First Class Recap: What We Know

"I know a lot about Jesus... And I took out all the kangaroos."

And we’re off! The first class on Sunday was delightful. We have a thoughtful, interesting, and fun class. Melissa and I are looking forward to learning from all of you—students and parents—this year.

Some of the highlights from Sunday include:

•          The class already knows quite a bit about Jesus. (See below for more details. Melissa and I were very impressed by the list everyone helped generate!)
•          Many of the kids seem quite excited about the National Gallery trip we’re planning for November 7^th. We will try to get a docent (or at least some guidance about paintings in the permanent collection that relate to the class). It should be a lot of fun.
•          There also seems to be interest in doing a service project that might involve making sandwiches for one of the local food pantries. (The class did this in fourth grade last year, and if there’s interest this year, we could do something similar.) Other ideas included raising money for an appropriate cause. We don’t have to decide on one now, but if you have ideas, please feel free to suggest them.

Also, just a couple of housekeeping details about texts, etc.

•          Everyone by now should have a copy of The Bronze Bow, but if you don’t, please let me know.
•          We’ll also be getting copies of The Message, the new Bible translation through IFFP—so you don’t need to worry about finding a copy.
•          Our Hebrew teacher, Michael Rosenman, will be coming to class most weeks. He will provide us with a Web site that students can use to supplement the lessons. These really help to develop and retain Hebrew knowledge. Once we have that information, I’ll post more information (including screenshots to walk you through the tool) on the blog.

I hope you’re having a good week—see you on Sunday!

(By the way, as a space program buff I was so inspired by Reverend Julia's dream about John Glenn and Neil Armstrong that I collected two videos of astronauts "taking Sabbaths" on their lunar missions--specifically on Apollos 8 and 11. You can check these out on my other blog. Yes, I have two blogs. I'm that geeky.)

Here is the list the class created. We'll revisit it at the end of the year to see what we can add to it.

What We Know About Jesus

September 12, 2010

• 1.       Birthday is Christmas Day (December 25^th)
• 2.       Twelve disciples
• 3.       Born in Nazareth in a manger
• 4.       Born a Jew
• 5.       Challenged the concept of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”
• 6.       Died on Good Friday
• 7.       Resurrected on Easter Sunday
• 8.       Died by crucifixion
• 9.       Healed a leper and performed many other miracles
• 10.   Had a beard
• 11.   Was not afraid to be near the sick
• 12.   Born to Mary and Joseph. Angels announced to Mary that she would give birth to him.
• 13.   Wise men and shepherds visited him when he was born
• 14.   Talked to priests as a child
• 15.   Walked on water
• 16.   Was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, which was a sign that he was the Messiah

Looking Forward to Sunday!

Another fantastic Dali painting: the "Christ of Saint John
on the Cross." 

It’s hard to believe that we’re only a few days away from the first session of Sunday school! Melissa and I woud like to share the tentative schedule with you:
Sun., Sept. 12 Lesson 1: Who was Jesus?


Sun., Sept. 19 Lesson 2: From Abraham to Moses


Sun., Oct. 03 Lesson 3: Joshua to Kings and Prophets


Sun., Oct. 17 Lesson 4: Palestine and the Temple


Sun., Oct. 24 Building the temple out of gingerbread


Sun., Nov. 07 NGA Trip (tent.)


Sun., Nov. 14 Lesson 5: Alexander the Great to Jesus


Sun., Nov. 21 Lesson 6: Bronze Bow I


Sun., Dec. 05 Lesson 7: Nativity Play Practice


Sun., Dec. 12 Nativity Play Planning


Sun., Dec. 19 Nativity Play


Sun., Jan. 09 Lesson 8: Palestinian Village I


Sun., Jan. 23 Lesson 9: Palestinian Village II


Sun. Jan. 30 Lesson 10: Jewish Sects in the Time of Jesus


Sun., Feb. 06 Lesson 11: The Good Samaritan


Sun., Feb. 13 Lesson 12: A Choice for Daniel


Sun., Feb. 27 Lesson 13: Reflections on the Bronze Bow


Sun., Mar. 13 Purim Carnival Planning


Sun., Mar. 20 PURIM CARNIVAL


Sun., Mar. 27 Lesson 14: Hillel and Jesus


Sun., Apr. 03 MEMBERSHIP MEETING-NO SUNDAY SCHOOL


Sun., Apr. 10 Lesson 15: The Upside Down Kingdom


Sun., May 15 Lesson 16: Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes


Sun., May 22 Lesson 17: What Jesus Said that Angered Those in Power




First important detail: unless things change, we will be in Room 140 at Einstein.


Another word about the blog: while I don’t expect the readership to be any larger than our class, I’m uncomfortable posting pictures of any of the students (or of Melissa or me, for that matter), even if people have filled out releases. So the blog will really just be an information-sharing resource containing links to pictures, articles, books, etc., in addition to these weekly summaries. If you have any questions or concerns about the information on the blog, just let Melissa or me know.


I’d also like to introduce a few people (including two parents of students in the class) who will be helping Melissa and me across the year:


Lele Mathis is our Teen Assistant who will be helping Melissa and I in our teaching. She is a recent graduate of the COA program here at IFFP and is a student at Montgomery Blair.


Rachel Franklin and Jose Dominguez are our Community Service Coordinators who will be helping us identify and conduct our community service project.


Meghan McCormick has graciously agreed to serve as a room parent for the class as well.


Please give our class volunteers a big welcome when you see them. Melissa and I are delighted to be working with them. If you would like to help out with the class as well, don’t hesitate to give us a call.


We’ve also heard from one or two people about the National Gallery trip tentatively scheduled for November 7th. As soon as you have a chance, please let us know if that date works for you.


Finally, we try to keep an eye out for interesting books, articles, etc. on the themes explored in the class. The themes in the class this year are great to discuss with your kids. The pieces described below are very thought-provoking. You may want to check them out as we move through the year:


The Hero With A Thousand Faces: Joseph Campbell’s masterwork talks about the “meta myths” about a hero passing through challenges exist across cultures and times. Very interesting in putting a literary and cultural perspective to the Biblical story of Jesus. It was on the reading list for my English class in my senior year of high school, so it’s informed a lot of my reading since then. If you pick it up, you’ll realize (as I had forgotten) how Freudian it is.


The Book of Genesis Illustrated: R. Crumb, the comic book writer, came out with this version of Genesis last year. Not all of it is appropriate for a fifth-grade audience, but he has some interesting visuals about the creation story, the binding of Isaac and so on.


“What Did Jesus Do,” a very thought-provoking recent article in The New Yorker. It’s a review of several new books about the historical Jesus, and posits some interesting ideas: for example, that Jesus may not have been a carpenter but something more like a day laborer (which is what the Greek word “tekton” used to describe him means). The author is Adam Gopnik, who writes often for the magazine and is the brother of the Washington Post’s Blake Gopnik.


We hope you had a great Labor Day weekend and look forward to seeing you on Sunday. We wish you many blessings in the New Year. As always, give us a call or email if you have any questions or ideas. (Also, feel free to comment on the blog—we’d like to use that as a tool to drive interaction and ideas for parents as well as their kids!)


L'shanah tovah!

Welcome to the Fifth Grade Class!

Salvador Dali's "The Sacrament of the Last Supper" (1955)
is one of the paintings we will see on our tour of the
National Gallery, tentatively planned for November.

Welcome to the 2010-2011 Sunday school year! Melissa Golding and I are looking forward to teaching you and your children in Sunday school this year. We hope you had a great time at the year’s first gathering today!



Our theme for the year is “The Life and Times of Jesus.” Our aim is to explore, through literature, the Old and New Testaments and other media who Jesus was, what he came from and how his teachings fit with the moment in history at which he lived.


We’ll start with an overview of Biblical history based on the Hebrew Bible. We will study the two historic Temples in Jerusalem, including building (and sacking) one out of gingerbread. We’ll recreate a first-century village in Palestine based on The Bronze Bow, a young peoples’ novel about a young boy living at the time of Jesus. We’ll also study some of Jesus’s teachings in the New Testament, and find parallels in the Old Testament. The Bible that we are using, The Message, is a newer, very modern translation that we think you will enjoy. (One of the cover blurbs is from Bono of U2.) Students should have already received The Bronze Bow, and we plan to pass out The Message on the first day of class. We will also take part in Gatherings (by presenting the nativity play at holiday time), and a community service project.


We’re also planning a field trip to the National Gallery of Art to look at images of Jesus in art. We know that families’ schedules get very busy in the fall and especially the spring, so we’d like to propose Sunday, November 7th as the day for the field trip. We can leave IFFP from the Gathering and begin our tour at about 11 am, finishing about noon when we can have lunch in the wonderful café in the underground atrium connecting the East and West Wings. Please let me know if this date works for you so that we can begin planning for it.


This is Melissa’s and my second year teaching the fifth grade. We have been IFFP members since 2008. Melissa was raised Catholic in Pennsylvania, and I grew up Jewish here in the Washington area. (My family went to Temple Sinai and I have known Rabbi White since around the time of my bar mitzvah.) Our daughter Maeve will be in first grade at IFFP this year, and our son Dylan will be in the threes class.


To cut down on e-mail proliferation, you can feel free to contact me at any time if you would like to discuss the class. You can reach me at adam.korengold@hotmail.com or on my mobile on 703.862.5769. I also use Facebook frequently and you can “friend” me at www.facebook.com/akorengold. I am also quite active on Twitter, including on interfaith issues, and you can follow me at www.twitter.com/akorengold. (I’m a big fan of social media and look forward to sharing ideas!)


I will also be posting my weekly updates here with links and pictures, and would welcome comments from you (and from the students in the class)!


Again, welcome to you and your children! We look forward to a great year and to seeing you on the first day of Sunday school, September 12th.