Religious School Lesson Plans

I was responsible for teaching Hebrew, liturgy, and trope to the b’nei mitzvah class at Temple Beth Shalom. In teaching religious school students Torah trope, I want them to understand it as a form of Torah punctuation rather than as a melody. This helps them to understand how the trope works together. It also allows students who do not like to sing in public to feel more comfortable learning trope, since I can explain it as “reading with inflection” rather than “singing.” I have used a form of this lesson every year, altering it to fit the particular students.

In teaching prayers to b’nei mitzvah student, it is important that they understand what the prayers mean in addition to being able to chant the prayers fluently. This lesson on the Torah blessings was designed to teach the students the Hebrew root word for “give,” as the Torah blessings describe God as the giver of the Torah. I wanted the students to have some sort of tactile “gift” in order to better understand the text. After they understood this, we went over the words and melody of the Torah blessings until the students were able to chant them fluently, and we continued to review each week.

In teaching the Avot V’imahot, it was important to me that the students understood the concept of ancestors. I had them make family trees and connected these family trees with our Jewish family tree, including our ancestors Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.