FIFTH GRADE
Grade: 5
Theme/Topic: Jewish Heroes & Mitzvot
Synthesis Project: The Jewish Hero Gallery Project
Special Events: Junior Congregation will meet: Saturday, December 8, 2007; Saturday, February 23, 2008; and Friday, April 11, 2008.
Our fifth graders are sophisticated thinkers. At their secular schools, many fifth graders already do research projects, biographies, and many other complicated projects. As a result, we aim to provide our fifth grade classes with exciting tasks and interesting visitors. Our fifth graders begin to learn the history of Judaism by meeting the people who have led us and taught us. Throughout the year, fifth graders will study all kinds of heroes, such as: Justice Louis Brandeis, Albert Einstein, Rabbi A.J. Heschel, Mordecai Kaplan, Sandy Koufax, Ilan Ramon, the Baal Shem Tov, the Rambam, and more.
Sample Vocabulary:
Mitzvah – ‘holy obligation;’ ‘divine commandment’
Tikkun Olam – repairing what is broken in our world
Tzedek - Justice
Sample Objectives:
By the end of this course, all students will be able to…
- Define mitzvah as a holy obligation or a divine commandment
- Describe one Jewish hero.
- List at least three Jewish values that I want to be part of my daily life.
- Define two mitzvot that he or she actually wants to do regularly.
Questions our Students Might Ask:
Why can’t I just be a good person?
How can some old Jewish text tell me what to do?
Why should I care about Jews I don’t know?
If I don’t believe in God, do I have to do mitzvot?
Sample Classroom Texts:
- BabagaNewz: Jewish Kids Exploring the World, www.babaganewz.com
- The Narrowest Bar Mitzvah and The Return of Morris Schumsky, written by Steven Schnur and illustrated by Victor Lazzaro (www.backinprint.com)
- Mitzvot - Let’s Explore Being Jewish (Behrman House)
- Ask Albert Einstein, by Lynne Barasch
- Jewish People: Values and Ethics in the Lives of Individual Jews People as They Create the Narrative of Jewish History, by Ron Isaacs (Torah Aura Productions)
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