Philosophy for Grades K-4

The Lower School at JCDS honors a child’s sense of wonder and delight in the world, while promoting the acquisition of skills and information and modeling and instilling Jewish values. We foster and cherish the innate creativity and curiosity that children bring to school. We design our curriculum to allow children to explore and learn in an environment that balances structure with choice and the individual with the community. Our Lower School respects the pace of childhood and promotes excitement about learning and joy in being part of a remarkable community. At JCDS, students experience an exceptional education in an environment that complements and challenges each child’s own strengths. Our course of study is rigorous and intentional, yet flexible and personalized: the school maintains its embracing and relaxed environment while providing an academic foundation built on strong skills.

Goals

Our Lower School students start on the journey to become skilled readers, writers, mathematicians, scientists, and artists, anchored in Jewish values and knowledge. These are important years for establishing the habits and interests that foster life-long learning. We focus on helping our students to love school and acquire skills necessary to become critical and caring thinkers and citizens.

Unique Attributes

Several characteristics set the JCDS Lower School apart:

• Two full time teachers in each Lower School classroom create a low student-teacher ratio that enables students to receive individual and small group instruction.
• One of the two teachers in each Lower School classroom is always a fluent Hebrew speaker. This team-teaching assures that students hear and speak Hebrew and English throughout the day from their first day at JCDS.
• We intentionally integrate Judaic and General studies so that children have both an integrated sense of learning and the opportunity to see connections in their studies and in their lives.
• JCDS’s commitment to pluralism fosters students’ willingness and ability to appreciate and respect different points of views. At a very young age, our students are comfortable managing different perspectives, not only in reference to Jewish practices and beliefs, but also in regard to their academic studies and other students’ styles and interests.
• The intentional, flexible and child-centered structure of the school supports a wide range of learners, even as each child’s learning style grows and evolves. This makes JCDS especially well-suited for families seeking a school which can cultivate all of their children, diverse as their learning styles may be.

Academic Classes

• English Literacy Studies - Students at JCDS are on the journey to become life-long readers, thinkers, writers, and researchers. Using Writers’ and Readers’ Workshops, they acquire the critical skills, concepts, and strategies necessary to be successful in this journey. With increasing sophistication across the grades, they write and rewrite narrative and expository pieces and read a wide variety of literature.
• Hebrew - Each classroom’s Hebrew-speaking teacher teaches Hebrew as a subject while also integrating Hebrew throughout the day in both academic and casual conversation. Our students rapidly gain fluency in reading, speaking, and writing modern Hebrew, while becoming increasing competent in understanding spoken Hebrew. In the Lower School students also begin to learn the Biblical Hebrew that enables them to access Jewish texts.
• Humash (Bible) – From the earliest grades students are engaged in text study. The text study is a basis for learning Hebrew, for authentically connecting to texts and tradition, and as an inspiration for artwork, plays, writing, and a myriad of projects. All of these approaches and activities are designed to extend our students’ connection to and understanding of text, a skill which clearly resonates in subjects throughout the curriculum. In the Lower School, we emphasize how a text is interpreted, and we look at the role of commentary in deepening an understanding of the text. In these grades, the students will read the Humash in Hebrew and have discussions in English, with increasing use of Hebrew as students progress through the grades.
• Math - Our students learn that math is more than the ability to calculate with numbers. They begin to realize that math is about understanding numbers and provides an approach to solving problems. From the earliest grades, we foster mathematical thinking through studying logic, algebraic thinking, number sense and operations, geometry, measurement, and data collection and probability. Students need to be skilled at doing calculations, but we also want them to be comfortable assessing and solving problems, using creativity, perseverance, and strong basic skills.
• Science - Lower School science is taught as discovery, observation, and interpretation. Our students learn that science is a field that involves data collection, questioning, and creating and testing hypotheses. Whether they are observing butterflies hatching, monitoring plant seedlings, or exploring the properties of ”mystery powders”, they are leaning both the facts and the processes that will engage them and set the foundation for further inquiry and knowledge. While the younger grades conduct their studies with their classroom teachers, third and fourth graders begin study with a science specialist.
• Social Studies and Central Subjects - Each grade in the Lower School has a theme or central subject that anchors their Social Studies and other areas of the curriculum. For example, in Kindergarten an overarching theme is “Cycles”, and these students learn about the cycle of Jewish holidays and of the weekly Torah readings, while also exploring this theme in studying the life cycle of butterflies and plants. In literature studies even the youngest students identify patterns and cycles in stories. The theme in grade three is “ Incredible Journeys”. The students study the journey of Abraham and Sarah in Humash as both an external journey and as an “internal” journey that changed their view of the world. They also study the Pilgrims’ journey to America and use this as a basis for reading, math, mapping, and writing, as they connect and compare this journey to Biblical journeys and to journeys in other literature.

Additional Subjects

In addition to the subjects above, specialists teach classes to our students each week in:

• Physical education, with a focus on movement, sports and team games, fitness, teamwork and sportsmanship;
• Art, with each grade studying an artist for the year and basing some or their work on that artist while also experimenting with varied media and artistic styles;
• Music, which incorporates singing Hebrew and English songs, musical theory, recorders and other musical instruments;
• Israeli dancing, which is a joyful part of the school community, with frequent dancing for Haggim and other celebrations;
• Movement, which provides additional physical activity and body awareness through games and exercises.

There is a Hebrew Club for native speakers and a Math Club that all can join.

In Grade 5, JCDS students move up to our Middle School.