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curriculum; need help asap
Topic Started: May 26 2008, 03:09 PM (977 Views)
zuncompany
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We need some vital info and pretty quick. Rikal, I would love your imput as well as all other parents.

I need to know exactly how big your kid's school is and what their 3, 4, and 5 year old curriculum is. When and how do they teach aleph beis?
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npl
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My kids' school is Dati Tzioni, and they teach limmudei kodesh Ivrit b'Ivrit from JK (age 4/5, 2 years before Grade 1).
In the nursery class (age 3 by end of Dec) they teach the letters of the alef bet with some common words that start with each letter. They make a train with one letter each week on a train car.
They also did this when my son was in JK, but they were also mostly speaking in Ivrit, and they had Israeli picture books in Ivrit, etc. They weren't actually taught to read formally but I think most left being able to recognise the letters of the Alef Bet and what sound most made.
In SK (equivalent to US Kindergarten) they reviewed the letters again, learned the sounds they make, plus some nekudot, and learned to print them, too. They were not expected to be able to read fluently, but many kids could read a little, recognise single sylables, and many common sight words. But, in G1 they went over all this, and reviewed each letter with more practice. They also are learning the script letters. About half-way through they got their first siddur, although they could not read unseen passages fluently.
In the school I am transferring to they are probably a grade ahead in reading - I think they get their first siddur in SK, and can read pretty fluently by the time they enter Grade 1. Another school I've worked in that are more yeshivish also tried to have them reading pretty fluently so they could daven from a siddur by the beginning of Grade 1.

Hope this helps!
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Deena
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As for the 3 yr old program they just recognize the Alef Bet at 4 they know it and can recognize it. And at 5 they start writing the hebrew letters it is not until 1st grade when they start readinh hebrew
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U Tarzan Me Jane
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3 year olds learn to recognize Alef bet, in nursery, also all about YT, at Parshat shemot they do one bracha a week till they are all done, then its purim, peasach and shavuot. During sefira they usually learn A concept of pirkei avot a week, they do the story of Rabbi Shimon for Lag Baomer. Also shapes and color concepts are taught throughout the year.

Kindergarten--4/5, They start off with YT, RH< YK, Succot. afew weeks after succot they do one letter a week of Alef bet, They learn a mitzva associated with the letter of the week, and common words with each letter, they also teach the sound of each letter at this point. They also go over shape and color concepts from nursery, but also do primary colors and color blending to make blue, orange and green.

From parshat shemot they do brachot over, and reinforce it, YT is pretty extensive part of the curriculum but only a little more detailed then the nursery year. Also they stop doing parsha somewhere in shemot, but usually pull at least one or two concepts out of the parasha each week.

Pre 1a-- 5/6, The rebbe reteaches alef bet one letter a day, and reinforces the shortest possible sound for each letter, After that they get a sefer alef bet, and do nekudot/tenuot, each tenuah is done separately, they are taught the sound of Kamatz, and how to connect it with a letter. My kids learned it (Alef Kamatz AH, bet kamatz Ba) Most ashkenaz schools teach it the opposite, kamatz alef uh, kamatz beis buh...

Usually they do one to two nekudot a week, following the alef bet book page by page, and doing the page learned in school that day for Homework at night. Once they do all the tenuot, they begin reading simple words, and move on to more complex words, the rules of shva, and chataf are taught as they go along. (my kids learn very complex rules, as the sefardic way is much more complicated then ashkenaz)

Once they finish the alef bet book, they start reading from a siddur for teffilah, and learn the basics of teffilah. From parshat Vayikra on, they read through the parsha of the week in turns, and learn the parsha fairly in depth, but do not translate the words.

Throughout the year they also Learn extensively about YT, They learn a lot of details but are not expected to retain all of it. I find the kids retain about 90-95% though.
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JRKmommy
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Lubavitch nursery for 3 yr olds: They were learning one letter every few weeks. They didn't get through the alphabet in nursery.

Currently JK/SK at traditional community Jewish Day School: Emphasis is on oral skills prior to grade 1. Hebrew words are displayed in the class, but reading is not taught formally until gr. 1. The focus is on oral language skills and learning parsha, holidays, etc. They are introducing a Hebrew immersion program next year, but still plan to focus on oral language skills. The kids can read by the end of grade 1, and my dd in grade 3 reads just as fluently in Hebrew as she does in English. Starting in grade 1, half a day is Ivrit b'Ivrit (Hebrew Immersion)(In some ways, Hebrew is easier for her because it is more phonetic, with fewer exceptions.) One thing that may make a difference is that many students only start in gr. 1 (no subsidies available in preschool), so starting reading in grade 1 means that those kids aren't behind.
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zuncompany
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keep it coming!!! I am going to print this out (cut off names) and bring this with. B"H you guys are confirming I am NOT nuts!
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npl
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Forgot to add the other parts of the curriculum.
Mostly it followed the luach - with some talk about Parsha for those parshiot that were a good storyline. In Nursery they learn about the parshiot by travelling to "parshaland" and becoming part of the story - they learn about the birth of Yitzchak and have a baby doll and give parenting advice to Avraham and Sarah, for the wedding between Yitzchak and Rivka they make a mock wedding, inviting other classes, dressing up in bedouin style costumes (really cute, and they got the Rav who is head of limmudei kodesh to come and be mesader kiddushin!0. Basically, everything is taught either through experiential stories or through arts and crafts. The talk about every chag, plus lots of focus on Yom Ha'atzmaut, Yom Yerushalayim, etc. They work in middos through the parsha or through books read in class.

In JK and SK they also work through art and crafts, stories, and music. They mostly focus on the luach, again, and on acquiring language skills and the regular curriculum that they would learn anywhere (colours, shapes, patterning, etc) The school said they basically give the same curriculum that their peers get in Israel. The full-day programme also covers chagim, etc but in English, and with different crafts and activities. I think it probably depends partly on the teacher.
I think the focus is to get them to learn the stories from the chumash, to understand the history and halachos/minhagim of the chagim, and to cover some of the basics of Jewish life. I don't think that the Grade 1 curriculum expects that they have to know all this before they start, although I'm sure that it helps.
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ElTam
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DD1 just finished the group for 3 y.o.s. She "studied" the letters and recognizes a few. E.g., she'll look at a poster in her room and say. "That's a lamed. Lamed is for Levi." She sings the aleph-bais song all the way through. Other than that, as other posters have said, it was all about parasha ha-shavuah, and the yom tovim.

At the two schools we considered, one starts teaching ABCs and also do some aleph bais in pre-K (four- and five-year-olds), but don't expect the kids to fully know either until the end of kindergarten. That was the MO/mizrachi school. At the other, which is more yeshivish, they expect kids at the end of pre-k to know all of the aleph-bais, and they start them with abc, but the stress is on aleph-bais.
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hallie_ari_mom
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Not being a teacher or in the classroom, I can only say that my kids learned it 3 ways. 1) I sang it (to the tune of Gilligan's Island) since day one., 2) Oy Baby!! 3) Dd's teacher (in Chabad) had aleph beis letters on the floor and the kids had to play a version of musical chairs and jump on the letters.

oh, and for a while I had aleph beis fridge magnets next to my alphabet letters. Now I'm missing half of each alphabet!
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sauls_mom
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for what its worth- in ds school the 3yr olds learn the letters (all english) and the sounds they make- they also start writing them. they do a letter book a week and have it put together in one big book at the end of the year. 4's begin writing more fluently- short words and also learning site words. by middle of kindergarten (age 5) they are reading fully
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Estie
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At 3 my son went to a private playgroup where they did all the alef bet (approx 1 letter a week) they made it into a train which we hung around his room. They also did all the brachot and selections from the parsha of the week and the holidays (made a menora, gragger etc). Also some units on color, shape, body parts etc.

At 4 he went to a regular yeshiva, they call it Kindergarten but it is really pre-K. They did all the alef bais, learned to recognize the nekudot (vowels) but not to connect them to letters, also brachot, parsha, holidays etc. No ABCs or any formal secular program.

At 5 he went to Pre 1A where they got a rebbe and learned to read hebrew with a sefer alef-bet (as UTMJ explained), at the end of the year they got a siddur. They also started to have real "English" where they learned the ABCs, starting math, sight words every week etc.

In first grade they continue practicing reading but started real emphasis on learning to translate the chumash. They spent a few months learning prefixes, suffixes and shorashim (roots). They start with Lech lecha. After they know the prefixes, suffixes and roots for a perek (chapter) they do it inside. I think they started around chanuka getting a chumash and doing it inside. Since they spent a lot of time learning the prefixes and suffixes they only have to learn the new roots for each perek. They got through Lech lecha and then did Noach (by then they only had to add a few roots on the board). Besides for the emphasis on Chumash skills they learned to write hebrew and did the chagim (holidays), added new teffilot (prayers) every few weeks and parsha every week. Also a complete secular program where they all learned to read and write English, weekly spelling tests (once they learned to write, a few months into school), math (addition, subtraction, time, money, graphs etc) and the regular first grade stuff.

Hope this helps. His school has nursery through 8th grade, 1 class per grade from 4-8 and 2 from k - 3 (every year they add one, they plan to have 2 from k-8). I am not sure how to describe where it falls on the religious spectrum, it is not a MO day school at all (for example they have school on Sundays and they had school today on Memorial day) but the parents mostly have college degrees.
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U Tarzan Me Jane
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my pre1a son has been doing letter books all year, he has the basics of reading down pat, and can sound out some more complex words. They alsodo math, and use a computer to reinforce some of the reading skills. I thought you were mostly interested in hebrew.

In Lakewood, they do not do any English subjects till the first grade, My nephew who is almost 7 is doing what my 5 year old did all year round.
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ICan
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sara, why do you need to know this?
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daisy
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Over here they do letter exposure for 3 year olds, in depth (so you know it) alef-beis for 4 year olds, and actual kriah for 5 year olds.

Everyone does a little bit of parsha, yomin tovim, and tefila.

When my daughter was 5-6 she went a whole day and have English in the pm. They learn abc's and very simple words and reading. They have a math book, learn numbers, shapes, etc.

more later
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zuncompany
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Because I was supposed to have a meeting tomorrow morning (pushed off till next monday mins ago) as the school seems to have ridicules expectations of Zu for his age and I do not believe they are teaching him in a way to reach this expectations in the first place. I am being told this is how ALL schools do it and its normal to change the goals of the class in the end and not tell anyone else this. I don't think this is normal. Basically whats being posted is what I thought was the norm and I have some good ideas and points I will be making very strongly now when I go into this meeting.
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