Our Classes
Infants
We have two infant classes: Infant I for the younger infants and Infant II for the older infants. Our teacher to child ratio is 1:3, lower than the state's requirement of 1:4.
Infant I is our classroom for younger infants, students are aged 6 weeks and older. The Infant I class focuses on helping infants reach developmental goals that are important in the first months of life. Our classroom has many age appropriate toys for the children to play with in a carpeted area at the front of our classroom, and an area at the back where the infants can sleep undisturbed. In the Infant I room teachers follow the feeding and sleeping schedule you set for your child, to help accommodate the schedule you have at home.
Infant II is our classroom for the older, mobile infants (from around 9 months till 18 months). In this classroom there are many toys available for the children to explore: a kitchen area, a reading corner and wide open spaces for children to practice their walking and crawling skills. In this class, the children are exposed to different experiences throughout the day that revolve around the different skills developing at this stage. The class follows a universal schedule so that the children can all eat, play and nap together.
Tots
Our Tot classroom is for children aged about 18 months to 2 years of age. We have two teachers in this classroom and a teacher to child ratio of 1:5, lower than the state's 1:6 requirement.
The Tots classroom has monthly themes they follow such as: Getting to Know Each Other, Health and Nutrition and Fairytales. The classroom offers engaging toys, a pretend play kitchen area, reading area and sensory table. Children also experiment daily with manipulatives which help improve their fine motor skills, and also have daily artistic activities designed to foster creativity. American Sign Language is taught during the day as well. Healthy eating is encouraged and we offer seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables as snacks. Children play outside three times a day, weather permitting, in our outdoor playground or indoors in our indoor play area.
Toddlers
In order to maximize the opportunity for development with our Toddlers, we offer an environment that is safe for exploration and movement, but challenging enough to provide a wide range of activities. We encourage children to solve problems, make choices and practice self-help skills. We empower them with independence and self-reliance. They will discover that they can make things happen. This increased awareness occurs while the children are enjoying sand/water play, toy riding, shape sorting, block building, kitchen play, dressing up, coloring, cutting and much more.
Pre-school
The preschool years are a time when children begin to develop a keen understanding of themselves and a heightened awareness of the world around them. Our preschool program provides the opportunity for successful experiences in social, cognitive, creative, physical and communicative growth while maintaining the safe and nurturing environment essential to learning. Children engaged in, and learn about, targeted subjects through active participation in literacy activities, dramatic play, math manipulatives, computer activities, block building, art and sensory.In Preschool the children start learning the letter sounds with Jolly Phonics. Jolly Phonics is a fun and child centered approach to teaching literacy through synthetic phonics. Students also practice mental math and learn both Spanish and American Sign Language.
Pre-K
Pre-K is a time of rapid growth and development. It’s a year of preparation for kindergarten and for future success in school and in life.
To achieve, children need to be imaginative, independent, and actively involved in their own learning. In the East Hanover Child Care Center, the children entering Kindergarten the following year will participate in the Handwriting
Without Tears/Get Set For School curriculum.
This child-friendly, developmentally appropriate program has won two prestigious national education awards—The Children’s Curriculum and The Teacher’s Choice.
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For more information, please check out the
program’s web-site at: www.hwtears.com.
Activities are designed to develop each child-academically, socially and emotionally-and create a foundation of skills upon which all future learning is built. The teachers incorporate math and reading skills into a developmentally based curriculum. With a combination of teacher-directed and child-directed activities, the teachers use the child’s natural curiosity to promote learning and discovery in learning centers such as: reading, writing, math, art & sensory, manipulatives, block play, house keeping, science and computers.
Get Set for School
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Multi sensory approach that addresses different learning styles and invites active participation.
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Developmental progression builds on what children have previously learned.
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Difficult concepts are broken into simple tasks.
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Built around the belief that every child can achieve.
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Uses really cool materials that make children want to learn.
During circle time or small group we have multi-sensory lessons centered around language, literacy, and math. Children play, build, sing, color, and learn, utilizing specially designed materials while developing important skills for kindergarten.
The school readiness program blends our daily developmentally appropriate activities with the Get Set For School& curriculum.