Pre-Kindergarten through 8th Grade
Sukkat Shalom’s education program involves the entire family. Parents and children join together twice a month to explore stories, values, and traditions. The curriculum is a combination of parallel and joint study. Our goal is to engage all age groups in challenging ways. Active learning is enriched by creative experiences in drama, visual arts, music, and writing. We recognize that our Sunday morning program is only part of a family’s Jewish education. The primary goal is to establish a model in which the family is the key learning unit. In every discussion we emphasize the core values that we each have brought from our diverse traditions and backgrounds. Family School helps the entire family find meaning and spirituality, and it is our hope that families continue to learn and discuss long after they leave the building.

Early Childhood Room (Sunday program for babies through 3 years old)
10:00 - 10:40 free play this is so families who do go to the morning assembly have time to transition to the class.
10:40 - 10:45 clean up / wash hands
10:45 - 11:00 snack and story
11:00 - 11:15 music with Cantor Kaufman and the JK class
11:15 - 11:30 circle time
11:30 - 11:55 art project/games
11:55 - 12:00 clean up/ pick up

** Please feel free to explore the family assembly from 10-10:30 in the auditorium, or if you think your child might need some extra transition time, come straight to the class (Room 126)

Pick up: Come to the classroom to pick up your child, we will not dismiss them!

All morning groups are held at the Community Recreation Center (CRC) of Wilmette, 3000 Glenview Road, Wilmette on Sundays from 10:00 a.m. - Noon

Join us for adult discussion as we continue the most exciting conversations on the North Shore, Caffeine for the Brain. [see Life Long Learning section]

Grade         Room #     Teachers                  
ECR         126           Robin Pinsof
PK           128           Stacia Goldstein, Alyce Lang
K             127          Jodi Max, Amanda Max 
1st          122          Susie Pinzur, Dana Auerbach 
2nd          123          Jodi Berlinger, Jody Kenzer
3rd          129          Danya Lev, Ronit Levy
4th          121          Kate Afanasiyeva, Jaime Lewis
5a           203          Israel Gross, Abby Damsky
6th          204          Kelli Max, Sharona Sernick
7th          202          Marla Topp, Helen Melnick
8th          200          Lauern Shook

1. Curriculum:
Although much of our curriculum across the grades focuses on values and ethics, we specifically teach about ethically based mitzvot, gimilut chasadim (acts of loving kindness) and social responsibility in both 2^nd Grade and 7^th Grade. Our students study different aspects of tikkun olam and take part in doing good deeds in this early grade and then again when they are becoming a bar or bat mitzvah.

2. Bar/Bat Mitzvah Projects:
Each bar and bat mitzvah student organizes and fulfills a mitzvah project of his or her own choosing. Often times the students sell items to raise money for a cause or collect items for their mitzvah project at Family School. The students make an announcement about their project at our Family Assembly and create a flyer with information about their cause. This enables our whole school to know about and support the work of our bar and bat mitzvah students.

3. Mitzvah Family Workshop:
Families with a child becoming a bar or bat mitzvah gather together regularly during the 7^th grade year for programming about the deeper meaning of the ceremony. This year the families volunteered with the ARK at a Chanukah party for the elderly. Next year we are adding more social action opportunities for our Mitzvah Family Workshop participants to teach and live out the meaning of tikkun olam- repairing the world.

4. Family Tzedakah Days:
Each year our families participate in two mitzvah projects helping the hungry and homeless. Families gather to make hundreds of lunches for the Night Ministry. Families also volunteer at the Chicago Food Depository.

5. Maot Chitim:
Each year Family School participants looks forward to volunteering with Maot Chitim just before Passover. Families meet trucks filled with holiday packages and deliver the food and supplies to elderly Jews (many of whom are from the Former Soviet Union.). We will now be volunteering with Maot Chitim before Rosh Hashannah as well.

6. High School Youth Group - Good News Community Kitchen:
Our high school students put social action at the top of their preferences for youth group activities. This year (2008-2009)our students will volunteer at the Good News Community Kitchen on the 4th Sunday of each month. Students serve food to over a hundred people each visit.

7. Religious Action Center Trip:
On this exciting trip to Washington DC, our High School Youth Group (SuShY) will learn firsthand about how they can make a difference, lobby at the offices of congress on Capitol Hill, experience Havdalah at the Lincoln Memorial, and much more!