BETH ISRAEL DANCERS—From left, Ashley McCann, Violet Kriefels, Eva Muir and Zadie Schaffer enjoy dance class at Temple Beth Israel. What began as an experimental program to meet preschoolers’ needs has grown into a range of specialty classes at the Reform congregation in Northwest Portland. Winter and spring classes are open to the community.

Specialty classes enhance preschoolers’ days

By Jewish Review

Over the past four years, the Department of Early Childhood Education at Congregation Beth Israel has developed enhancement programming beyond the preschool to meet the needs of parents and children in the community.

What began in early 2004 as an experimental program has blossomed into a range of offerings created for parents and their young children.

“The objective of these programs is to bring young families together in the synagogue setting in order connect with other Jewish families and to begin to develop social bonds within our Temple community,” said Shelley Sanders, Beth Israel’s early childhood education director since 1999.

The popularity of two of this fall’s classes prompted the addition of winter and spring sessions.

Temple Tots and Tunes, a weekly creative music series held on Friday mornings, features early childhood music and movement specialist Philippa Kaplan and introduces simple percussions to parents and their children as they sing and move to Jewish and secular songs, rhythmic chants and dances. Each session also includes an Oneg Shabbat. The course is aimed at children ages 15 months to 3 years and requires parent participation.

Temple’s Tumbling Tots is an introductory gymnastics program for active toddlers ages 18-28 months. Taught on Monday mornings by Debbie Sackett of Kinderdance, the class blends physical skills of creative movement, gymnastics, fitness and dance with educational concepts, including language development and socialization.

Registration is now open for both classes for both the winter session (January-March 2008) and spring session (April-May).

Since parents also need some time away from their children, Beth Israel has added a weekly adult Yoga class to this year’s enhancement line-up. Taught by Rachel Stern, a certified yoga teacher with the Yoga Alliance, the class offers parents a chance to center mind and body in a quiet setting.

Stern has been studying yoga since age 2, received her 200-hour teacher certification in interdisciplinary yoga from the Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica and is continuing her training at Amrita: a Sanctuary for Yoga, in Portland. She has studied a variety of yoga styles including Hatha, Vinyasa, Ashtanga, Anusara and Kripalu primarily, and integrates aspects of those styles along with others into her classes.

“I believe that yoga is an inquiry into the body. I encourage students to experiment with movement and breath to unlock the mysteries of the body and infuse the spirit with wisdom,” Stern said. “I make my classes fun and non-dogmatic. We include breath work, restorative postures, gentle and vigorous flows, sun salutations and more.”

Classes are offered weekly on Tuesday mornings through March with drop-in options available.

All classes are open to the community. For registration information including class fees, dates and times, contact Shelley Sanders at 503-222-2037 or shelley@bethisrael-pdx.org.