Religious School

Click here to access the recordings of the prayers.

The TBO Religious School’s mission is to inspire our students to develop a strong positive Jewish identity and a life-long commitment to the ongoing transformation of Jewish living and learning.  

TBO has a unique curriculum that incorporates the newest research on learning and retaining language to help our students experience a Hebrew rich environment at Religious School.  The philosophy at TBO Religious School is to focus on competence, confidence and connection with and to Hebrew.

The Religious School serves students of our families from four-years old through 12th grade. Milestones include Consecration, B’nai Mitzvah, Confirmation, and Post-Confirmation Graduation. We have a vibrant Madrichim (teacher assistants) program for teenagers. Our curriculum focuses on inspiring students to connect to Jewish history, tradition, and ritual as they develop their individual identities.  All students Kindergarten through Sixth Grade and Eighth Grade through Tenth Grade attend Religious School from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Sundays during the school year. 7th Graders meet from 8:45am-12:00pm on Saturday mornings where 10:30am-12:00pm is Shabbat morning worship services. Post-Confirmation (11th & 12th grade) meets every other Sunday evening from 6:00 -7:30 PM (each session begins with dinner). 

#OnwardHebrew

Building the sound of Hebrew in a child’s head and heart before tackling print serves as the foundation of #OnwardHebrew's approach. Called to sound-to-print (S-2-P) learning, there are four legs to the process:

• Creating a foundation of Hebrew language for children up through sixth grade
• Learning of Hebrew prayers by participating in regularly scheduled Hebrew t’fillah (worship)
• Building Jewish life vocabulary, i.e., Hebrew words that may be sprinkled comfortably into English conversation (e.g., shofar, mazal tov)
• Waiting to teach Hebrew decoding and reading skills until the sounds of Hebrew are deeply embedded.

For more information on this program, please visit the #OnwardHebrew website.

Hebrew Through Movement

Students in Kindergarten through Sixth Grade, participate in our Hebrew Through Movement (HTM) program.  HTM introduces Hebrew in a playful and meaningful way, creating a positive first link between children and Hebrew.  HTM is supported by the latest brain research on learning, providing an aural foundation for Hebrew that opens the door to more facile Hebrew decoding and reading.   TBO has HTM trained teachers to implement this curriculum.

Hebrew Through Movement is based on ways that children learn naturally:

• They learn by moving about and doing.
• They learn in an environment of positive emotional support.
• They learn when they feel safe from the embarrassment of not knowing.
• They learn when they can move forward at their own pace.
• They learn best when learning is joyful and playful. 
  
  For more information on this program, please visit the Hebrew Through Movement website.

Let’s Learn Hebrew Side-by-Side 

Beginning in Fourth Grade, our Hebrew curriculum uses Let’s Learn Hebrew Side-by-Side.  This program integrates with the #OnwardHebrew curriculum.  It is a carefully constructed program that:

• Uses high-interest stories, each based on a middle-school child finding Hebrew in his/her environment who then asks a teen or adult for help in learning to read it.
• Consistently uses words that are part of a student’s Jewish-cultural vocabulary as the basis for learning new letters and vowel signs.
• Uses explanatory language quite carefully, with lots of reinforcement so that students “get” the nuances of Hebrew decoding.
• Takes decoding out of a classroom setting.  Children gather in small groups with of no more than 8 with 1 teacher and 1 madrich(a).
• Blends online learning with hands-on reinforcement.
  
  For more information on this program, visit the Let's Learn Hebrew Side-by-Side website.

Curriculum

In addition to our extensive Hebrew curriculum, students participate in art, drama and music classes regularly.  Each grade’s curriculum is designed around a theme.  Students are able to participate in a variety of retreats as they move through the grades.

• Kindergarten: Holiday symbols
• First Grade: Torah Stories
• Second Grade: Jewish Values
• Third Grade: God and Midrash
• Fourth Grade: Prophets
• Fifth Grade:  Lifecycles,
• Sixth Grade: Israel and Immigration: the story of Jewish Migration
• Seventh Grade:  A Year of Mitzvot, Camping trip  at the RCJCC
• Eighth Grade: Holocaust & Ethical Decision Making, Richmond Holocaust Museum trip
• Ninth Grade: Comparative Religion and Leadership Development
• 10th Grade: Talmud, Torah, Tzedakah, Tf’ilah, Tikkun Olam, Overnight trip to the RAC in DC focusing on social justice issues
• 11th & 12th Grade: Teen directed learning on a variety of topics

Retreats

One way we build community and further learning in an experiential way is through retreats. The following retreats take place during a TBORS year. Some are onsite and others are offsite.

• Confirmation Class Retreat (fall; offsite)
• 6th Grade B'nei Mitzvah Retreat (January; onsite; includes parents)
• 6th/7th grade Healthy Relationships Retreat (February; onsite, every other year)
• 8th/9th grade Sex Ed Retreat (February; onsite; every other year)
• Family Retreat (spring; offsite)
• RALFTY Sha'ar (3rd-5th gr) "Taste of Camp" Overnight (fall; onsite)

Religious School Calendar
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For the entire school year calendar, click here.