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the diversity of their present and the possibilities for their future.

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Grades 1-5 Learn How to be a Social Detective
  • Lower School
  • Social Emotional Skills

We are excited to welcome Ronit Ripes back to CJDS to continue to teach Social Thinking in our Grades 1-5 classrooms (Grades JK and K will have another specialist that will be introduced soon).

Ronit is a speech-language pathologist who comes to us through REACH, a Jewish community organization that supports Jewish day schools with the tools they need to meet the varied needs of students. She has been acting as a coach for our CJDS Reach team and also works with our students, teaching a social thinking curriculum called You Are a Social Detective. 

This social thinking curriculum teaches learners the power of observation, reading context, and interpreting clues to then eventually choose how to respond in ways that meet their social goals. We hope to establish a basic working knowledge of social-emotional concepts and give students and staff a common vocabulary that they can use to communicate together.

Students will learn to: 

  • Observe, gather, and make sense of the clues in different social contexts to figure out the hidden rules for expected behaviors

  • Understand how we each feel and think about what others say and do in a situation.

  • Learn formulas for gathering clues by observing a setting, the situation, and the people in it

  • Be empowered to figure out how the social world works through their own detective lens

  • Learn to identify feelings and emotions and connect them to behaviors

  • Understand that all feelings are okay, even confused ones, and we can still learn and grow

  • See examples and tips for school, home, and community life

  • Celebrate how all of us are social observers who are affected by others’ actions and reactions

We're excited for students to benefit from Ronit's weekly curriculum in both the short and long term.