Our Stories

The Beginnings of the Middle School

May 18, 2015 by Adina Kanefield (Faculty and Staff)

Many people have asked how the middle school and the amazing gift came about, so I have taken a moment to share with you the story of how this all unfolded…. Ambassador Alfred Moses, a longtime member of the Washington, DC community and a friend to several of our school families, approached JPDS-NC several years […]

  • #DCJewishMiddleSchool

Creative Writing at JPDS-NC

May 14, 2015 by Lisa Schopf (Faculty and Staff) Terry Volk (Faculty and Staff)

I push on to one key after another, not having enough time to think about what I’m doing before I have to do something else. The sound flows out of the piano and onto the gigantic stage. It swirls around the seats and into the burning lights above me. It flows down and circles my […]

  • Creative Writing

Fourth Grade Unit on World Religions Includes Site Visits and Making Educational Board Games

May 13, 2015 by Jacob Z (’17) (Students) Judah B (’17) (Students) Miriam Y (’17) (Students) Samuel H (’17) (Students)

Fourth grade is studying World Geography this year, and at the moment, we are learning about different religions. First, we learned about different religions as a class, and then we split up into research and project groups to find out even more. The study groups focused on Islam, Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism. In the groups, […]

  • Project Based Learning
  • Student Stories

The Sadnah: Creativity and Exploration on the South Campus

May 7, 2015 by Yael Uhr (Faculty and Staff)

Children need the freedom to appreciate the infinite resources of their hands, their eyes and their ears, the resources of forms, materials, sounds and colours. – Loris Malaguzzi On the South Campus, we are privileged to have a dedicated studio space, the Sadnah, which is a place for creative collaboration and inspiration for all the […]

  • Project Based Learning
  • STEAM
  • Visual Arts

JPDS-NC Students Celebrate Israel’s Independence Day

May 6, 2015 by Class of 2021 (Students)

Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, is a day of celebration in Israel and for Jews around the world. It starts on the fifth of Iyar (Hebrew month). We learned that in Israel, in the evening, fireworks pop out in the sky over Jerusalem and can be seen from many other areas of Israel. A lot of people […]

  • Holidays
  • Israel
  • Student Stories

JPDS-NC Selected to Write "Standards and Benchmarks in Teaching Rabbinics" for North American Day Schools

April 30, 2015 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

JPDS-NC is one of several prominent Jewish day schools throughout the United States and Canada chosen by the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) to write Standards and Benchmarks in the Teaching of Rabbinics. This program is designed to improve Rabbinics curricula in Jewish Day Schools throughout North […]

  • Awards

Students Build a Working Arcade out of Recycled Materials

April 29, 2015 by Gabri K (’20) (Students)

The Cardboard Box Challenge is a program that takes science, math, economics and especially Earth Day to a new level. Students had the chance to make arcade games out of an endless amount of recycled materials over four Sundays and during special recess periods once a week for  thirty-minutes. Third grader Zoe Kaiser-Blueth said, “I […]

  • STEAM
  • STEM
  • Student Stories

STEM Learning in Action

April 27, 2015 by Ronit Greenstein (Faculty and Staff)

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) education is growing and thriving at JPDS-NC. On the evening of April 2, four JPDS-NC sixth graders attended the Grand Award Ceremony of DC STEM Fair 2015 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Esther Feron, Sami Himmelfarb, Noa Schleifer and Beri Gershwind swept the Junior Division with 1st, […]

  • Project Based Learning
  • STEM

Four Tenets of Brain-Based Learning: Fifth Grade Teacher Published in ASCD Express

April 27, 2015 by Lisa Schopf (Faculty and Staff)

Our own Lisa Schopf recently published an article about brain-based learning in ASCD Express, a professional publication that highlights innovative solutions and best practices in education. In her article, “Four Common Sense Tenets of Brain-Based Learning,” Lisa uses classroom examples to explain four central tenets of brain-based learning and show how students often intuitively understand and respond […]

  • Awards
  • Thinking Routines

Students Build an Arcade in our Cardboard Box Challenge

April 23, 2015 by Alexandra Taylor (Faculty and Staff) Ronit Greenstein (Faculty and Staff)

Over the course of four months, students at JPDS-NC worked with passion and resourcefulness to design and build arcade games out of recycled materials as part of the Cardboard Box Challenge. The program seeks to foster creativity, entrepreneurship, and design thinking in children, as they work together with their parents and with one another to […]

  • Project Based Learning
  • STEAM
  • STEM