Curriculum

This year we celebrate a new partnership with the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life. Along with providing innovative and complete curriculum materials, the ISJL is committed to Southern Jewish life and community as a whole. I encourage you to learn more about the fine work the ISJL is doing by visiting their website at http://www.isjl.org. We are confident that the ISJL curriculum will help us continue to provide dynamic and exciting Jewish education for the students at Helfman Religious School. We will combine this new curriculum with the year’s focus on Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) to create unique learning opportunities for our students in the classroom and in the community at large.

It is said in the Book of Proverbs that if you train a child according to his or her way, when the child is old, he or she will not depart from it. In other words, different students have different needs, but all can be brought further toward a strong Jewish identity through our curriculum.

The curriculum is goals and objectives oriented. Each grade level has general goals and objectives that it will achieve each year. Goals and objectives are measurable and quantifiable, so they help us to evaluate our successes and plan for future improvement.

Each grade level concentrates on a few specific themes each year, which helps the curriculum become more focused and streamlined.

The curriculum is designed to eliminate repetition of subject matter as much as possible. We feel that having a thematic curriculum rather than a “smorgasbord” of topics is one way to achieve that end.

We will have “holiday happenings” on most of the Jewish holidays. On these dates, we will come together as a grade, several grades combined, or as a whole school to celebrate and experience the Jewish holidays.

In addition, the holidays will continue to be experienced through the music curriculum, cooking, computers, dance, storytelling, and art projects.

Pre-K:

Jewish Values
Holidays

Kindergarten:

Jewish Holidays
Torah Stories

1st Grade:

Mitzvot in Everyday Life
Exploring God

2nd Grade:

The Jewish Community
The Synagogue
Israel

3rd Grade:

Torah
God
Jewish Holidays

4th Grade:

Prophets
Being Partners with God
Jewish Life Cycle Events

5th Grade:

Israel
Jewish Life Cycle Events
Jewish Values

6th Grade:

Torah
God
Mitzvot and Jewish Values

7th Grade:

(3 mini-courses)

Ethical Choices
Holocaust
Texas Jewish History

Kulam

The Jewish Community

8th Grade:

Dor Chadash – A New Generation

9th Grade:

Modern Israel
Jewish Legal Ethics

10th Grade:

Comparative Judaism
Your Life, Your Choices
Confirmation

11th Grade:

Comparative Religions
American Jewish Civics

12th Grade:

Jewish Life 201
Graduation