IHDS Educational Overview

Educational Overview

The progressive educational approach at the IHDS is designed to empower students to be seekers of knowledge, discover their purpose, and explore pathways to impact the world.
Our staff appreciates each child’s uniqueness and their role in nurturing their strengths to set the foundation for future academic and personal success. We use evidence-based educational methods to foster cognitive exploration, innovative thinking, emotional well being, creative expression, and spiritual growth.
Through hands-on experiential learning, Torah study, and a person-centered approach, our students are inspired to participate in their education. We encourage students to ask questions, and our educators are exceptional teachers and learners who thoughtfully guide students through the learning process. Through our social emotional program, students develop effective and respectful communication skills, self-esteem, empathy, creativity, organizational skills, and social connection so that they can focus on intellectual discovery and personal growth.
IHDS Elementary School has a dual focus for success, which combines foundational educational rigor with social emotional learning. Our program meets all the national and state academic requirements, including comprehensive math, science, social studies, and language arts curricula. All of our curricula organically lend themselves to differentiated learning, student choice and self-directed learning. Our elementary students participate in weekly physical education and enjoy enrichment classes that include musical theater and drama, instrumental music, coding, yoga, and fine art. Students’ overall emotional well-being and social emotional skills are developed within our systematic Positive Discipline approach, which teaches students to be effective communicators, respectful problem solvers, and positive collaborators
Our goal is for our students to be on a lifelong Jewish quest towards spiritual fulfillment, become compassionate citizens of the world who are deeply connected to their Judaism and Israel, and have the tools and knowledge to be collaborative, contributing members of their communities. Our school culture empowers student voices; we believe each student should be both heard and taught to listen to diverse perspectives, including those that are different from one’s own. Our program is designed with the knowledge that our students are the future leaders, role models, and innovators of the next generation.

General Studies

Experiential Curriculum

IHDS students experience learning with all their senses. The General Studies program includes a fully comprehensive and interdisciplinary language arts, mathematics, science, technology and social studies curriculum. Our dual focus for success sets high standards for both academic achievement and social emotional learning, preparing our students for the highest levels of college and career readiness.
Inspiring Young Readers and Writers

Our Reading and Writing Workshop is a literacy model that exposes students to authentic works of literature with increasing complexity fostering love of reading and writing, as well as the self-assurance to set the highest standards for their own accomplishments.
Developing Positive Leadership Skills

IHDS students actively engage in the democratic process through daily classroom meetings which guide students to solve relevant problems that can be applied to real life scenarios. Civic duty is further developed in our social studies curriculum which introduces the concepts of courage, self-control, justice, heroism, leadership, deliberation and individual responsibility.
In-depth Investigation of Mathematical Concepts

Whether it is building a sukkah, starting a business, baking bread, or creating inventions, IHDS inspires students to create and apply mathematical concepts. Using Singapore Mathematics curriculum, an internationally successful mathematical approach, students develop innate problem-solving abilities. With every new concept, students are encouraged to investigate, discover, explore and apply their solutions to mathematical problems, and connect mathematical concepts to real life situations.
Nurturing a Love of Science, Engineering, and Technology

IHDS takes students natural curiosity and builds on that via an outstanding curriculum developed at UC Berkeley, Full Option Science System. FOSS is a research-based science curriculum that uses multiple instructional pedagogies, including inquiry-based and experiential learning, active investigation, research and data collection.
Fostering Social Emotional Learning

Our positive teaching practice fosters a school community that values individuality, compassion, joyful learning, respectful communication, environmental stewardship and authentic curiosity. Based on core Jewish values, Positive Psychology, Alfred Adler, Jane Nelsen’s Positive Discipline approach, our school culture empowers students with a sense of belonging and purpose while learning life skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, creative expression, self-regulation, relationship building and perseverance.
Art

Our multimodal arts program offers an innovative approach to arts education. This program engages students in visual and performing arts, celebrating individual expression and using a variety of artistic media to convey Jewish texts, ideas, and values.
Music

Our innovative music program employs best practices in music education, with students learning through Orff Schulwerk instruction in TK-1st grade, recorder in 2nd-3rd grades, and strings in 4th and up

Hebrew and Jewish Studies

Inspiring Personal Growth Through Jewish Studies

The goal of our Hebrew and Jewish Studies program is to instill in our students a deep connection with our heritage, inspire a love of Torah and its study and practice, convey a sense of ownership and pride in our tradition, and to impart the knowledge and skills necessary to become the future Jewish leaders, role models and teachers of the next generation.
Achieving Hebrew Fluency

The goal of our Hebrew language (Ivrit) program is fluency in modern, spoken Hebrew language. Our TK and K program now employ Hebrew Immersion, with both an English speaking and Hebrew speaking teacher in the classroom at all times. The goal is to add a new Hebrew Immersion grade each school year.
Starting the Day with Tefillah (prayer) and Appreciation

During daily morning Tefillah, our students become fluent in Jewish liturgy, learn the songs of the tefillah, and engage in discussion about the concepts of appreciation, love, compassion, fear, faith, heritage and forgiveness to bring meaning to the words that they say and read in the siddur. Our students develop the skills to understand tefillot as they increase in complexity.
Meaningful In-depth Jewish Study

Our approach guides our students to achieve spiritual growth through in-depth study, textual skill building, and meaningful discussion. Our students are encouraged to question as they learn, and bring real life examples to the discussion. Critical thinking about the meaning of a text is integral to Jewish learning. Children learn the meaning, rituals, and customs of each Jewish holiday. We nurture a love of Israel and celebrate holidays such as Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim.