The Student Curriculum

The JASA Core Curriculum includes Jewish calendar and holidays, Torah, Jewish history, prayer/תפילות, Jewish music, and Israel.

There are 18 units to the Core Curriculum that span the entire school year, each with differentiated activities, experiences, and lessons designed for the after school learning environment.

To ensure students achieve depth and breadth of knowledge, each unit is explored through a different set of Jewish values each year.

There are 6 groups of values that serve as the lenses of studying the Core Curriculum: Wisdom, חכמה, Courage, אומץ לב, Decency and social intelligence, דרך ארץ, Justice, דין, Balance, רודף שלום, Wonder, מלכות.

Hebrew Language Learning is focused on reading, writing, and speaking Hebrew.

Based on a combination of strategies and models including language learning curricula such as Duolingo and Ulpan Or and Hebrew Through Movement, our Hebrew learning curriculum presents content in multiple ways to reach different kind of learners.

We use Hebrew in everything that we do!

The classroom structure and activities include significant Hebrew vocabulary and phrases in addition to the specific time devoted to Hebrew language acquisition.

Students will create two high-quality, hand-made, items of Judaica each year.

Judaica Project Examples include stamped metal Kiddush cups, silk-painted challah covers, wooden engraved challah boards, personalized prayer books/siddurim, quilted Tallitot, and wooden engraved tzedakah boxes.

Students will learn about Jewish Rituals such as lighting candles on shabbat, the ceremony for Havdalah, Rosh Chodesh, Hallel, lighting the Chanukiah, kashrut, Torah dressings, the Ark, the ne’er tamid, and the yad, how different types of Jewish people observe Jewish rituals in different ways and much more.

Students also learn about holiday practices and symbols such as the Sukkah, Lulav and Etrog, Megilat Esther, the Haggadah, and of course the many Traditional Jewish foods and meal customs from different Jewish cultures.

Kids will choose their own adventure from a large menu of Merit Badge topics to explore.

From Jewish history, sports figures, Torah stories, and Nobel Prize winners, to learning Birkat Hamazon and chanting the four questions in Hebrew, each merit badge topic includes its own set of age-appropriate, interactive, experiential activities to complete.

Designed for independent and small group learning, students have more choice and teachers have a way to provide depth based on student interests and motivations.

The student curriculum includes all of the topics, activities, lessons, materials, and experiences for choice-based, self-paced learning. All you need to do is show the children how it works, and be there to answer questions.