The Nadel Center for Early Childhood Education (NCECE) has earned the distinction of being an APPLE accredited school. (Accredited Professional Preschool Learning Environment). This is a national early learning program accreditation and is accepted into the Gold Seal of Quality program. We are 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.
Our curriculum is based on a developmental approach where are our students are taught through play and hands-on, structured activities that promote creativity and self-expression. We encourage them to have fun, make discoveries, overcome new challenges, meet new friends and learn self-help skills.
Our students learn gross and fine motor skills, cognitive and social-emotional skills, language development as well as social studies, science and Judaic themes. They will be more than prepared for the primary grades ahead of them, academically as well as socially and emotionally.
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 and explore our Feldman Children’s Library. 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 its 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, watercolor 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, Havdalah 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.
The Nadel Center for Early Childhood Education (NCECE) at Congregation B’nai Israel was founded in October of 1989 and has grown to a program serving approximately 500 children and their families from 2 months to Pre-K.
Our dedicated staff nurtures and guides each student to foster a lifelong enthusiasm for learning. We believe that parents play a valuable part in the process. Your cooperation and input in school, plus your support at home, are all a part of the success of our program.
