At JCDS our goal is for students to view the manner in which they behave through a Jewish lens. Our tradition is steeped in important values about how to behave with kindness, generosity of spirit and caring. This year we have identified a number of values that we will explore in an integrated manner in both general and Judaic Studies.
Our first all-school value is “You should love your neighbor as yourself, V’Ahavta Lirayacha Camocha.” We explored ways that this value could be understood by second graders by asking the following questions: what does it mean to love yourself, how can you show love/respect for another person, and how can you be a good friend?
The second graders generated many answers to each of these questions. Our culminating project for this was to make a class collage of the speech bubbles that the students filled out with their responses.
Taking this one step further on Open School Night when parents came to hear an overview of the curriculum for the school year, they, too, had a chance to explore these questions and make a parent collage. The students loved comparing their parents’ replies with their own the following morning upon their return to school!
