Sundays @ the YEC

The kindergarten – Grade 5 YEC curriculum is built around the Jewish Calendar, values, lifecycle events, Torah, Israel, and Hebrew.

Jewish Calendar
We follow the calendar, learning and discovering both old and new customs, traditions and rituals around each Jewish holiday throughout the year.  The YEC offers Sunday morning programs for families at Chanukah, Tu B’shevat and Pesach each year, wiht hands on activities that provide families tools and refreshers for celebrating the holidays at home.

Jewish Values
Middot, Jewish values, are important ideas that help guide us as members of our community and society, informing us on how to engage with others, and treat the earth and environment, More importantly, these values help us realize being Jewish is more than just celebrating shabbat and holidays, it informs how we live each day. Each class spends time learning about different middot, and how they appear in our daily lives.

Life Cycle Events
Our Jewish Journey is marked by many milestones throughout our lives.  Each class learns about a different lifecycle event and has an opportunity for a ‘milestone moment’ throughout the year, starting off in Grade 1 with Consecration, going all the way to Grade 10 Confirmation.

Torah
Each Sunday morning, we learn about the weekly parasha in our T’fillah.  Classes study Torah stories and important people from Torah, teaching students the importance of our sacred books and lessons found within.

Israel
We are proud to be a part of the UJA Federation’s Shinshinim program and host a young Israeli emissary doing a gap year from Israel each year.  Our Shinshin brings Israel to life for our students with games, hands on activities and programming, sharing their love of their home through culture and connection to Israel, and introducing some of our older students to more complex topics and issues.

Hebrew
Our Hebrew program prepares students to be Hebrew readers and have enough proficiency to follow along in a siddur and be prepared to start learning to chant their B’nei Mitzvah parasha, learning directly from the Hebrew. Letters are introduced in Grade 1, and in Grade 2 students start putting letters together to form words and begin to decode and read.

All classes start each week in our schoolwide T’fillah, led by Rabbi McCarroll and our songleader.  This service is camp-style and gives students the opportunity to participate and lead various parts of the service.  Parents and family members are always welcome!

Sunday morning classes also enjoy music periods with our songleader, visits to our temple library and special stories with our volunteer librarian, regular class visits with our shinshinim, and special art projects each year.