Tehiyah Day School
Encyclopedia
Tehiyah Day School is an independent Jewish day school with classes from Bridge-Kindergarten through 8th Grade Jewish day school
in El Cerrito, California
.
Tehiyah Day School is committed to educating youth from all backgrounds and socioeconomic levels to be knowledgeable future leaders in their communities (half of our families receive financial assistance). Our students are happy, confident, compassionate, and unique individuals. Tehiyah graduates are well prepared for high school, college, and beyond.
Tehiyah Day School emphasizes active learning, critical thinking, and creativity with respect for individual differences among students. Tehiyah holds high expectations for all students and believes that a highly integrated curriculum best meets the students’ educational needs. To help each student realize his or her individual potential, Tehiyah’s comprehensive educational program supports the academic, Judaic, creative, physical, cultural, spiritual, and emotional growth of students.
Students benefit from a curriculum that includes mathematics, language arts, history, physical sciences, Judaic studies, Hebrew, computer technology, art, music, creative arts, physical education and extracurricular activities such as sports, drama, and student council. Both Hebrew and English are used as languages of instruction.
At Tehiyah, hands-on lessons and experiential learning integrate with curriculum, reinforcing learning in all modalities. For example, third-graders study arthropods, observe spiders in Tehiyah's garden, attempt to weave their own orb webs, map spiders and webs in their home’s gardens, make spider pretzels as a cooking project, study spelling words that include parts of a spider’s body, read and write stories about spiders, sketch them in their science journals, and hear the Bible story about how King David’s life was saved by a spider building a web across the threshold of the cave he was hiding in.
To become compassionate members of the world, Tehiyah students learn about the importance of giving back to their community, and charitable projects regularly permeate the school. Seventh-graders spend the entire year forming charitable foundations, identifying needs, and raising money for selected causes. As the culmination of their efforts, they present fundraising checks to non-profit organizations at a major assembly. Eighth-graders do community service in a variety of local settings to “live the curriculum” and support the school’s core values.
Overnight trips occur every year beginning in third grade, and include visits to a working farm to learn about the environment, a week at a living-history camp working and living as California gold miners, and longer distance trips for middle school students to Oregon for the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, Washington, D.C., and Israel. Each of these trips is integrated into the curriculum for its grade, and students fully understand the issues they will learn about and their importance to their lives, their world, and their education.
Tehiyah is not affiliated with any Jewish denomination or movement. It provides both a secular and religious education to its students, including a myriad of enrichment classes. The curriculum incorporates Jewish values and history. The school observes Jewish holidays, and is noted in the community for its annual Purim
carnival. Tehiyah has an active visual and performing arts department, as well as a concerted focus on programs in math, science, and the humanities. All students are required to study the Hebrew language
. Additionally, Tehiyah has an after school program that incorporates additional enrichment classes.
hills
, and has steadily grown since its inception, including the addition of classrooms, administrative and meeting spaces, a new computer lab, a gymnasium/multi-purpose building, and a full catering kitchen. The school’s library features over 18,000 titles include more than a thousand written in Hebrew, and more than 1200 fiction and nonfiction Judaica titles.
The campus is accessible by public transportation from AC Transit's
line 7 Arlington connecting the school with Richmond
, Berkeley
, and Oakland
, in addition to BART
(Bay Area Rapid Transit) stations in El Cerrito
and Berkeley
, soccer, cross country, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball
. All students are required to participate in the school’s physical education program during the school day.
Day school
A day school—as opposed to a boarding school—is an institution where children are given educational instruction during the day and after which children/teens return to their homes...
in El Cerrito, California
El Cerrito, Contra Costa County, California
-Transportation:The city's primary transportation infrastructure consists of the El Cerrito Plaza and El Cerrito del Norte BART stations along with several local bus lines, operated by AC Transit, providing access to the surrounding area and the nearby cities of Albany, Berkeley and Richmond...
.
History
Tehiyah Day School was founded in 1979 with a dual commitment to excellence in general studies and Jewish education. Tehiyah purchased its current site in 1984, expanding it to include new classrooms, library, science and computer labs, gymnasium/auditorium, music room, chapel, and kitchen. Our school now offers a complete program of instruction in Pre-K through eighth grade; we welcomed the first class to our new bridge-kindergarten program this year.Tehiyah Day School is committed to educating youth from all backgrounds and socioeconomic levels to be knowledgeable future leaders in their communities (half of our families receive financial assistance). Our students are happy, confident, compassionate, and unique individuals. Tehiyah graduates are well prepared for high school, college, and beyond.
Academics
Tehiyah's approach to learning, its philosophy of integrated curriculum and educating in different modalities, and its tradition of graduating socially responsible students are three of its most important strengths. Tehiyah students are empowered to become critical and creative thinkers, problem solvers, and good citizens. Students apply their teachers' lessons in active ways in the classrooms and when they journey off-campus for an extensive array of one-day field trips and longer overnight trips.Tehiyah Day School emphasizes active learning, critical thinking, and creativity with respect for individual differences among students. Tehiyah holds high expectations for all students and believes that a highly integrated curriculum best meets the students’ educational needs. To help each student realize his or her individual potential, Tehiyah’s comprehensive educational program supports the academic, Judaic, creative, physical, cultural, spiritual, and emotional growth of students.
Students benefit from a curriculum that includes mathematics, language arts, history, physical sciences, Judaic studies, Hebrew, computer technology, art, music, creative arts, physical education and extracurricular activities such as sports, drama, and student council. Both Hebrew and English are used as languages of instruction.
At Tehiyah, hands-on lessons and experiential learning integrate with curriculum, reinforcing learning in all modalities. For example, third-graders study arthropods, observe spiders in Tehiyah's garden, attempt to weave their own orb webs, map spiders and webs in their home’s gardens, make spider pretzels as a cooking project, study spelling words that include parts of a spider’s body, read and write stories about spiders, sketch them in their science journals, and hear the Bible story about how King David’s life was saved by a spider building a web across the threshold of the cave he was hiding in.
To become compassionate members of the world, Tehiyah students learn about the importance of giving back to their community, and charitable projects regularly permeate the school. Seventh-graders spend the entire year forming charitable foundations, identifying needs, and raising money for selected causes. As the culmination of their efforts, they present fundraising checks to non-profit organizations at a major assembly. Eighth-graders do community service in a variety of local settings to “live the curriculum” and support the school’s core values.
Overnight trips occur every year beginning in third grade, and include visits to a working farm to learn about the environment, a week at a living-history camp working and living as California gold miners, and longer distance trips for middle school students to Oregon for the Ashland Shakespeare Festival, Washington, D.C., and Israel. Each of these trips is integrated into the curriculum for its grade, and students fully understand the issues they will learn about and their importance to their lives, their world, and their education.
Tehiyah is not affiliated with any Jewish denomination or movement. It provides both a secular and religious education to its students, including a myriad of enrichment classes. The curriculum incorporates Jewish values and history. The school observes Jewish holidays, and is noted in the community for its annual Purim
Purim
Purim is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people in the ancient Persian Empire from destruction in the wake of a plot by Haman, a story recorded in the Biblical Book of Esther .Purim is celebrated annually according to the Hebrew calendar on the 14th...
carnival. Tehiyah has an active visual and performing arts department, as well as a concerted focus on programs in math, science, and the humanities. All students are required to study the Hebrew language
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
. Additionally, Tehiyah has an after school program that incorporates additional enrichment classes.
Facilities
The 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) campus is located in El CerritoEl Cerrito, Contra Costa County, California
-Transportation:The city's primary transportation infrastructure consists of the El Cerrito Plaza and El Cerrito del Norte BART stations along with several local bus lines, operated by AC Transit, providing access to the surrounding area and the nearby cities of Albany, Berkeley and Richmond...
hills
Berkeley Hills
The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that surrounds San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" , but with the establishment of Berkeley and the University of California, the current usage was...
, and has steadily grown since its inception, including the addition of classrooms, administrative and meeting spaces, a new computer lab, a gymnasium/multi-purpose building, and a full catering kitchen. The school’s library features over 18,000 titles include more than a thousand written in Hebrew, and more than 1200 fiction and nonfiction Judaica titles.
The campus is accessible by public transportation from AC Transit's
AC Transit
AC Transit is an Oakland-based regional public transit agency serving the western half of Alameda County and parts of western Contra Costa County in the western, Bay-side area of the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area...
line 7 Arlington connecting the school with Richmond
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905. It is located in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a residential inner suburb of San Francisco, as well as the site of heavy industry, which has been...
, Berkeley
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, and Oakland
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, in addition to BART
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...
(Bay Area Rapid Transit) stations in El Cerrito
El Cerrito del Norte (BART station)
El Cerrito del Norte, frequenly shorterned to del Norte, is one of two BART stations in El Cerrito, California, just east of the Cutting Boulevard interchange of Interstate 80 parallel to San Pablo Avenue and the Ohlone Greenway straddling the Richmond border. Del Norte opened to revenue service on...
and Berkeley
Downtown Berkeley (BART station)
Downtown Berkeley is a Bay Area Rapid Transit station located on Shattuck Avenue, between Allston Way and Addison Street in Downtown Berkeley, California. Signs in the station itself read simply Berkeley, per se the original name of the station...
Athletics
Tehiyah’s athletic program is one of the strongest programs in the Independent School League. Sports teams include basketball, flag footballFlag football
Flag football is a version of Canadian football or American football that is popular worldwide. The basic rules of the game are similar to those of the mainstream game , but instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier to end...
, soccer, cross country, ultimate frisbee, and volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
. All students are required to participate in the school’s physical education program during the school day.