Lower School (Grades 3-5)

The core curriculum, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s Into Math, is structured around students first building conceptual understanding before practicing and applying skills to real-world situations. Enrichment and reinforcement activities are provided within the core materials. At all grade levels, teachers supplement curricular materials to provide challenges as well as reinforcement of important skills and concepts. The learning architecture addresses real-world relevance, mathematical practices and processes, and problem-solving.

Students build on science concepts and skills introduced in the primary grades. They continue investigating earth science, physical science, life science, and engineering. Students explore observable real-world events to engage in scientific inquiry, allowing them to actively investigate and develop explanations for what they see happening around them, rather than simply memorizing facts.

Some of the units include:

• Developing an explanation for how a singer can break a glass with just their voice.
• Researching, designing, and creating a model to enhance the lives of an animal at the Minnesota Zoo.
• Applying students’ knowledge of ecosystems, properties of matter, and energy transfer to develop a sustainable colony on Mars.

The social studies curriculum centers on the concept of community building and connections. Students develop the necessary social skills needed to be part of the school community with ever-increasing responsibilities to their families, to local and Jewish communities, and as citizens of the world. Our social studies program reflects the mission of the school in teaching students to aspire to the highest values of Judaic heritage and the principles of American democracy.

The core social studies disciplines such as geography, history, politics, economics, and sociology are taught throughout the grades. The courses are taught through a variety of media, including literature, guest speakers, field trips, and online resources.

Grade 3
Students are introduced to more sophisticated grammar skills, including personal pronouns and subject-verb agreement. Vocabulary expands by understanding roots and structural patterns. Students develop their skills through expanded, descriptive oral responses and more complex writing.

The third-grade Israel curriculum focuses on the different communities that are living in the State of Israel, and students learn about the country’s diversity.

Grade 4
Hebrew becomes a vehicle for student self-expression. Additional grammar skills are introduced, including past-tense verbs, the use of the infinitive, and noun-adjective agreement. Description is a focus of writing, speaking, and reading. Examples of the use of Hebrew in authentic, real-life experiences are written descriptions of students' personal characteristics and hobbies and oral presentations about Israel’s culture, geography, and history.

The Israel curriculum focuses on the topography of the State of Israel, as well as the borders and its neighbors, cities, and natural resources.

Grade 5
Students read and discuss modified stories from Hebrew literature. They explore concepts of forgiveness, friendship, fighting for something you believe in, taking action, leadership, and dedication. The Holocaust is introduced in a formally developed unit emphasizing heroism. Students begin to study about famous leaders in Jewish and Israeli history. They are introduced to the future tense, different forms of verb patterns (e.g., Lamed Hey/ל׳׳ה and the use of the infinitive). They learn additional connecting words like mipnei sheh/מפני ש and c’dei/כדי. Students study irregular noun patterns including many body parts.

Units of study include:

• Holiday units: Stories about the holidays by prominent Israeli writers
• Chanukah/חנוכה unit: Story of the Maccabee family’s fight for freedom
• Fables teaching values
• Important Jews of the 20th century: Eliezer Ben Yehuda, Leah Goldberg, Mordechai Analevitch       

Preparing Your Child for a Dual-Language Program

Across our program we are committed to providing a variety of flexible Hebrew groupings to accommodate many learning styles and paces. This allows us to welcome students midprogram with little or no Hebrew language experience. Regardless of the grade your child enters Heilicher, we will support their Hebrew learning during the defined school day through small-group work and differentiated instruction.

Students entering second grade or above with little or no prior Hebrew language experience will be asked to engage in private Hebrew tutoring during the summer preceding their enrollment. Heilicher will provide families with the names of Hebrew tutors familiar with teaching our curriculum. Tutoring is usually two times per week, and compensation for these tutors will be the family’s responsibility. Heilicher may recommend some additional tutoring during the school year.

Jewish studies is characterized by an integrated approach in the primary years. While specific time is set aside for Jewish studies, the curriculum is designed and supported by activities in all subject areas. The core components of the multidenominational approach to Jewish studies combine key activities that teach both the keva (fixed portion of ritual and prayer) and the kavanah (a personal connection to the meaning of the action) of Jewish practice.

Bible/Text
Every grade at Heilicher studies Mikra. Three specific content areas are addressed: general understanding in context, specific skills development, and specific content mastery. Students in third through fifth grades study selections from B’reishit, Sh’mot, Vayikrah, and B’midbar. They learn foundational text skills such as recognizing names of people and places in the text, identifying and translating repeated roots, and increasing proficiency with the text. We also continue to engage in a structured exploration of the Parshat HaShavuah, fostering a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of its themes, language, and relevance.

Holidays and Customs
Holiday and home rituals are a distinguishing feature and signature glory of Jewish life. They offer vivid examples of the variety of Jewish practices that have evolved in different Jewish communities over time. Third through fifth graders focus on how Jewish holidays are celebrated throughout history and around the world. Our curriculum emphasizes the practical and procedural aspects of holiday observances, ensuring students gain a comprehensive understanding of diverse Jewish holiday practices as they have evolved across various communities and traditions.

Prayer
Our goal is to allow students to become knowledgeable and comfortable with Jewish prayer as it exists, and skilled and confident to explore new avenues for meaningful Jewish prayer. 

Technology is threaded throughout the curricula at all grade levels. Students use iPads, Chromebooks, and SMARTboards to enrich learning and integrate skills. Programs, apps, and internet tools such as Google Apps for Education are used to communicate, teach, and encourage learning, allowing for a variety of experiences upon which students can build.

From an introduction to basic coding and navigation skills in the early grades, to keyboarding, word processing, and online research in the intermediate grades, technology becomes part of all of the curricular areas. 

"Technology is thoughtfully infused into the daily life of students, staff, and parents at Heilicher. Since both my husband and I work in technology fields, we appreciate that cutting-edge technology is a natural part of our children’s school experience."

— Heilicher Parent

The library is open daily during school hours. Individual students may stop by before classes begin and during the day when time allows. All students in grades three through five visit the library as a class every other week. In addition to checking out books, library lessons focus on the following:

• How to use the Alexandria Library management system to find books available in our library, how to put books on hold, and how to manage their individual library accounts.
• How to navigate the Heilicher School Library website, what information is available there, and how to access that information.
• How to physically find books in the library (fiction, alphabetically by first three letters of author’s last name; and nonfiction, using the Dewey Decimal System).
• Digital citizenship: Students engage in a spiraled, age-appropriate digital citizenship course centered around safety and responsibility online.

The Lower School art curriculum provides students with the tools to use a variety of visual media to communicate what they understand. Guided by and exceeding national standards, students are introduced to the basic elements of art including line, shape, color, texture, and pattern. Projects engage students with:

• Drawing
• Collage
• Sculpture
• Print making
• Architectural models
• Mixed media

Integration of art with Judaic and general studies allows students to make connections across traditional disciplines. Participation in the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Art Adventures program introduces students to different cultures and work across time periods.

Throughout their Lower School experience students are encouraged to take risks as they incorporate new techniques and avenues for creative expression.

"The school’s art program succeeds in exposing my child to a wide variety of genres and cultures, materials and technique all at an age-appropriate level, with increasing depth and complexity each year.”

— Heilicher Parent

Grades 3-5 students have music class once a week for forty-five minutes. Students are eligible to participate in the Heilicher choir, which meets as a co-curricular ensemble. 

Grade 3
The music curricular scope and sequence advances in rigor. They still continue group singing in an appropriate range for the child, playing classroom instruments, creating music, reading standard notation on the treble clef, listening to music, and moving to music primarily through body percussion. Composers and music from diverse cultures and historical time periods are presented.

Grade 4
Units include a balanced and sequential course of singing that is grade-level appropriate, playing classroom instruments, listening to music, improvising, composing, and moving to music. Students develop the ability to read music, use the notation and terminology of music, analyze and describe music, and make informed evaluations concerning music.

Grade 5
In fifth-grade music there are singing units that are grade-level appropriate, expanding on skills learned in fourth grade and developing critical listening skills to identify, discuss, and respond to a variety of genres.  We work on understanding the role, development, and influence of the arts throughout history and across cultures.

“It's a full blown art and music program at HMJDS, not something relegated to after-school programs. Everyone participates and I can see the pride the students have in their performances.”

– HMJDS Parent

Physical education reinforces the Jewish value of being responsible to one another in how we behave in the gym as well as cooperation and sportsmanship. Student maintain and strengthen their ability to effectively set and reach their goals, both individual and team goals. P.E. in Grades 3-5 builds upon the skills learned in K-2:

• It progressively introduces the ability to manipulate equipment while moving, such as dribbling while running or throwing/catching while jumping.
• Nonlocomotor skills and abilities are developed as students intentionally put themselves off balance to perform an activity, either to return to a static state or transition into motion.
• Manipulative motor skills are further developed — students can control an object with the dominant or nondominant hand/foot while traveling through space at various speeds.

“I love the PE program at HMJDS. The variety of sports, engaging instructors, and focus on ‘fun’ as opposed to competition has given my kids greater confidence and skill. It keeps them active, boosts their overall health, and helps them learn better in the classroom!”

— Heilicher Parent