Primary School in September

The first month of the school year is one of new expectations, of new beginnings and the renewal of old friendships. And it is the beginning of a holiday season, and thus the beginning of a new cycle of learning about traditions and cultures.

Each class began to think about expectations in their own way. The sixth-graders colored in balloons with the theme “The Sky’s the Limit,” adding a few words about their last year in the primary school and beyond. For the first graders, an exercise in coloring in an “emotion clock” was meant to help students and teachers communicate about feelings – a helpful lesson when kids are all starting out with fears, excitement and resistance. In other classes, the children expressed their expectations through writing on cutouts of migrating birds that “flew” off together in the schoolyard or cutouts of their handprints each bearing a single word representing that child’s hopes for the coming year.

Getting the kids used to working together was also a part of the first month’s lesson plans. The second graders worked in small groups to build towers from straws and then talked about what was good or not-so-good about working together. The fifth graders had a “jigsaw” learning session in which each group took on a subject connected to one of the holidays, learned the material individually and then in groups, and then presented it in the group to the rest of the class. The fifth graders also had a “getting together” day of games in the schoolyard.

The sixth graders decided that togetherness and group interaction should include both sixth-grade classes getting to know one another. Several kids from each class, aided by parents and teachers, organized a fun day of bowling at a nearby alley.

The first graders have already begun learning their letters in two languages with coloring, writing, sounding out and being read to. The language center, slated to open once all the children are back in school after the Jewish holidays, will soon bring all the students a new level of language learning. Math is a fun lesson for the children, and it often involves games. The third graders, for example, played a card game to learn the basics of three-and four-digit numbers.

Holidays were, of course, an important part of curriculum. The kids had apples and honey, but they also had HOTAM - Education, Culture, Tradition lessons and discussions - each tailored to the children’s level. In addition to the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, the children learned about the Feast of the Cross, which falls in mid-September. Among other things, they learned that the Christian and Jewish days share some ideas, as well as the symbol of the pomegranate. Artwork abounded, including drawings, greeting cards for Rosh Hashana and crosses for the Feast of the Cross.