In Senior Kindergarten and Lower School, students will read and engage in discussion around the book Ease the Tease by Judy Freedman. On October 20, students will participate in Imagination Theater’s interactive series of plays about empathy and teasing. Our Responsive Classroom approach, which is implemented throughout all of the classrooms and by all teachers and faculty, will continue to support our students in building empathy and becoming upstanders. Throughout their school day, our students are engaging in and practicing these skills, with a specific intent to help them feel confident and supported to handle conflict when it occurs in our community. In addition to these programs, we have ongoing opportunities for social-emotional learning to be infused into the classrooms with the classroom teachers and through lessons with our Social Worker.

While Nursery and Junior Kindergarten students will not directly participate in the experiences listed above, the topics of Kehillah (Community), Gemilut Chasadim (Acts of Love and Kindness), and Chaverut (Friendship) are explored daily through play, literature, and experiential learning, building the foundation for more direct instruction in bullying prevention in future years.