Student learning

Academics

Elementary Program

Bais Menachem's Early Education Program serves Kindergarten and 1st Grade students in a warm, nurturing, cooperative, and challenging environment where Judaic and General Studies teachers collaborate closely.

Kindergarten

The program establishes foundational skills through interactive, hands-on activities:

  • Reading and writing workshops focusing on literacy and listening
  • Manipulatives and textbooks for basic mathematics
  • Art, drama, and science exploration
  • Social studies through books, field trips, and community exploration

1st Grade

Students advance toward higher-level thinking skills. The school emphasizes educating the whole student — developing an inquisitive and scholarly mind alongside respect for others and collaborative living skills.

Elementary student learning

Middle School Curriculum

Concentrated study of Language Arts, History, Science, Math, and Speech/Drama alongside Judaic coursework, with emphasis on student-led activities.

Language Arts

Students develop knowledge of and appreciation for literature, language, and composition, improving skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

Student Outcomes

  • Expand vocabulary with contextual and etymological understanding
  • Build grammatical competency with real-world editing applications
  • Analyze literary works through comparison and contrast
  • Produce narrative, expository, and research writing
  • Present information through individual and collaborative oral work

Sample Readings

William Golding's Lord of the Flies • John Knowles' A Separate Peace • George Orwell's Animal Farm • Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea • Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Macbeth • Poetry by Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson

Speech & Drama

Students understand, appreciate, develop, and deliver effective speeches through solo presentations and group debates while engaging with theatrical material.

Sample Works

Charles Boyle's Speak Out With Clout • Stein & Harnick's Fiddler on the Roof • Neil Simon's Fools • Celeste Raspanti's I Never Saw Another Butterfly

Mathematics

The program develops critical thinking skills and active problem solvers. Singapore Math is used in grades 6-7; grade 8 employs McDougal Littell's Algebra I.

Grade 6

  • Prime factorization, factors & multiples
  • Squares, square roots, cubes, cube roots
  • Negative numbers and absolute value
  • Fractions & operations
  • Ratios, rates, and percent
  • Algebraic expressions & equations
  • Coordinate plane & graphing
  • Area, volume & statistics

Grade 7 — Pre-Algebra

  • Rational number operations
  • Algebraic expressions & equations
  • Direct and inverse proportions
  • Angle properties & scale drawing
  • Volume and surface area
  • Statistics & probability

Grade 8 — Algebra I

  • Properties of real numbers
  • Linear equations & graphing
  • Slope & slope-intercept form
  • Systems of linear equations
  • Exponents & exponential functions
  • Quadratic equations & functions
  • Polynomials & factoring
  • Rational expressions
  • Pythagorean theorem
  • Probability & statistics

Life Science

Content is presented through PowerPoint lectures with projects, activities, and labs, emphasizing real-world relevance.

  • Cell structure & function
  • Cellular processes (respiration, photosynthesis)
  • DNA, transcription & protein synthesis
  • Genetics & Punnett squares
  • Nervous system
  • Plants: diversity, structure & life cycles
  • Invertebrates
  • Vertebrates: fish through mammals

History

Grade 7 — Ancient Civilizations

From ancient man and the Stone Age through ancient China, India, Greece, Rome, Egypt, Kush, the Hebrews and Judaism, and the Early Americas. Hands-on, project-based learning with compare-and-contrast activities.

Grade 8 — United States History

From the first Europeans in 1607 through the thirteen colonies, Revolutionary War, Constitution, the Era of Jefferson, the Age of Reform, the Civil War, Industry, and the Progressive Era.

Students in science class

iReady Diagnostic Testing

The iReady Diagnostic is an adaptive assessment tool by Curriculum Associates, designed to help teachers support each student and create a path of personalized instruction.

The test adjusts difficulty based on student responses, narrowing in on specific areas needing support. Teachers receive actionable data showing where students perform relative to grade-level and national norms.

Reports include Lexile® and Quantile® metrics for reading and mathematics performance insights. Students take these assessments multiple times throughout the school year.