Program Highlights
- Our first graders celebrate receiving their first siddur with a performance and a special recitation of morning prayers with their parents and teachers. Our second graders celebrate receiving their first Chumash with a performance and each child being called up to the Torah with his or her family to say a blessing.
- Our CARES program for fourth graders gathers students every Friday to meet with an advisor who focuses on one of these important topics: organizational skills; acts of faith; health and hygiene; pro-social behavior and anti-bullying; conflict resolution; respect and kindness; and the safe use of technology.
- Typical curriculum-related field trips at each grade level include: Central Park Zoo and neighborhood walks for first graders; rivers/bridges and Museum of the City of New York for second graders; Eldridge Street Synagogue and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum for third graders; and the Morris-Jumel Mansion, Inwood Park with Urban Park Rangers, and the Robot Foundry for fourth graders.
- The entire school participates in our annual Book Month, as students and faculty read a designated picture book, learn directly from the author/illustrator, and engage in a series of workshops designed to extend and enhance their reading experience.
Showing what we know.
Each grade in the Lower School marks an important curricular milestone with a celebration:
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First graders have a Publishing Party, in which the children share their original non-fiction, research-based Community Workers books;
- Second graders have a Landmark Celebration, in which the children share their knowledge of NYC, based on research that each small group has done on a NYC Landmark;
- Third graders have a Poetry Celebration, in which the children present an original class poem, a class favorite, and individual original and favorite poems;
- Fourth graders — the seniors of the school — perform at our Zimriyah, a theme-related show of singing, acting, and dancing. They have a Native American Celebration in which students share what they have learned from their research about Native Americans of the Northeast.