K–5 Scope and Sequence: The Makor Project

The six themes run in a natural order: who the Jewish people are, what they gather around, how they keep time, where they have lived, what their culture tastes and sounds like, and how they try to live. Take one lesson for a single period, one theme for a short unit, or all six across a year. Most themes have a lesson for each band, or one lesson with two tracks, so a school can run most of the program twice: once in K–2 and again, deeper, in 3–5. Each lesson is taught as culture and history, the way a class studies any people: describe, don’t instruct.

Theme	Lesson	Grades	Minutes	What children do	The idea a child leaves with
1 · Who are the Jewish people?	One People, Many Faces	K–2 and 3–5 tracks	35 / 40	A pomegranate, a picture book, a class mosaic (K–2); inventing a word the way Hebrew did (3–5); six photographs	Many pieces, one picture.
2 · What is Judaism?	A Shabbat Table	K–2	35	A covered basket guessed and passed around; a chart of the family meals children already know; a set-the-table craft	One day every week to stop, slow down, and be with the people you love.
	Where Did the Synagogue Come From?	3–5	40	"The school is gone": what does a class need to still be a class? Label the inside of a synagogue and compare it with a library or courthouse; a human timeline	When the building was gone, the people carried home with them.
3 · What do they believe and celebrate?	The Jewish Year	K–2	40	An apple and a honey bear; Holiday Match cards played as Memory; a wheel of the year built into a spinner	The wheel goes round, and it has been going round for a very long time.
4 · Jewish communities around the world	Jewish Communities Around the World	3–4	40	A synagogue photo to guess the location of; eight communities on a map; "What They Carried" cards packed into suitcases	One people, many homes. They carried it with them.
	Three Voices, One Country	3–5	40	Three short primary sources, 1790 to 1918: a letter from George Washington, the words on the Statue of Liberty, a song; decoded, read aloud, and placed on a timeline	A letter, a poem, a song: part of America's story from the first years, and part of writing it.
5 · Stories, foods, music, and words	Stories, Foods, and Words	K–5	45–50	Three stations: English words that came from Yiddish and Hebrew; a challah braided in play-dough; a Yiddish folktale acted out	Jewish families carried words, a bread, and a story all over the world, and some of the words landed in my mouth.
	Your Name in Hebrew Letters	K–2 and 3–5 tracks	35 / 40	The alphabet of the scroll in the picture: twenty-two letters, right to left; trace them, write your own name, read the class scroll	A language a whole people kept for thousands of years, and I can write my name in it.
6 · How Jewish people try to live	Doing Good: Jewish Values	3–5 (K–2 variant)	42	A coin and a vote (nice, or fair?); freeze-frame tableaux of everyday kindness; a tree of paper leaves	Helping people isn’t extra. It’s fair.

Theme

Lesson

Grades

Minutes

What children do

The idea a child leaves with

1 · Who are the Jewish people?

One People, Many Faces

K–2 and 3–5 tracks

35 / 40

A pomegranate, a picture book, a class mosaic (K–2); inventing a word the way Hebrew did (3–5); six photographs

Many pieces, one picture.

2 · What is Judaism?

A Shabbat Table

K–2

A covered basket guessed and passed around; a chart of the family meals children already know; a set-the-table craft

One day every week to stop, slow down, and be with the people you love.

Where Did the Synagogue Come From?

3–5

"The school is gone": what does a class need to still be a class? Label the inside of a synagogue and compare it with a library or courthouse; a human timeline

When the building was gone, the people carried home with them.

3 · What do they believe and celebrate?

The Jewish Year

K–2

An apple and a honey bear; Holiday Match cards played as Memory; a wheel of the year built into a spinner

The wheel goes round, and it has been going round for a very long time.

4 · Jewish communities around the world

Jewish Communities Around the World

3–4

A synagogue photo to guess the location of; eight communities on a map; "What They Carried" cards packed into suitcases

One people, many homes. They carried it with them.

Three Voices, One Country

3–5

Three short primary sources, 1790 to 1918: a letter from George Washington, the words on the Statue of Liberty, a song; decoded, read aloud, and placed on a timeline

A letter, a poem, a song: part of America's story from the first years, and part of writing it.

5 · Stories, foods, music, and words

Stories, Foods, and Words

K–5

45–50

Three stations: English words that came from Yiddish and Hebrew; a challah braided in play-dough; a Yiddish folktale acted out

Jewish families carried words, a bread, and a story all over the world, and some of the words landed in my mouth.

Your Name in Hebrew Letters

K–2 and 3–5 tracks

35 / 40

The alphabet of the scroll in the picture: twenty-two letters, right to left; trace them, write your own name, read the class scroll

A language a whole people kept for thousands of years, and I can write my name in it.

6 · How Jewish people try to live

Doing Good: Jewish Values

3–5 (K–2 variant)

A coin and a vote (nice, or fair?); freeze-frame tableaux of everyday kindness; a tree of paper leaves

Helping people isn’t extra. It’s fair.

A suggested year

Kindergarten and grade 1: A Shabbat Table (fall) · The Jewish Year (winter, before Hanukkah or Purim) · One People, Many Faces, K–2 track (spring).
Grade 2: The Jewish Year · Stories, Foods, and Words · Your Name in Hebrew Letters, K–2 track.
Grade 3: One People, Many Faces, 3–5 track · Jewish Communities Around the World · Doing Good.
Grades 4 and 5: Where Did the Synagogue Come From? · Three Voices, One Country (May, for Jewish American Heritage Month) · Your Name in Hebrew Letters, 3–5 track · Stories, Foods, and Words.

What builds on what

Theme 1 is the foundation: a people, not only a religion. Teach it first in any grade.
The Shabbat and Jewish Year lessons share the braided bread and the candles; either can come first.
Communities comes before Three Voices, One Country; the map gives the United States its place among the eight.
The synagogue lesson assumes nothing, but lands harder after Communities: the buildings in the timeline are the same communities on the map.
Values can close any year; its last question compares what the class has studied all year.
Each lesson has a teacher guide, printables, and a words-to-know card with a note for families. Standards (NY K–8 framework, C3, Common Core, NCSS) are listed in each guide.