The classroom holiday instruction is designed to review the basic blessings and story that is associated with the holiday while changing the lens through which the students study the holiday. Each grade looks at the holiday through a different lens, thereby offering the students the opportunity to build on the information from the previous years experiences. For the teachers, this philosophy offers the opportunity to make every child's classroom experience of the holiday a new and fresh learning experience. The holiday program curriculum at the HDS is designed to ensure that the HDS students experience developmentally appropriate holiday celebrations through programs reinforcing each student's multiple learning styles. The holiday programs are expected to support and compliment the holiday instruction that is done in class prior to each program.
Some communities are by class, some by grade, some by age group, and some by whole school.
In some cases the students may repeat a similar program that they might have previously experienced. In these cases, the goal for the holiday is shifted from experiencing something new to increasing the students' Judaic self-confidence while enabling them to build on the previous experience. In the middle school years the students develop, identify and nurture the necessary skills to take a leadership role in the celebration of the holidays. It begins by taking a leadership role in home celebration, followed by synagogue celebration, and culminating by taking a leadership role in the many senior housing facilities in our local community.