Welcome To Temple Beth El!
3 & 4 Grade Core Courses
| Course | Description | Offered in… |
| Torah & Values Part 1 | How do we grow up to be “good” people? Many things influence us in the world–there is no one right way or right path. But this class helps explore what it means to do right and be “just” with a Jewish lens. Specific areas of focus are: respect, dignity, happiness, and environmentalism. | Fall & Winter |
| Torah & Values Part 2 | Sometimes we find ourselves just floating through the day–getting stressed, or bored, or just waiting for the school day to end. We are sometimes in search of ways to add new meaning to our day. Incorporating Jewish practice – especially regarding holiness and recognizing what is special in our life – is one of them. This class helps do just that. | Winter & Spring |
| T’fillah & Rituals Part 1 | Have you ever picked up a siddur and felt completely lost? This class will help you not only feel much “less lost,” but also begin to understand daily and shabbat prayers without even the need of your prayerbook’s table of contents. Some specific prayers that we will focus on are: Modeh Ani, Ma Tovu, and Aleinu. | Fall & Winter |
| T’fillah & Rituals Part 2 | You can walk into any synagogue in the world and with the right understanding of Jewish prayer, you can feel somewhat comfortable. This class will you help you understand the role such community plays in prayer, and how to feel comfortable as you navigate the prayerbook (and supporting observances) further. Some specific prayers that we will focus on are: Lecha Dodi, Shalom Aleichem, and Adon Olam. | Winter & Spring |
| Jewish Heritage Part 1 | There are so many conversations around Israel today, and yet we sometimes lack a connection to the land and the place. In order to even begin to enter into these conversations, we need to understand from where we came as a people–that is, what is our biblical covenant with the Land of Israel. This class not only helps you understand the biblical concept of covenant, but also begin to understand who we are as a Jewish people. | Fall & Winter |
| Jewish Heritage Part 2 | As the conversation around covenant continues, this class will focus on engaging with someone in the classroom that feels differently than you. You will learn how to dialogue: think, pair, and share, all while strengthening your understanding of Jewish tradition and your jewish identity. | Winter & Spring |
| Shabbat & Holidays | Fall & Winter:
Whether or not you’ve celebrated Jewish holidays before (including Shabbat), this will be a great introduction into the core of each one. This module covers Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Chanukah. Spring: Whether or not you’ve celebrated Jewish holidays before (including Shabbat), this will be a great introduction into the core of each one. This module covers Passover, Shavuot, Simchat Torah, Sukkot, Tu BiShevat, and Purim. |
Fall, Winter, and Spring |
5 & 6 Grade Core Courses
| Course | Description | Offered in… | |
| Torah & Values Part 1 | Description Coming Soon! | Fall & Winter | |
| Torah & Values Part 2 | Description Coming Soon! | Winter & Spring | |
| T’fillah & Rituals Part 1 | It seems like there are some prayers simply “everyone” knows. And others are a bit more “insider.” We think to ourselves: when did that bar mitzvah kid learn the Ashrei? This is the class that will help you get there. In this course, you will specifically focus on prayers like Ashrei and Chatzi Kaddish–and will feel very comfortable with them when you’re finished! | Fall & Winter | |
| T’fillah & Rituals Part 2 | Sometimes we just look around in synagogue and copy what everyone else is doing. But you don’t have to do that–and you don’t have to do that at home, either. Students in this class will not only explore the choreography of the opening verses of the Torah service, the end of the Torah service, and havdalah, but they will master reciting it as well. | Winter & Spring | |
| Jewish Heritage Part 1 | This class is all about keepsakes. We want you to leave this class not only with knowledge, but with something physical that serves as your personal portal to Jewish tradition and Jewish identity. Whether it is something that helps you proceed with your journey into the future, or reflect on those who came before you, in both cases this class will help you continue to understand our covenant as a people. You will enter the class and walk through history through a lens of “We Are A People That…” This will help us go back-and-forth between older and newer ideas and sources, all focused on how YOU want to learn. | Fall & Winter | |
| Jewish Heritage Part 2 | Central to unpacking one’s Jewish heritage is understanding that not only are there varying opinions throughout Jewish tradition, but there are a variety of diverse interpretations, too. In fact, the beauty of religious dialogue is that one opinion does not invalidate the other. This class will explore a wealth of opinions while helping you form your own. | Winter & Spring | |
| Shabbat & Holidays |
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Fall, Winter, & Spring |
7 & 8 Grade Core Courses
| Course | Description | Offered in… |
| 7/8th Grade Core Module 1 | Who do you want to be when you grow up? Or better put: the Jewish community says you’re about to become a Jewish adult. Now what? By the end of this course, you will understand and make a connection with the opportunities and responsibilities that Jewish adulthood brings. You will explore on a personal level what it means to make choices as a Jewish adult and member of the community. This is very much a choose-your-own adventure class. | Fall |
| 7/8th Grade Core Module 2 | The “now what” continues: how do you and how will you choose your path? Will you continue down the road of others (like the different major Jewish denominations and movements) or will you forge your own path ahead? This class will not force you into any decisions (or spoonfeed them either). Instead, it will help provide you the tools to make your own decisions. | Winter |
| 7/8th Grade Core Module 3 | Central to forging your own path is an understanding of Jewish pluralism. The path to Jewish adulthood never ends and, in fact, bounces all over the place. This class will help you map your journey even further. | Spring |
| Shabbat & Holidays | Description Coming Soon! | Fall, Winter, & Spring |
3-5th Grade Elective Courses
| Course | Description | Offered in… |
| Jewish Environments | Throughout history, we as human beings have not always considered the ways we impact the earth. We have a moral imperative as humans and as Jews to do better and be better. And part of that is through environmental justice and being stewards of the earth. This class helps us navigate that mission. | Fall |
| Jews in the News | This class explores Jews in the News through the lens of Israel and Israeli history. We see israel in the news almost weekly, but we can’t possibly understand how it gets there unless we understand how we got here in the first place. | Fall |
| Music | Active listening enhances not only the way we learn, but also the way we engage with our peers. In this class, you will engage in active listening, empathy, and emotional intelligence–all using music as a vehicle. | Fall |
| Performing Arts | Presented in a workshop/master-class format, you will have the unique opportunity to hone skills in voice, movement/body, improvisation, character development, active listening, and text analysis. If you don’t consider yourself an actor at the start of this class, you surely will by the end. Jewish values, texts, and themes serve as the material for us to expand our acting repertoire! | Fall |
| Yisrael HaYom | Fall/Winter/Spring | |
| Culinary Judaism | This is not a class on bagels, lox, and cream cheese. This is a class that will help you understand how food has shaped Jewish history, and how it has both helped and hurt us through the years. | Winter |
| STEM | Inquiry and understanding is your goal for this class. We want you to explore. We want you to investigate. And we want you to have your own personal WOW moment. The class will use a science fair-type project as the vehicle for your discovery adventure. Take this class as many times as you like and explore new ideas each time! | Winter |
| Jews in Motion | Each class has three parts: (1) Jewish content exploration, (2) physical game play, and (3) process/synthesis of the kinetic learning and the intellectualization of the content. Sometimes we just play, and sometimes we play and discuss. But either way, we always learn. The games we will play during this series are: Flipcup, Four Square, Blob Tag, and Sharks and Minnows. | Spring |
| Tikkun Olam (Social Justice) | Part of our responsibility as a “light unto the nations” is to repair our broken world. During this class, you will learn about the habits, attitudes and attributes of individuals that seek to make those positive changes. We hope that they will inspire you to do the same! | Spring |
| Visual Arts | Some pray with your lips and others pray with their hands. This class explores art as a meaningful alternative way to pray. This will also be a good opportunity for you to build some appreciation of Hebrew letters and words through calligraphy. | Spring |
6-8th Grade Elective Courses
| Course | Description | Offered in… |
| B.Mitzvah Part 1 | Part of becoming B. Mitzvah is confidence. Sure, this class will help provide the practical and theoretical tools to understand this rite of passage. But students will also explore the purpose and history of this journey, practice public speaking, and explore their B. Mitzvah torah portions. | Fall |
| Jewish Environments | This class helps students develop a deeper understanding of how Judaism looks at issues relating to the natural world, and will help you draw a connection between Jewish tradition and environmentalism. More specifically: we will focus on food and our relationship with food, forging a deeper connection with the land itself. | Fall |
| Jews in the News | This class will help you begin to understand media bias, as well as how Jews are portrayed in media. You will certainly enjoy conversations around not only sitcoms like Modern Family, but also evaluating modern news articles. | Fall |
| Music | This class continues the active listening journey, shifting toward a focus on building your own critical music appreciation listening skills. You will then apply these as you research, share and teach a song that is meaningful and unique from your own family. | Fall |
| Performing Arts | Presented in a workshop/master-class format, you will have the unique opportunity to hone skills in voice, movement/body, improvisation, character development, active listening, and text analysis. If you don’t consider yourself an actor at the start of this class, you surely will by the end. Jewish values, texts, and themes serve as the material for us to expand our acting repertoire! | Fall |
| Yisrael HaYom | Fall/Winter/Spring | |
| Culinary Judaism | This class focuses on the ethnic and cultural differences within Judaism itself, and the role food plays in that–in our history, in our holiday celebrations and even the way we treat each other. | Winter |
| STEM | How does science and the bible mesh together? In this class, you will unpack different creation stories and various scientific questions that arise out of the Biblical creation stories. The theme of inquiry and investigation continues! | Winter |
| B.Mitzvah Part 2 | A B.Mitzvah journey without a “project” sometimes seems empty. The journey should not only be about learning, but about how you get to put your own stamp on it. What hands-on ways will you leave the world in a better place? | Winter/Spring |
| Performing Arts (2 minimester Creation Course) | Description Coming Soon! | Winter-Spring |
| Jews in Motion | Each class has three parts: (1) Jewish content exploration, (2) physical game play, and (3) process/synthesis of the kinetic learning and the intellectualization of the content. Sometimes we just play, and sometimes we play and discuss. But either way, we always learn. This class takes this pattern to the next level by delving deeper into the themes that make up the core of how we should navigate our world as Jews and upright human beings. And as a second part to the previous module (though still a standalone), we will dig into the games and the learning concepts that much deeper. The games we will play during this series are: Ultimate Frisbee, Capture the Flag, Floor Hockey, Soccer, Dizzybat, Dodgeball, Tug of War, and Newcombe. | Spring |
| Tikkun Olam (Social Justice) | The path of Jewish social justice requires that we explore the social and ethical challenges of global issues as they are experienced through multiple Jewish lenses in Israel. This exploration will also help you understand how Jewish laws and customs can help address modern, pressing issues. | Spring |
| Visual Arts | Jewish ritual need not be boring and devoid of artistic expression. During this class you will make ritual objects for Shabbat and Havdalah–your involvement in this class will give meaning to hiddur mitzvah: the beautification of a commandment. | Spring |
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