In the Lower Elementary years of kindergarten, first grade, and second grade, each class is staffed with two teachers, allowing for individual attention to each child. Children spend much of their day working in small groups; classrooms buzz with active learning. Co-teachers also serve as adult models for menschlich interactions that are mirrored in the expectations for the way our children collaborate. All teachers in the LE division are bilingual in Hebrew and English, and work together to plan and teach all areas of the curriculum, creating an environment rich in connections among teachers, students, and subject matter.

Gan (Kindergarten)
Language Arts
Mathematics
Hebrew
Thematic Studies, Science, Social Studies
Jewish Studies

Kitah Aleph (First Grade)

Language Arts
Mathematics
Hebrew
Thematic Studies, Science, Social Studies
Jewish Studies

Kitah Bet (Second Grade)
Language Arts
Mathematics
Hebrew
Thematic Studies, Science, Social Studies
Jewish Studies



Gan (Kindergarten)

The kindergarten year is a time of continuous discovery, excitement, and affirmation for children. In this year, they learn that they can read, write, do math, speak Hebrew, analyze and interpret text, think about and communicate with God, solve problems, ask great questions, and have wonderful ideas about the world around them. In addition, they learn to cooperate, trust and care for one another, resolve conflict, and rely on their teachers and each other for support.

The curriculum that promotes this learning is integrated and hands-on. Explorations are interdisciplinary, multi-sensory, and, in many cases, responsive to student choice, enabling each child to connect new learning to both prior learning and personal experience. Experiences are designed to elicit children’s native curiosity, creativity, and passion to make meaning.

Language Arts

In kindergarten, reading and writing go hand in hand and support one another. Children are actively engaged in storytelling in a variety of ways, including reading picture books and chapter books, listening to stories, writing stories using the written word and illustrations, and telling stories.

Early in the fall, each child is assessed by the Lower Elementary Division head and his or her teachers and is provided with books at an appropriate reading level; throughout the year, children are guided to make appropriate book choices for themselves.

Reading is not a solitary activity in kindergarten: children read both independently, sitting back-to-back with their partners, and directly to their partners. In addition, they share ideas about their books and strategies they used in reading.

Children receive direct instruction in reading, as well. They learn the sounds letters and letter combinations make, rhyming, punctuation, sight words, and comprehension skills.

A key goal of the reading program is to nourish a love of reading. Teachers model what a “good read” is and help children recognize how it feels to really get into a book or a story.

The focus of the writing program is on children becoming writers. Through the writing process, they learn to understand writing as a way to communicate and express a variety of ideas. Building from personal narratives, the children are encouraged to write their fiction (personal narratives) and non-fiction (“how-to” books) stories any way they can. They share their writing with one another and respond to their own writing and to each other’s.

Among the writing skills that children learn through direct instruction are proper pencil grip, letter formation, how to match sounds and letters, spacing, sequencing, and a variety of writing styles, including narrative, non-fiction writing, journal writing, and poetry.

Mathematics

The math program in kindergarten cultivates both mathematical understanding and the development of basic mathematical skills. Using tangible objects to promote exploration and inquiry, children are encouraged to think about numbers and numerical relations, space and shapes, scale and measurement, patterns, estimation, and sorting and classifying.
Working in small groups, they gain hands-on practice in addition and subtraction, solving story problems, and representing their data pictorially, verbally, and numerically. They also share their solution strategies with each other and respond to each other’s mathematical explanations.

An important goal of the kindergarten math program is for children to understand the role that math plays in the world. Therefore, math takes place throughout the school day. For example, children count, add, estimate, and record attendance during morning meeting. They count the number of school days; make graphs about themselves, their class, and their school; identify patterns wherever they see or hear them; use scale and measurement while building with blocks; use fractions and whole numbers when they cook; and play many board games and card games that nurture mathematical thinking and skills.

Hebrew

Hebrew is an integral part of the kindergarten day and is a language of communication in the classroom, from teacher to student, from student to teacher, and among students. Most students enter kindergarten understanding only a few words and not speaking Hebrew at all; by the end of the year, they are able to participate in structured conversations about classroom routines, family, weather, shapes, numbers, fruits and vegetables, mealtimes, the seasons, and feelings.

Morning meeting is conducted in Hebrew, as are all transitions and many games and activities, particularly in math, art, music, and t’filah (prayer). In addition, stories are read to the children in Hebrew as they act them out, and they learn an extensive repertoire of Hebrew songs.

One goal of the kindergarten year is for children to encounter written Hebrew so that, in first grade, they will be able to learn efficiently to read and write in Hebrew. They are taught to recognize letters and associate letters with sounds; the daily schedule and many classroom objects are written in Hebrew; and the pages on which they illustrate their daily prayers are labeled in Hebrew. Toward the end of the year, the children celebrate their mastery of the Hebrew alphabet at a siyum aleph-bet celebration.

Thematic Studies, Science, and Social Studies

Thematic studies, or theme, is the focal point of the integrated kindergarten curriculum. It incorporates science, social studies, writing, art, and Jewish Studies, and often spills over into reading, Hebrew, math, and drama.

Theme is a source of great excitement in kindergarten, as children have the opportunity to help determine the focus and content of their learning. The process begins as children explore a variety of topics through books, videos, walks around the neighborhood, and conversations with others. Each child then creates a representation, in words or in pictures, of what he or she wants to study and presents it to the class. As a class, the children narrow their choices and eventually choose one by voting. Finally, the class further refines the theme by identifying what they already know about the topic and what they want to know about it.

Using the children’s prior knowledge and questions, the teachers then develop essential questions about the theme to guide the class’s study. The children inquire into the essential questions through a variety of small-group, individual, and whole-class experiences, including explorations of the school environment, home, and the neighborhood, science experiments, book research, museum visits and other field trips, and recording of data using the spoken word, the written word, number, art, and drama.

Among the science skills that are developed in the process are observation, measurement, and recording, as well as developing a hypothesis, experimentation, and sharing results. The social studies concepts and skills that children learn include understanding themselves and others; the characteristics of community; the variety and diversity of their communities; working effectively in a community; making observations and comparisons; listening, asking, and responding; and voting and compromising.

Each thematic study culminates in a multimedia presentation by the children for an audience of peers in which they demonstrate their new-found understanding, knowledge, and skills.

In the past, topics have varied from musical instruments and Central Park to underwater animals and the human body.

Jewish Studies

Children participate daily in t’filah (prayer). During this time, they not only learn to recite and sing excerpts of the Sh’ma and Amidah prayers correctly, but also discuss them, inquiring into the meaning of the prayer texts and relating them to their personal experience. Their understandings are recorded in picture and word on large Bristol board siddur pages; the class refers to these pages daily to help structure their prayer experience and remind themselves of the significance of each of the prayers they have already learned.

In the middle of the year, the children begin to assume leadership roles in t’filah by serving as chazanim and as page-turners; they also begin to attend services in the synagogue on Mondays and Thursdays, where they hear an abbreviated Torah reading and receive aliyot.

At other times of the day and week, as well, children are initiated into the rhythms, sights and sounds, and emotional tone of Jewish life. They look forward to a Kabbalat Shabbat celebration each Friday and a havdalah service each Monday morning; daily, they learn the rudiments of kashrut and recite b’rachot (blessings) before and after eating.

Throughout the year, kindergartners are inducted into the cycle of the Jewish year through stories and experiences, art and drama activities, and a variety of inquiries and explorations that involve all five senses. They learn to associate the smell and taste of apples and honey and the sounds of the shofar with Rosh Hashanah; feelings of remorse and forgiveness with Yom Kippur; the chill of the air in the sukkah and the body language of lulav and etrog with Sukkot; lighting candles, spinning the dreidel, and eating latkes and jelly doughnuts with Chanukah; planting trees and tasting dried fruit with Tu Bish’vat; reading the m’gilah, giving and receiving gift baskets of food, and costume parades with Purim; hunting for chametz, making matzah, and celebrating the seder with Pesach; unfurling the Israeli flag, learning about Israel’s geography, and eating pita and other Israeli foods with Yom Ha’atzmaut; running relay races and eating a picnic in Central Park with Lag Ba’omer; and receiving the Torah and eating cheesecake with Shavuot.


The Lower Elementary division consists of two kindergarten classes, one first grade, and one second grade. The division is housed at our East Side campus in the Park Avenue Synagogue (50 East 87th Street). School hours are from 8:15am to 2:35pm, with 1:30 dismissal on Friday in winter.

To see examples of our curricula and information about specific courses click on the link 'Subject Areas' in the menu on the left of this page.

For questions about admission to the Lower Elementary Division, please contact the Director of Admissions, Dr. Cindy Dolgin, at cindydolgin@sssm.org.

For other questions about the Lower Elementary Division, please contact the Head of the Lower Elementary Division, Elisa Marcus, at elisamarcus@sssm.org