Take an in-depth look at our educational objectives of every subject area.
Koven Religious School Curriculum Guide
Holiday Curriculum
See our innovative holiday curriculum that is being implemented around the country.
Click hereOur Curriculum
Our comprehensive curriculum provides a foundation for our student’s Jewish lives.
The Koven Religious School curriculum helps our students form a strong Jewish identity. Guided by Jewish values and traditions, we expose students to various aspects of Jewish belief, history, and culture. We return to topics many times so that students retain the lessons and themes.
We teach the following content areas in age-appropriate ways:
- Prayers:
Students learn how to sing, translate and connect to the meaning of prayers. These prayers are ones that they will lead for their b’nai mitzvah ceremonies.
- Holidays:
In a leading-edge curriculum being implemented around the world, students learn facts about each holiday in the earliest grades, and then are presented with a different grade-appropriate theme annually for each holiday. This helps students see how the holidays add meaning to their lives regardless of age. - Tanach:
By the time students have graduated from the Koven Religious School, they have studied the Tanach from beginning to end, learned about the Second Temple period (after the Bible closed), and studied rabbinic texts. - Shabbat Dinner:
Students in grades 1-4 learn the blessings for Friday night (candles, grape juice, challah), the major parts of Birkat Hamazon, and how to sing two traditional Z’mirot or songs: Tzur Mishelo and D’ror Yikra. The learning is spaced over four years so they are able to master the parts. - Lifecycle:
Students in grades 5-8 learn about the Jewish lifecycle events of b’nai mitzvah, weddings, birth and death.
- Hebrew:
Starting in kindergarten, students become familiar with the Hebrew alphabet. By the end of second grade, students are reading Hebrew. They learn to write, speak and translate written Hebrew as well. The emphasis is on Modern Hebrew. - Israel:
Israel is a special place for the Jewish people. By the time students explore the complexities of modern Israel in eighth grade, they have developed an appreciation and love of the Jewish Homeland. - Social Action:
It is important that our students not only learn but experience the Jewish imperative to make the world a better place. That’s why each grade has a social action theme, grounded in Jewish text, and experienced with a project. The themes repeat so that students can revisit them from an older perspective. - Other:
Some subjects aren’t easily categorized, so each grade has an “other” topic such as Jewish peoplehood, Jewish food and God.
Curriculum Content by Grade
Each grade has a curricular focus for yearly studies. Hebrew language and learning about the holidays are built into each grade’s curriculum.
Kindergarten
- Prayer: Shema
- Holidays: Basic facts
- Tanach: The weekly Torah portion
- Hebrew: Naming letters
- Israel: Symbols
- Social Action: Honoring the elderly
- Other: Intro to the Synagogue
Grades 2-3
- Prayer: Barchu
- Holidays: Review facts, grade-specific themes for each holiday
- Tanach: Genesis: Isaac-Joseph; Shabbat Dinner: Review, Kakatuv paragraph of Birkat Hamazon, and the next paragraphs of Tzur Mishelo and D’ror Yikra
- Hebrew: Write Hebrew
- Israel: Jewish Homeland
- Social Action: Environment
- Other: Jewish Peoplehood
Grades 4-5
- Prayer: Ashrei
- Holidays: Review facts, grade-specific themes for each holiday
- Tanach: The weekly Torah portion; Shabbat Dinner: Review, the Shabbat Harachaman and Migdol paragraphs of Birkat Hamazon, and the next paragraphs of Tzur Mishelo and D’ror Yikra
- Hebrew: Speaking conversational Hebrew
- Israel: Geography
- Social Action: Honoring the elderly
- Other: God
Grades 6-7
- Prayer: Aleinu
- Holidays: Review facts, grade-specific themes for each holiday
- Tanach: The rest of the Tanach
- Lifecycle: Birth
- Hebrew: Reading stories
- Israel: Planning a trip
- Social Action: The environment
- Other: Jewish values
Grades 9-12
- Tanach: Rabbinic texts
- Other: Modern issues
Grades 1-2
- Prayer: V’ahavta
- Holidays: Review facts and grade-specific themes for each holiday
- Tanach: Genesis — Creation through Abraham; Shabbat dinner — Blessings for Candles, grape juice and challah; Shir Hama’alot — the first paragraph of Birkat Hamazon and the first paragraphs of two Z’mirot (Tzur Mishelo and D’ror Yikra)
- Hebrew: Read Hebrew
- Israel: The National Anthem
- Social Action: Healing the sick
- Other: Home rituals
Grades 3-4
- Prayer: Friday evening Kiddush
- Holidays: Review facts, grade-specific themes for each holiday
- Tanach: Exodus-Deuteronomy; Shabbat Dinner – Review, Uv’nei Yerushalayim paragraph of Birkat Hamazon, and the next paragraphs of Tzur Mishelo and D’ror Yikra
- Hebrew: Present tense
- Israel: Demography
- Social Action: Hunger
- Other: Jewish foods
Grades 5-6
- Prayer: Vayomer
- Holidays: Review facts, grade-specific themes for each holiday
- Tanach: Joshua through Solomon
- Lifecycle: B’nai-Mitzvah and Wedding
- Hebrew: Writing conversational Hebrew
- Israel: History
- Social Action: Healing the sick
- Other: Kashrut
GRADES 7-8
- Prayer: Mourner’s Kaddish
- Holidays: Review facts, grade-specific themes for each holiday
- Tanach: The Second Temple period
- Lifecycle: Death
- Hebrew: Read newspapers
- Israel: Complexities
- Social Action: Hunger
- Other: Holocaust