ECEC Program

TBI's Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Early Childhood Education Community (ECEC) is a nurturing, responsive learning community where childhood is recognized and celebrated as a unique period of life that impacts all future development.  Essential elements in this process include contributions of individuals, families, education professionals, synagogue leadership, and the wider community.

The program recognizes that children learn and develop best as they interact within a safe environment where they feel competent and affirmed, and within an environment that they helped to create.   

The ECEC promotes learning through relationships that help children feel secure and develop self-respect, respect for others, cooperation and responsibility for the community.  The curriculum, infused with Jewish values, is based upon the best practices in the early childhood profession. The program goals include:

• Development of skills and attitudes that lead to success in school
• Creation of a sense of community
• Affirmation of the individual child and family
• Development of a Jewish identity

• Understanding of an individual’s responsibility and place in the larger community

The ECEC is an integral part of a larger community that encourages life-long learning for children, families, congregants, educational professionals, and the community at large.

We look forward to sharing a lifetime of learning and growing together in our community!

CURRICULUM 

Philosophy: The ECEC Curriculum is based on current knowledge and research of how children develop, grow, and learn. Such knowledge provides the framework for incorporating the best and most appropriate practices in early childhood education, as well as the best ways to foster growth of spiritual and moral values.  Our early childhood curriculum serves as the foundation for secular and Jewish education and Jewish life for the years following those spent in our school. The program aligns with the Pennsylvania Early Learning Standard.                                           

Overall Goals: 

Judaic

• To provide opportunities for each child to take part in an enriched Jewish life.

• To promote the partnership between the school, home, and TBI, in order to strengthen families and integrate them into congregational life. 

Social & Emotional 

• To develop a sense of self-esteem and exhibit a positive attitude toward life.
• To promote skills of independence, self-confidence, self-control, & responsibility. 

• To recognize the intrinsic value of play and provide opportunities for cooperative, constructive, and creative play.

Intellectual

• To provide opportunities for young children to be active participants in their own learning process, constructing their own best way to learn through varied and repeated experiences.
• To provide a continuum of skills and experiences which meet the needs of individual students, as they grow & develop within a dynamic classroom setting.
• To develop learning experiences, which engage the whole child - mind, body, and personality.
• To enable the child to explore, discover, and exert creative effort in order to problem-solve and make sense of their world through logical thinking.
• To acquire concepts and thinking leading to a fuller understanding of their world.
• To expand verbal communication skills and build on beginning skills of reading, writing, and math.

• To promote caring for and protection of our environment and the world around us.

Physical 

• To enlarge the world for each child by teaching respect for and appreciation of each human being regardless of culture, gender identity, age, religion, race, and ability.
• To promote gross and fine motor skills and apply the principles of learning through the senses.