Our Stories

First Graders Celebrate Chagigat HaSiddur

June 17, 2015 by Carmel P (’22) (Students) Hannah G (’22) (Students) Tal P (’22) (Students)

Chagigat HaSiddur is a celebration where the first graders at JPDS-NC get new siddurim (prayerbooks) to show what we learned in Hebrew and Judaic Studies this year. To prepare, we did Tefillah (prayer) every day and learned more over time. We prepared a story about the Ten Commandments. We also practiced singing and praying together […]


Fourth Graders Raise Money to Help the Victims of the Nepal Earthquake

June 3, 2015 by Adina S (’17) (Students) Dora S (’17) (Students) Isaac T (’17) (Students) Leah Z (’17) (Students) Miriam Y (’17) (Students) Noah G (’17) (Students)

The fourth graders at JPDS-NC have been raising money for the people of Nepal because on April 25 there was a big earthquake there. More than 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and many more were injured. Countless people lost their homes, belongings, and family members. A guest speaker, Steve Himmelfarb, came in and […]


Fifth Graders Explore Nature and Judaism at TEVA

May 27, 2015 by Lincoln A (’16) (Students)

The 5th graders at JPDS-NC went on a four-day field trip to TEVA at the Pearlstone Center in Reisterstown, MD for an educational outdoors adventure. (“TEVA” is Hebrew for “nature.”) We went on hikes where we learned about the local environment including “the F.B.I.” – fungi, bacteria, and invertebrates. The hikes were full of wildlife […]


Third Graders Discuss Their Comprehensive Study of U.S. States

May 20, 2015 by Adam S (’20) (Students) Alex A (’20) (Students) JuJu J (’20) (Students) Miriam G (’20) (Students) Rachel R (’20) (Students) Simon R (’20) (Students)

Every third grader at JPDS-NC gets to study their own state for the whole year. We did a lot of research and worked on different projects. We studied the land forms and animals, and then made dioramas and designed logos about our states. “We learned about Native Americans in our state, and went on research […]


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, […]


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 […]


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 […]


Fifth Graders Design Math Games and Host a Math Carnival

April 22, 2015 by Naomi M (’16) (Students)

My fifth grade math class held a Math Carnival. Our class decided at the beginning of the year to find a fun way of expressing what we learned. We split into groups and began to think of creative ways to make math-related games. Each group was assigned a different math unit, and we had to […]


Pre-Kindergarten and Fourth Grade Report on JPDS-NC’s Yom Chesed (Good Deeds Day)

April 8, 2015 by Adina S (’17) (Students) Eli L (’24) (Students) Eliav B (’17) (Students) Hannah J (’24) (Students) Isaac T (’17) (Students) Joshua A (’24) (Students) Joshua K (’17) (Students) Judah B (’17) (Students) Lily L (’24) (Students) Matan S (’17) (Students) Simon K (’17) (Students) Theo P (’24) (Students)

We had a special Good Deeds Day at JPDS-NC. Every grade performed a different good deed to help the world. As fourth graders, we got to mentor the pre-Kindergarteners, and work with them to bake challahs for the Hebrew Sheltering Home, which provides transitional housing to Jewish people in need. First, we taught Torah to […]


Kindergarten Project to Help the Homeless

April 1, 2015 by Class of 2023 (Students)

In the Gan Tmarim class, we are learning about people who are homeless. When we learned that homeless people may not have a job, money, clothes, food or toys, we were surprised and sad. To learn more, we read a book about a girl who lives in a shelter and doesn’t have any toys, so […]