Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide

5. We are thankful for God’s gifts.
6. God created the world, and on Shabbat God rests and so do we.
Four to five-year-olds
What the teacher needs to understand:
1. Wonder is encouraged and fostered with exploratory questions.
2. Blessings and God-talk are a part of
every day.
3. Jewish ritual objects and Jewish rituals
and life cycle events, such as birth and
death, are opportunities to talk about
God.
4. Prayer and blessings are a way to talk
to God.
5. Shabbat and holidays provide different
opportunities to experience God.
What the child understands:
1. We can talk to God with prayers that
other people wrote or with prayers that
we make up in our own hearts, and
with our own words.
2. We try to be kadosh like God.
3. When we treat other people with love
and chesed, we are being like God.
4. Each and every person is created
b’tzelem Elohim.
5. We treat every person with respect and
compassion because each person is
created b’tzelem Elohim.
6. We are thankful for God’s gifts.
7. Blessings are a way of saying thank
you to God.
8. The way that we prepare our food and
the types of food we eat connects us to God.
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9. God created the world, and on Shabbat God rests and so do we.
10. We are partners with God, so we help protect the earth.
11. We can learn about God from the Torah, the siddur, and Jewish stories.
12. No one knows everything about God, so we each have to keep asking and sharing
our ideas.
13. We can explore our understandings of God and our relationship with God with
grown-ups, including our parents, teachers and rabbis.
14. God has many names.
15. We cannot see God, but we can see evidence of God all around us, in other
people, in nature, and in ourselves.
16. God is always.
Vision for Conservative Early Childhood Programs: A Journey Guide
USCJ Department of Education
Maxine Handelman
Handelman@uscj.org
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