Program Information
Bet Chaverim Religious School, comprised of grades K to 7, meets on Sundays from 9 a.m. - Noon at a Oakland Mills High School in Columbia, MD.
Throughout the year, our students focus on the following core Jewish values in sequence:
•Teshuvah (taking responsibility for your actions)
•B'Tzelem Elohim (honoring the image of G-d in ourselves)
•Gevurah (using one's inner strength and outer strength)
•Achrayut (doing what you can to make the world a better place)
•Hakarat Hatov (seeking joy and being grateful)
•Koach Hadibbur (understanding the power of words)
•Shalom (helping to create a more peaceful world)
We begin each unit with a kick-off program, explore each value over the following weeks, incorporate holidays that tie into the value, and complete our learning about the value through a meaningful hands-on experience (e.g. field trip, service project, etc.) All grades focus on the same value, so children within families can discuss and share with each other. Our kick-off and final events for each unit involve a family program, so parents and children can share the joy of experiencing Jewish learning together, as well as with our greater school community.
Additionally, we partner with ShalomLearning.org, a pioneering online Jewish learning organization with creative and engaging material to help reinforce the values, as well as strengthen Hebrew and prayer. All BCRS students are given an online account. Students in grades 3-7 use ShalomLearning as an alternative to a traditional mid-week classroom meeting. The teacher provides links to weekly online interactive assignments that support and extend what was learned in the Sunday class, and students complete and send them back to the teacher during the week (including audio recordings, written responses to videos and other materials, and online Hebrew activities from Torah Aura publications). ShalomLearning affords our students not only the flexibility to participate in a mid-week religious school program at the time that is best for them, but also allows teachers to provide each student with completely individualized Hebrew instruction and provides an opportunity for each child to fully engage with the learning materials through the responses that they share in writing and audio. It also affords parents the very unique opportunity to learn right alongside their children, if they wish.
BCRS also incorporates family and youth programming throughout the year. We encourage participation to help the students feel a part of our Jewish community.
