making a respectful request. The lesson encouraged students to recognize that asking for help can be a strength and that leaders also rely on cooperation and support.

Ask your student: How can asking for help be a strength?

Fourth Grade – Jonah 3: Change Through Action 

Fourth graders read Jonah 3 and a short passage from Isaiah, comparing outward signs of change with changed actions. They used textual evidence to test claims and designed a repair plan for a fictional community. This helped students explore teshuvah—turning and repair—and consider how specific actions, beyond promises alone, can show that a person or community is changing.

Ask your student: What makes a change more than a sign or a promise?

Fifth Grade – Deborah & Yael 

Fifth graders explored Deborah, Barak and Yael in Judges 4 and compared the narrative with Deborah’s song to discuss leadership, requests for help and difficult choices. Their journals separated what the text states from inferred motives and unanswered questions, then used a symbol to interpret leadership. Students practiced supporting their ideas with evidence while recognizing that a complex story can leave room for more than one interpretation.

Ask your student: Which verse changed or complicated your thinking about leadership?

Sixth Grade – Gleaning & Dignity 

Sixth graders connected the Mitzvah Wall to Torah rules about leaving field edges, gleanings and forgotten sheaves for others. They modeled how these provisions create access to resources and drafted class project proposals attentive to people’s needs and dignity. The lesson encouraged students to consider how thoughtful planning and listening to the people affected can make our efforts to help more respectful and accessible.

Ask your student: Whom should we consult before deciding how to help, and why?

Seventh Grade – Zionism & Propaganda 

Eighth & Ninth Grades – Zionism & Self-Determination 

This week in our Tell curriculum, we explored Zionism as the movement for Jewish self-determination in our ancestral homeland, placing Israel’s founding within the larger history of new countries emerging as empires collapsed. We examined Soviet propaganda images and discussed how familiar antisemitic stereotypes were repackaged as attacks on “Zionists” and Israel. Building on previous lessons about “The Big Lie,” students considered how changing the language of a message can allow old prejudices to continue.

We also began “Turn It, Turn It, Turn It,” using Torah clues to practice finding passages and asking questions about the creation stories in Genesis. We compared the two accounts of human creation and explored how Torah and science approach different questions. 

Ask your student: What did you notice in the propaganda images, and how can recognizing those patterns help you think critically about messages you encounter today? 

Confirmation

TBD

Beren Scholars

TBD

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Contact Samantha Fomera, Director of Youth Education & Family Engagement, at samantha@unitedhebrew.org to be added to the circulation of our e-blast newsletter!