K–5 Scope and Sequence: Teach Jewish History

Theme	Lesson	Grades	Minutes	What children do	The idea a child leaves with
1 · Who are the Jewish people?	One People, Many Faces	K–2 and 3–5 tracks	35 / 40	K–2: a pomegranate, a picture book, six photographs, a class mosaic · 3–5: a picture book, then inventing a word the way Hebrew did	Many pieces, one picture.
2 · What is Judaism?	A Shabbat Table	K–2	35	A covered basket guessed and passed around · a chart of the family meals children already know · a set-the-table craft	One day every week to stop, slow down, and be with the people you love.
Where Did the Synagogue Come From?	3–5	40	“The building is gone”: what does a class need to still be a class? · Label the inside of a synagogue and compare it with a library, a courtroom, or a theater · a human timeline	When the building was gone, the people carried home with them.
3 · What do they believe and celebrate?	The Jewish Year	K–2	40	An apple, a honey bear, and the sound of a shofar · Holiday Match cards, then a memory game · a wheel of the year made into a spinner	The Jewish year is a circle of special days, and the wheel has been going round for a very long time.
4 · Jewish communities around the world	Jewish Communities Around the World	3–4	40	A synagogue photo to guess the location of · eight communities on a map · “What They Carried” cards packed into suitcases	One people, many homes. They carried it with them.
Three Voices, One Country	3–5	40	Three short primary sources, 1790 to 1918: a letter from George Washington, the words on the Statue of Liberty, a song · decoded, read aloud, and placed on a timeline	A letter, a poem, a song: part of America’s story from the first years, and part of writing it.
5 · Stories, foods, music, and words	Stories, Foods, and Words	K–5, two versions per station	45–50	Three stations: English words that came from Yiddish and Hebrew · a challah braided in play-dough · a Yiddish folktale acted out	Jewish families carried words, a bread, and a story all over the world, and some of the words landed in my mouth.
Your Name in Hebrew Letters	K–2 and 3–5 tracks	35 / 40	The Hebrew alphabet: twenty-two letters, read right to left · trace them, write your own name, and read the class scroll	A language a whole people kept for thousands of years, and I can write my name in it.
6 · How Jewish people try to live	Doing Good: Jewish Values	3–5 (K–2 variant)	40	A coin and a vote (nice, or fair?) · freeze-frame scenes of everyday kindness · a tree of paper leaves	Helping people isn’t extra. It’s fair.

Theme

Lesson

Grades

Minutes

What children do

The idea a child leaves with

1 · Who are the Jewish people?

One People, Many Faces

K–2 and 3–5 tracks

35 / 40

K–2: a pomegranate, a picture book, six photographs, a class mosaic · 3–5: a picture book, then inventing a word the way Hebrew did

Many pieces, one picture.

2 · What is Judaism?

A Shabbat Table

K–2

A covered basket guessed and passed around · a chart of the family meals children already know · a set-the-table craft

One day every week to stop, slow down, and be with the people you love.

Where Did the Synagogue Come From?

3–5

“The building is gone”: what does a class need to still be a class? · Label the inside of a synagogue and compare it with a library, a courtroom, or a theater · a human timeline

When the building was gone, the people carried home with them.

3 · What do they believe and celebrate?

The Jewish Year

K–2

An apple, a honey bear, and the sound of a shofar · Holiday Match cards, then a memory game · a wheel of the year made into a spinner

The Jewish year is a circle of special days, and the wheel has been going round for a very long time.

4 · Jewish communities around the world

Jewish Communities Around the World

3–4

A synagogue photo to guess the location of · eight communities on a map · “What They Carried” cards packed into suitcases

One people, many homes. They carried it with them.

Three Voices, One Country

3–5

Three short primary sources, 1790 to 1918: a letter from George Washington, the words on the Statue of Liberty, a song · decoded, read aloud, and placed on a timeline

A letter, a poem, a song: part of America’s story from the first years, and part of writing it.

5 · Stories, foods, music, and words

Stories, Foods, and Words

K–5, two versions per station

45–50

Three stations: English words that came from Yiddish and Hebrew · a challah braided in play-dough · a Yiddish folktale acted out

Jewish families carried words, a bread, and a story all over the world, and some of the words landed in my mouth.

Your Name in Hebrew Letters

K–2 and 3–5 tracks

35 / 40

The Hebrew alphabet: twenty-two letters, read right to left · trace them, write your own name, and read the class scroll

A language a whole people kept for thousands of years, and I can write my name in it.

6 · How Jewish people try to live

Doing Good: Jewish Values

3–5 (K–2 variant)

A coin and a vote (nice, or fair?) · freeze-frame scenes of everyday kindness · a tree of paper leaves

Helping people isn’t extra. It’s fair.

A suggested year

Take one lesson for a single period, one theme for a short unit, or all six across a year.

Kindergarten and grade 1: A Shabbat Table (fall) · The Jewish Year (winter, before Hanukkah or Purim) · One People, Many Faces, K–2 track (spring).
Grade 2: Stories, Foods, and Words, with the K–2 version of each station · Your Name in Hebrew Letters, K–2 track.
Grade 3: One People, Many Faces, 3–5 track · Jewish Communities Around the World · Doing Good.
Grades 4 and 5: Where Did the Synagogue Come From? · Three Voices, One Country (May, for Jewish American Heritage Month) · Your Name in Hebrew Letters, 3–5 track · Stories, Foods, and Words again, deeper, with the 3–5 version of each station.

Three lessons come back in grades 3–5 on purpose: People and Hebrew have a 3–5 track, and each Stories station has a 3–5 version.

What builds on what

Theme 1 is the foundation: a people, not only a religion. Teach it first in any grade.
The Shabbat and Jewish Year lessons share the braided bread and the candles. Either can come first.
Communities comes before Three Voices, One Country. The map gives the United States its place among the eight communities.
The synagogue lesson needs no earlier lesson, but it builds on Communities: the two American synagogues on the timeline belong to a community children already placed on the map.
Values can close any year. Its last question asks whether other traditions the class has studied teach the same values.
Each lesson is taught as culture and history, the way a class studies any people: describe, don’t instruct.
Standards (NY K–8 framework, C3, Common Core, NCSS) are listed in each guide.

What to print for each lesson

Every lesson has a teacher’s guide and a Words to Know card with a note for families. Print these too:

One People, Many FacesSix Faces photo sheet and My Piece of the Picture tile (K–2) · A Language Wakes Up (3–5)
A Shabbat TableSet-the-table activity
Where Did the Synagogue Come From?Timeline cards (Handout A) · Inside a synagogue (Handout B)
The Jewish YearWheel of the year spinner (Handout A) · Holiday Match cards (Handout B)
Jewish Communities Around the WorldWorld-map handout · What They Carried cards
Three Voices, One CountryThree Voices source sheet · Decode and timeline handout
Stories, Foods, and WordsStation 1 word cards (two copies) · Station 2 Braid a Challah · Station 3 cast cards
Your Name in Hebrew LettersThe Alef-Bet tracing sheet · Your name chart and card
Doing Good: Jewish ValuesFreeze-frame cards · Leaf sheet

How many copies each class needs is in the Materials box of each guide.