Programs & VPK
Our school is located on the six acre grounds of Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton. Our program begins with our Baby Center classes and continues on through Pre-K. Classrooms are bright and each has its own bathroom. All classrooms are equipped with touch screen computers, printers, and an intercom connected directly to the school office.
Our Facilities and Programs Include:
The Feldman Children’s Library is an extensive lending library with a wide variety of Judaic and children’s books. It also includes an online catalog, bibliotherapy and listening centers.
Music classes are held by our music specialist in our music room, providing children the opportunity to dance, march, and sing.
Physical Education and gross motor activities take place in our Zimmerman Family North Social Hall with our physical education teacher and outside in one of our expansive open areas.
We have five safe outside play areas for the children: our Rainforest, Imagination, Riding Toys, Toddler Area and Traditional playgrounds.
Our computer lab is equipped with state-of-the-art computers and a large screen television for virtual field trips and other large-group learning experiences.
Yoga classes are provided weekly by our yoga teacher to develop children’s physical, cognitive and spiritual well-being.
Our hands-on science specialist enriches the in-classroom science curriculum in our science areas and in our environmental garden.
Pre-K children take an eight-week personal safety course provided by KidSafe Foundation. KidSafe is a personal safety program presented in our Pre-K classes.
Our sensory specialist helps children to explore materials in our sensory room using their senses with intention and purpose.
Mindful Awareness for Pre-K (MAP) is a program presented by our school psychologist, that helps children self-regulate and channel their energies and focus on the task at hand.
Our Curriculum:
Nadel Center for Early Childhood Education has earned the distinction being an APPLE accredited school. (Accredited Professional Preschool Learning Environment). This is a national early learning program accreditation. APPLE is accepted into the Gold Seal of Quality program. Congregation B’nai Israel’s Nadel Center for Early Childhood Education is dedicated to maximizing each child’s potential by helping them develop their cognitive, motor, social/emotional and self-help skills while giving them a strong sense of identity through spiritual learning. We focus on building the total child by being a school of excellence, and in the process, our children teach us.
This is more than learning. It is learning how to learn. The skills our children develop today will become the foundation for a lifetime. These skills include organization, focus, perseverance and problem solving. Our children become comfortable with concepts from the worlds of social studies, science, math, language and computers. They learn reading readiness, and when they’re ready, they learn to read. They participate in a hands-on science program. They travel around the globe, sometimes without leaving the classroom, other times by taking local field trips, and they farm an “Environmental Awareness Garden” adjacent to one of our playgrounds. They broaden their horizons. They leave us much more knowledgeable than when they arrived. But they don’t think of it as having handled the work of learning, they think of it as having fun.
Meeting our mission to maximize potential requires that we help our children prepare their bodies as well as their minds.
Gross motor skills are critical to building strong minds and bodies that are ready to learn. To meet this goal, we have five different playgrounds, each with it’s own gross motor and social skills focus. Our physical education and yoga teachers join our classroom teachers to develop our children’s upper body strength, lower body strength, core body strength, coordination and balance. They also sharpen their pretending skills.
Fine motor skills prepare our children for self-help skills and for learning to write. Our curriculum features activities like finger painting, easel painting, water color painting, gluing, cutting, crunching and more. In later years, students participate in our stroke curriculum, writing letters of the alphabet, dictating skills and writing daily journals.
Our Self-Help Curriculum takes our children on the journey from dependence on parents and caregivers to self-reliance with a strong self-image and positive attitude. Our children have a strong sense of “can do” that serves them well throughout their lives.
Parents marvel as their children get on stage to perform, get on school buses for field trips, put on their own coats, wash and dry their own hands and put away their toys. Our children live up to our high expectations in an atmosphere of nurturing and support.
Our children are the center of our world. But they need to learn how to thrive in the world with others. This requires social and emotional skills.To accomplish this, we help them feel comfortable separating from their mothers and/or fathers, learning in a group situation and following “school rules.” We teach independent problem solving, sharing and getting along with others. We encourage our children as they learn from each other.
Part of maximizing potential is developing a strong sense of identity, teaching children that they have a bigger purpose in the world than immediate gratification, and beginning to develop strong values that lead to a positive life.We do this through our Judaica curriculum, which gives our children a sense of our religious heritage through concepts that are age and development-appropriate. Our children learn about the importance of Tzedekah (charitable giving) and the importance of mitzvot (performing good deeds). They learn valuable lessons from the Torah, and in Pre-K, they have regular talks with the Rabbi. They also enjoy bible stories and participate in Shabbat, Havdallah and various Jewish holidays.Through our program, our children get a strong sense of self, and a strong sense of how they fit into a bigger world.
We participate in the Voluntary Pre-K (VPK) Program through the State of Florida which reduces your tuition payments for Pre-K. For information about VPK. For more information on Pre-K classes or to register please contact Rebeca Rosenblatt.
