The Makor Project · K–5 Lesson · Teacher's Guide

Doing Good: Jewish Values

Values you can see in action · Grades 3–5
Grade band
Grades 3–5
Lesson length
40–45 minutes
Format
Discussion + values handout
Materials
Values-in-action handout · pencils
Prerequisites
None
Standards
Character ed · World cultures · Common Core ELA

Why this lesson, for the teacher

The easiest doorway into an unfamiliar community is a value a child already recognizes. Feeding someone hungry, welcoming a guest, caring for someone sick, helping repair the world — these appear in nearly every culture and faith a classroom studies, and they appear in Jewish tradition too, with their own names, carried for thousands of years. Meeting them there, beside the other traditions the class already covers, lets a child see a familiar idea in a new community. That recognition is the lesson's quiet work. For the students, the question is simply: what does this tradition teach about being a good person, and how is that like what other traditions teach?

What this lesson teaches

Students learn that Jewish tradition names and teaches specific values about how to treat other people and the world, and that these values are expressed through actions, not just words. By the end, a student can name two Jewish values and give an everyday example of each — and notice that other traditions teach similar things.

Core understandings

  1. Jewish tradition gives names to good deeds and teaches them as a way of life.
  2. These values are about action — what you do for other people and the world.
  3. Many of these same values appear in other religions and cultures, which is a point of connection, not difference.
  4. A helpful way to look at any tradition is through three questions: what it teaches people to believe, how it asks them to behave, and how people belong to the community.

The values in this lesson

Suggested lesson flow

1 · Open (5 min)

Ask: "What does it mean to be a good person? Name something a good person does." Collect answers on the board. Most will already match the values below.

2 · Name the values (12 min)

Introduce the Jewish values above, pairing each with the everyday actions students already named. Emphasize that each is a verb — something you do.

3 · Values in action (15 min)

Using the values-in-action handout, students match each value to a real situation, then write or draw one way they could do it themselves this week.

4 · Compare & close (10 min)

Ask: "Do other traditions we've studied teach these same things?" Draw the comparison — most do. Close on the point that caring for others is something the whole human family shares, taught in many languages.

Notes on teaching this well

Follow-up & pairing

Sources & further reading (for the teacher)