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Kindergarten Curriculum

We strongly believe that children should begin their Jewish learning and experience as early as possible so that they can begin to nurture a deep relationship with their synagogue, peers, and community.  Our Kindergarten class meets once a week and offers a fantastic introduction to religious school and synagogue life through stories and hands-on experiences.  Using all of their senses, students are encouraged to explore their Judaism and discover its beauty and meaning.  Students alternate taking home the class “Shabbat Box” each week to make it easy for families to celebrate Shabbat together and record their experiences. 

Books/Materials

  • Let’s Discover God packets
    • God’s Creations, God is One, In God’s Image, Thanking God, God’s Promise, God’s Gift of Shabbat, Talking to God, God’s World
  • Let’s Discover Mitzvot packets
    • Tzedakah, Visit the Sick, Feed the Hungry, Save the Earth, Derech Eretz, Welcoming Guests, Guard Your Tongue, Talmud Torah

*Teachers’ Guides for all series are located in the office.  Please consult these guides when planning lessons as they contain specific teaching objectives and a variety of suggested learning activities.


Essential, Guiding Questions

1)    What makes me proud to be Jewish?

2)    How do I experience Judaism through all my senses?

3)    How do we understand God and God’s role in our world?

4)    What mitzvot, commandments, can we do to make our world and our lives better?

5)    What is important about Shabbat and each of our holidays?

Evidences of Understanding/Experiencing

Upon completion of the year, students will be able to:

  • Express, either verbally or artistically, why they like being Jewish
  • Explain a main idea associated with each holiday, and create ritual objects to help celebrate holidays in the future
  • Define mitzvot as commandments and describe several different mitzvot they have performed
  • Relate mitzvot to Jewish values or Torah stories
  • Describe how they understand God and the different things that God does in our world
  • Express different ways they can see, smell, taste, hear, and touch Judaism
  • Sing the Shabbat blessings over candles, wine, and challah
  • Participate comfortably in tefila