Tanenbaum Center for Intrreligious Understanding
  

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Grade-level themes in the interreligious understanding guidebook include food (K), family (1st grade) and nature (2nd grade).
Skills covered are literacy, teamwork, physical fitness and nutrition, research skills, social studies, art, science and math.  
Download a sample lesson from World Olympics.

Lessons include What Makes a Family, Memories of Home and The Underground Railroad.

Download a sample lesson from Immigration.

Grade-level themes include:

- K:    All About Me
- 1st:  Family & Classroom
- 2nd: My Neighborhood
- 3rd:  World Communities
- 4th:  Meaning of Community 


Our K through 6 learners benefit from four different Tanenbaum curricula.  Each has a unique subject focus, but all use The Seven Principles as a pedagogical foundation.

All Tanenbaum curricula are literacy-based and standards-referenced:  They're not add-on modules, but real lessons on reading, math, science, history and social studies that embed lessons of inclusivity.

Each begins with foundational activities on respect and communication skills to establish an environment where children are comfortable sharing about themselves.  Lessons help students examine shared values among religious traditions.  All curricula culminate in an event that celebrates the children's learning with family and friends.

Explore our elementary education curricula:

interreligious understanding

world olympics

immigration






interreligious understanding

Interreligious Understanding: Changing Seasons, Changing World is Tanenbaum’s innovative activity guidebook on interreligious understanding for kindergarten through fourth grade.  As with all of our lessons, those in this guidebook are academically integrated. 

Student Using Tanenbaum CurriculumStudents who work though this curriculum won’t learn the Five Pillars of Islam, the differences between Christian denominations, or to compare Native American harvest festivals.  Rather, your students will gain a broader view of the  world and learn to respect the beliefs and practices of each and every person within it.  The lessons highlight the many similarities and shared values across various religious beliefs and practices and celebrates the differences.  They help children appreciate that people believe and practice differently from one another and develop inclusion skills that will form the foundation for them to grow into respectful adults. 

The goal of Changing Seasons, Changing World will be met when your students are able to appreciate that people believe and practice differently from one another and as they retain and refine these inclusion skills while growing into respectful adults.

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world olympics

The Olympic Games are a powerful example of people with both vast differences and remarkable similarities coming together in the spirit of respect and goodwill. This curriculum uses the theme of the Olympics to offer multicultural lessons that prepare children to thrive in today’s diverse society and to practice respect toward people of all different backgrounds.Student at a World Olympics Culminating Event

Students in World Olympics study cultures from around the world and then hold their own classroom or school-wide Olympics.  Through hands-on, literacy-based activities, the curriculum stresses the importance of respecting and including everyone and fair play – all while strengthening academic skills. The integrated  academic activities highlight the importance of working together as a team while teaching children to recognize and applaud each member’s strengths.

This curriculum is ideal for the after-school or enrichment setting, as it combines academics, multicultural learning, sports and recreation.

And now you can bring World Olympics home - the curricula is available for purchase online!

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passages: learning about immigration

Today, more than ever, educators and parents recognize the need for teaching respect and a broad world-view to early school-age children.  Incidents of hatred and xenophobia are on the rise.  These are particularly important issues in the United States, where nationally, 11.7 percent of the population is foreign-born.  Passages: Learning About Immigration uses age appropriate activities organized around themes to explore important concepts in immigration.   
The standards-based, intellectually rigorous and interdisciplinary unit-plan is designed to accompany and enhance what students learn about immigration in the classroom by recognizing religion’s important role. Religion is woven throughout the unit-plan as one core aspect of cultural diversity that is essential to the study of immigration and often overlooked.

Through inquiry-based lessons, students are challenged to become historians by grappling with some of the most critical questions related to immigration, including:

  • How do migration and American society affect each other?
  • How do we decide who becomes an American, and how has that process     changed over time?
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  • What is it like to immigrate to the United States?


Each unit-plan has clear and meaningful objectives, challenging and engaging activities and authentic assessments. It has a flexible design, with 36 lessons organized into 5 thematic units, enabling the teacher to teach every unit or pull out lessons relevant to his or her own curriculum. Our unit-plan is guided by Wiggins and McTighe’s Understanding by Design, so each unit is structured by an Essential Question and Enduring Understanding.

Unlike many traditional middle-school social studies curricula, Passages features a seamless integration of character development and intellectual rigor, aimed at cultivating global citizenship. We believe that the students who learn about immigration through our unit-plan will become more respectful, conscientious and skillful citizens and historians.

 

 

 


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