Kansas Jewish Preschool (KJP), previously called Gan Chabad Preschool, has been a steadfast learning facility in the Kansas City Jewish community for the past 40 years.
Originally an at-home daycare called Chabad Cheder Preschool, for the past 30 years it had operated under the name Gan Chabad Preschool out of the Chabad House Center on Indian Creek Drive. As a non-denominational school serving families throughout the Jewish community, Kansas Jewish Preschool is a name that both simplifies and reflects the core of the school.
This year, KJP is welcoming two Israeli teaching interns from the Israeli Ministry of Education to its teaching team. This unique program of the Ministry of Education encourages Israeli students pursuing an education degree to experience hands-on teaching in Jewish schools around the world under the supervision of the Ministry. KJP staff are excited to join this incredible initiative and give young preschool students the opportunity to engage with Hebrew-speaking teachers on a daily basis.
As an additional focus to the regular curriculum, the teaching interns will be introducing many Hebrew words to the children’s daily routine and vocabulary. Studies show that children who attend bilingual preschools have an increase in self-regulation skills, better ability to monitor their immediate environment and a stronger ability to switch between tasks. While KJP is not fully bilingual, the staff believe that students will benefit from the introduction of a second language on a daily basis. The new teachers are Morah Racheli Bloy and Morah Ortal Himi.
“At Kansas Jewish Preschool, we believe in a wholesome education where Jewish holiday songs and traditions are taught in a way that is integrated into the child’s life and learning,” said Esty Perman, assistant director of KJP. “Judaism is not something we can compartmentalize about ourselves, it is who we are at our very core, and it can be reflected in every part of our lives.”
KJP serves an average of 40 students a year, from infants through preschoolers, sending the highest percentage of preschool graduates to the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy of all the local preschools.
Inspired by the Reggio Emilia Approach philosophy of education, KJP creates a learning environment where children are encouraged to learn and explore using all five of their senses.
An annual unit on butterflies involves the children adopting several caterpillars for their classroom, so they can watch them create their chrysalises and then emerge as butterflies. As a math and art component, the children would then learn about symmetry by creating process-led butterfly symmetry art. Finally, each child is wrapped up loosely in toilet paper to mimic their entering a chrysalis of their own before putting on a pair of butterfly wings so they can pretend to fly.
For the week before Rosh Hashanah, KJP plans include a beekeeper demonstration, stacks of paper apples measuring the height of each child, shofar blowing, and a teacher reading the Dr. Seuss book “Ten Apples Up On Top.” Snacks will include honey cake that students bake themselves or red, green and yellow apples dipped in honey. Teachers will create a graph with the student to show their favorite apple.