Our Stories

Fifth Grader Reflects on their Class Shabbaton

March 11, 2015 by Jennifer N (’16) (Students)

On Friday, February 27, the forty-four students of the 5th grade class went to Kemp Mill for the annual Shabbaton to experience an Orthodox Shabbat. Several very nice families hosted three to six kids in their homes, which were within a half-mile radius of each other. My host family was very nice and welcoming, especially […]


Second Graders Transform their Classroom into the Human Body for the Art & Science Expo

March 1, 2015 by Class of 2021 (Students)

The Art and Science Expo is a special night at JPDS-NC, when children and parents come to learn in a fun and exciting way! In second grade, we focus on systems within us and around us. One of the systems we learned about is the human body. For the Expo, we decided to transform our […]


First Graders Conduct Research and Present their Oceans Studies

February 25, 2015 by Class of 2022 (Students)

We came up with “big ideas” that we wanted to learn about: the human body, technology, recycling and the ocean. We took a vote to see what we should focus on, and the ocean won.  We read books and decided to research ocean animals. We chose to focus on sharks, dolphins, fish, jellyfish, silver gulls, […]


Ecologist Dr. Reuven Walder Explains his Work with Birds in Alaska to Third Graders

February 18, 2015 by Ari P (’20) (Students) Avital P (’20) (Students) Benny H (’20) (Students)

In science, we studied ecology.  We were studying living and non-living things.  Our friend’s father, Dr. Reuven Walder, came to talk about birds to us.  He is an ecologist.  He spent time in the Aleutian Islands which are in Alaska.  He went to an island that had thousands of different species of birds, but the […]


First Graders Script and Perform a Play about Endangered Gorillas

February 11, 2015 by Class of 2022 (Students)

We started learning about endangered animals. We decided to learn about mountain gorillas. There are only 700 mountain gorillas left in the whole world because of the wars surrounding where they live and poachers. We wanted to make a play that showed our feelings about mountain gorillas and other endangered species. We voted about doing […]


JPDS-NC Students Cover School Production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

January 28, 2015 by Hannah D (’16) (Students) Jennifer N (’16) (Students) Johanna L (’16) (Students) Naomi M (’16) (Students) Rachel Z (’16) (Students) Rebecca S (’16) (Students) Robert Z (’16) (Students) Rochelle B (’16) (Students) Sammy R (’16) (Students) Yael N (’16) (Students)

JPDS-NC’s students put on a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” We performed twice, once for the whole school, and once for families and the community. We had 42 performers ranging from pre-kindergarten to sixth grade in the show, and a student stage crew that helped make amazing sets and props. We had […]


JPDS-NC Students Meet their Israeli Pen Pals

January 14, 2015 by Gabriel T (’17) (Students) Noah T (’20) (Students)

We are brothers who are in 3rd and 4th grade at JPDS-NC, and we each have a pen pal in Israel. Over the break, we traveled to Israel with our family. We visited JPDS-NC’s sister school, Har Tuv, and got to spend time with our pen pals, Michael and Yonatan. We write letters to them […]


Kindergarteners Create a Code for their Secrets Time Capsule

December 24, 2014 by Ayelet M (’23) (Students) Daniela M (’23) (Students) Yarden W (’23) (Students)

Our Kindergarten class has been interested in the idea of telling and sharing secrets. We thought about the Harry Potter book called Chamber of Secrets, and that gave us the idea to make a time capsule for our class. We are burying a box and the box will hold the secrets we want others to […]


Students Tackle Math Challenges in National Math Olympiad

December 17, 2014 by Beri G (’15) (Students) Eliav B (’17) (Students) Ella E (’15) (Students) Emmett B (’17) (Students) Jacob H (’17) (Students) Jamin W (’17) (Students) Miriam S (’15) (Students) Sarah B (’17) (Students) Shuli F (’15) (Students)

This week, JPDS-NC students in grades 3-6 participated in the Math Olympiad. It is an international competition that takes place every year from November to March. Each month, we get five questions ranging in difficulty that need to be answered without calculators. There are never any multiple choice questions. Students need to use algebra, geometry […]


Fifth Graders Re-create a Colonial Village in School

December 3, 2014 by Miriam R (’16) (Students)

The fifth graders just wrapped up our Colonial America unit. We wrote essays about Jamestown, performed skits about a colonial child and a modern-day child meeting, and debated a freedom of the press case from the 1700s. The two culminating events of that unit were a field trip to Mount Vernon, and transforming the school […]