For Noah, the daily experience as a Maimonides School fifth-grader is a comfortable fit. Everything has its place.

“I daven for 40 minutes, with the other boys,” he relates. “Then I go to my class and we learn until 10:10, either General Studies or Limudei Kodesh. Recess is at 10:10 a.m. for 10 minutes. I usually play basketball with my friends. From 10:20 to 11:00 we learn more, and then we go to our first ‘specials block’. Every day we have different specialty classes—art, Ivrit, science, or gym. On some days there are activities to choose during lunch and recess, such as Art Studio, Math Team, or Shulchan Ivrit. I like the Writing Circle—we’re making our own literary magazine. We also have an afternoon ‘specials block.’ At 2:30 is mincha, 2:45 to 2:55 is recess, and then we learn the rest of the day.” It’s a challenging, stimulating and rewarding schedule.

Noah offers examples of Judaic Studies at his grade level. “We learned the beginning of Shemot… slavery in Mitzrayim, leaving Mitzrayim…” His teacher, Rabbi Dovid Reisman, “goes into a lot of depth about things. When we come to a mitzvah, we’ll go into that mitzvah. We look at commentary, look where the commentary finds a connection between two places.” He adds that Rabbi Reisman also tells great funny stories.

Technology is paramount among Elementary School students, who first learn English keyboarding in Grade 3, with Hebrew keyboarding the following year. A wireless mobile laptop lab serves the needs of the fourth and fifth grades. Teachers like Grade 5 General Studies teacher Avi Pittleman use it to enhance the research, writing, and revising process. The mobile lab is wheeled into the classroom and each student is able to wirelessly connect to the internet for research, then easily write and edit reports or create PowerPoint presentations. Fifth graders also have their own school-based email accounts and learn the fine points of technology etiquette though using them.

Some classrooms are using SmartBoards, which enable faculty like Elementary School science teacher Katie Muratore to project screens directly from the Internet. “When Hurricane Katrina happened, my teacher used the SmartBoard in the lab to show us video clips from CNN and weather maps of the storm,” Noah explains. “She just clicked the mouse a couple of times and we could see exactly how the levees broke. Then we designed our own levees in class and filled them with water to see what would happen. It was amazing.”

Fifth-grade science makes a big impression. “We also learned about electricity, taking wires, a bulb and a battery and making it light. We started off with an experiment—we found you had to make a circuit. Then we did a project with switches, moving a paper clip to complete the circuit. Then we had a double pole switch, like with two light switches, one at the bottom of the stairs and one at the top. We went to the Museum of Science and saw an electricity show. We learned about conductors and insulators, which disrupt flow of electricity.” Grade 5 students also have a make-your-own-battery project, build model rockets, and work in teams to create cars which move using air pressure.

Grade 5 social studies includes units on the American Revolution, the Constitution, and the Civil Rights Movement. “In fourth grade there was a different style. We learned about the explorers,” Noah comments. Lower grades concentrate on spelling; fifth-graders combine spelling and definitions in their vocabulary sessions, and read literature books related to social studies. “On Fridays we have current events, and we get to talk into the microphone when we present to the class.”

Hebrew language studies concentrate on the basics of tense and gender. “We have different groups for Hebrew, and my Ivrit teacher really makes it fun. She speaks Hebrew pretty much all the time, and I usually understand what she is saying.” Students also write stories in Hebrew and visit Israeli sites on the Internet.

Opportunities for creative writing are frequent, and students learn to edit their own pieces. “Our teacher gave us an editing checklist,” Noah related. “Is this a well-constructed story? Did I use correct punctuation and capital letters? Am I using enough adjectives and adverbs?” The fifth-graders also maintain weekly reading response journals. Every week each student tries to achieve his/her reading goal, and every Friday they “have to write a letter to the teacher about what we read last week.”

Physical education is a landmark on the class schedule, two 40-minute periods a week with Ernie D’Agnelli. Units on team sports like soccer or baseball alternate with “some of the not-so-realistic games, like two-base kickball,” Noah reports. Art classes meet weekly with Anne-Marie Moore, where students study famous artists and create projects with a variety of media. Music is offered twice a week with Ms. Rebecca Fisher, and children not only sing but also “a lot of times learn the background of the song we’re singing,” Noah says. “I also play violin in the Elementary School Orchestra and take lessons after school.” Students in the Elementary School can choose from a wide variety of after-school activities ranging from music to chess to fencing to hockey.