Curriculum

Our elementary school is a warm community of learners that recognizes and celebrates the individual strengths of each child. EHA focuses on providing the appropriate challenges and supports for every student  based on close teacher-student relationships and conferencing to create a true partnership between home and school.

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Students in our elementary program are delighted to begin their more formal learning experiences. Starting in Kindergarten, our students begin to develop their organizational and critical thinking skills within the kind of warm, family atmosphere to which they are accustomed from their Early Childhood experience.

During these elementary school years, our students lay the core foundation of their academic skills, social emotional intelligence and peer relationships. They are encouraged to express their individuality and to form their own personalized Jewish identity. During these formative years, there is a need for children to form strong relationships and to feel an emotional connection with their teachers.  Our students feel known by their teachers and classmates, and recognized for their individual strengths and unique talents. Students receive guidance and begin to understand what it means to be successful in the classroom.  Qualities like perseverance and grit, self-control, empathy, and integrity are consistently being nurtured.Our school has a rigorous dual curriculum, spending half of the day on general studies and half of the day on Judaic studies.

There is a strong emphasis on character development (middot), which is integrated into the various aspects of the curriculum. The elementary students have the opportunity to mentor younger students, as well as to be mentored by older students.

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Highlights of the EHA Elementary School Program include:

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• EHA students are encouraged to take an active role in their learning and are aided in that endeavor by individualized instruction in science, math, and social studies.

• Everyone is a reader and writer at EHA. Students are challenged to express their creativity as they build their skills in English language arts through the world-renowned Lucy Calkins readers and writers workshop models. Students will learn to love reading and find their own voices as creative authors!

• In Judaic studies, our students are growing into independent Torah scholars, exploring the weekly parasha/Torah portion as well as the books of Nevi’im/Prophets. They gain additional skills in literary analysis in their engagement with Rashi and other classical commentators. As students reach the fifth grade, they are introduced to the study of Oral Torah using a state-of the-art multi-modality curriculum developed in Israel.

• Our elementary curricula emphasize Hebrew language and reading. Our students begin reading Hebrew in kindergarten and, starting in second grade, Hebrew language instruction takes place in the “Ivrit lab” in addition to the Judaic classroom. By the time they travel to Israel in 8th grade, our students are ready to have conversations with their Israeli sisters and brothers.

• “Smart” use of technology. We believe in the strategic use of 21st century technology to enhance and differentiate learning, and to offer more avenues for creativity. Smartboards can be found in our classrooms from kindergarten through fourth grade, we have an iPad cart available to all classrooms, and in fifth grade our students receive their personal chrome books as they prepare for the transition to middle school.

• Students who benefit from one on one attention and those who may have an IEP spend time engaging with the Student Support staff as they enjoy the nurturing and constructive atmosphere of the Brain Cave.

• Our elementary program also features extra-curricular opportunities to help promote leadership and non-academic skills.  Girls on The Run, Student Council, Chess and Mishna are but a few of the activities in which our students participate. These activities help boost self-esteem, enhance social skills and cultivate the leadership abilities of our students.