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Religious School - JCAL

At the Jewish Center for Arts and Learning (JCAL), we believe in learning that engages each child's whole person, body, heart & soul.

Judaism teaches that one should learn Torah in order to live it out, and that one should do mitzvot in order to understand them. In other words, we have two opposing pedagogies: learn in order to do, and do in order to learn. At JCAL we do both.

JCAL will be back in-person, Fall of 2021!

JCAL Registration for 2021-2022 opens April 29th. Look for an email from JCAL for more information.
You must be logged into your TBY Member Account to complete your registration.

Highlights of JCAL 2021-2022 School Year:

  • A remodeled curriculum to take the best of Jewish summer camp and infuse it into JCAL in order to:
    • Strengthen community and a sense of sacred space
    • Skill building through “Chugim” including music, art, sports, cooking and engineering
    • Hands-on, whole-person learning
  • Small Group Hebrew for 3rd – 7th grades!
    • Online Hebrew course will continue for those who cannot make JCAL regularly.
  • A curriculum focused around l’dor vador (“generation to generation”), a core Jewish value and tradition each generation renews, reinvents and passes to the next. 

Chag Box Program


Last year, JCAL thought outside of the box by thinking inside the box!

Families new to JCAL, with children grades TK-2nd, get to experience the Chag Box Program this year. You haven't missed out!

Chag Box Program: Explore the practices and meaning of the Jewish holidays as a family! All Kindergarten through 2nd grade families will receive 12 Chag Boxes a year. “Chag” is Hebrew for “holiday” (the ‘ch’ is pronounced like ‘Chanukah’ or ‘challah’), and the box will contain activities focused on the upcoming Jewish holiday or a mitzvah (good deed/commandment) related to the season. Contents will include hands-on activities to do as a family, background about the holiday for parents and older siblings, and questions to guide a family conversation. Families will then be invited for a hybrid online/in-person celebration.

A big thank you to our generous underwriter for making this program possible!

Stay tuned for more information on next year's Chag Boxes!

Jewish Center for Arts and Learning

The entire school begins a day of meaningful learning in community with T'filah, a prayer-service-meets-pep-rally with our clergy and school leaders. Students explore their curriculum with a Core teacher and specialists, and end the day with a concluding siyyum with children in the same program (TK-2; 3rd-6th; B'nai Mitzvah Discovery).

Learning will take place mostly in small groups and much of it outside except in inclement weather. This will not only enhance the safety of all learners as we continue to recover from the pandemic, it will foster the feeling of being at "camp" JCAL, a place different and set apart from their secular school experience.

TK - 2nd Grade Curriculum

Children in early elementary school learn the foundations of Jewish holidays, stories and values. They are the building blocks for a lifetime being a good person with a strong Jewish identity. Learning takes place in grade-level classes with a Core teacher. Students will also get to learn from specialists almost every Sunday. Specialists will explore the class' curriculum through music, performing arts, movement or . . .

Transitional Kindergarten & Kindergarten:

  • Jewish Holidays

  • Mitzvot (Good deeds/commandments): Jewish values, building from empathy

1st Grade

  • Bible Stories, from Adam and Eve to Moses

  • Jewish Holidays

  • Let's Discover Israel

2nd Grade

The vocabulary of Jewish life:

  • Jewish Values, Alef To Tav (combining mitzvot, good actions with exposure to the Hebrew letters and the Jewish words and phrases)

  • The Synagogue
  • Exploring Jewish ideas of God

 

JCAL Schedule

JCAL Online, every Sunday:

  • 9 – 11:15 for grades TK-2

    • Optional Extened Day for TK-2, 11:15 - 12:30

  • 9 – 12:30 for grades 3rd – 6th

  • 9 - 11:15 for B'nai Mitzvah Discovery Class (7th Grade & 6th Graders with a Fall of 7th Grade or ealier b'nai mitzvah date)

  • Visit our Teen Page for learning, teaching and leadership opportunities, 8th - 12th grade!

JCAL Calendar

  • First Day is Sunday, October 3rd, 2021

  • Last Day will be Sunday, May 22nd, 2022

  • Printable Calendar coming soon.

JCAL Tuition

TK - 2nd Grades: $650

3rd - 6th Grades: $1025

B'nai Mitzvah Discovery Class, JCAL students (includes Hebrew): $1025

B'nai Mitzvah Discovery Class, Jewish Day School Students (TVT) only: $800

Extended Day, TK - 2nd Grades (11:15 - 12:30): $250

 

3rd - 6th Grade Program

Hebrew study begins in 3rd Grade. Third through sixth graders will develop their Jewish identity in a camp-style program. Learning begins with Core time with grade-level peers, who will be their class community for the year. Students will spend most of their time exploring the curriculum with specialists, ranging from music, cooking, performing and fine arts, arts and crafts, sports, gardening and nature, and engineering!

The focus of the curriculum in the 2021-22/5782 School Year will be

LaDor Vador (Generation to Generation)/Jewish Lifecycles

LaDor Vador is the idea that each generation renews, reinvents and passes on to the next Jewish values, stories and rituals. Lifecycles are intense moments of experienceing and practicing LaDor Vador throughout a person's and community's life. This is a curriculum of resilience.

 

 

Lifecycles covered will include

  • Birth, adoption and conversion

  • B'nai Mitzvah (bar/bat mitzvah), Confirmation and coming of age
  • Wedding and Community
  • Visiting the Sick and Recovering to Tragedy
  • Honoring the Elderly
  • Death and Mourning

We will explore how each of these lifecycles have been interpreted in different Jewish communities around the world and across time, to emphasize particular values and celebrate the local community's Jewish identity.

 

7th Grade Curriculum

7th Grade curriculum explores what it means to be an adult and a leader in the Jewish community. There is a dual focus in this grade: tikkun olam, making the world a better place, and k’hilah k'doshah, creating a holy community.

Learning will include service projects; the Holocaust; exploring the meaning of the becoming b’nai mitzvah; and Jewish leadership.

This class is also a unique chance for children who went to Jewish day school and those who have gone to JCAL to build a single, cohesive community.

7th Grade Schedule

  • 9 - 11:15 on Sundays at TBY

  • Hebrew Small-Group Sessions are available to 7th graders who have not yet started the B'nai Mitzvah Prep Program. Click here for more details on the  B'nai Mitzvah Prep Program, which starts about 7 months before a student's ceremony.

  • 7th Grade will include community service projects. The schedule may differ from the normal Sunday schedule for some service projects.

Hebrew

We have two components of Prayer Hebrew learning in JCAL:

  • Skills mastery (reading and chanting) – in small groups

  • Understanding and making meaning of prayers – integrated into JCAL

Students will master the skills of reading (“decoding” or sounding out) Hebrew and learning to chant the prayers in weekly, 40-minute learning sessions. Students will learn in small groups with about 3-6 other students at their Hebrew level and with a Hebrew tutor.

Students will explore the meaning of Shabbat evening and morning prayers, as well as the overarching concepts of prayer in Judaism, through learning experiences spread across the four years when students learn Hebrew in JCAL, 3rd – 6th grade, and distinct from the 40-minute skills-mastery Hebrew sessions. Key prayers are also introduced to students beginning in TK.

Online Hebrew Small Group Option:  For those who know they cannot regularly attend JCAL, we do offer a Hebrew class online. However, you cannot switch between classes: once a student is enrolled in class, that is their class for the year. Students enrolled in the Online Hebrew Class will bring a laptop with them to JCAL, and log into their class during Hebrew Group time.

Teen Leadership

 

Madrichim Program

Teens 8th – 12th grade are invited to volunteer in our Madrichim, or teacher’s aides, Program. Madrichim help their assigned JCAL class or program whenever it is in session. They are critical parts of our community and help make JCAL the warm, safe and learning-rich environment that it is, acting as role models for the children in JCAL. In 2021-22, madrichim can choose to be paid or earn community service hours for their time!

The madrichim is a skills and leadership development program. Madrichim who wish teach parts of class, help children with special needs, and/or support the school administration in critical ways. Madrichim go through an on-going leadership development program. To apply, fill out our Madrichim Application. 

To be a madrich (male)/madrichah (female)/madrichim (non-binary), you commit to:

  • Attending every JCAL session for your assigned class

  • Checking in with your teacher before each session

  • Madrichim Orientation, Sunday, August 22, 2021

  • Four mandatory training sessions that will take place after JCAL sessions

  • Monthly check-in's (individually and/or in small groups)

Click here to apply to be a madrich (m.) or madrichah (f.).

 

Teen Learning Experiences

Stay tuned for exciting learning opportunities for teens for the 2021-22/5782 school year. Travel will be involved!

Wed, July 28 2021 19 Av 5781