Early Childhood
Education Center
TE ECEC takes the typical early childhood experience from ordinary to extraordinary!
The Temple Emanu-El Early Childhood Education Center’s mission is to create a welcoming, Jewish, inquiry-based, play-driven, child-centered community empowering thinkers, innovators, and globally minded children who embrace other cultures while shaping the future.
We offer families the assurance of a safe, caring, and nurturing environment for their children and an atmosphere of support and understanding for themselves.
We view children as powerful individuals. We respect children for who they are now, as well as for their potential. We provide open-ended materials which invite and cultivate thinking, collaboration and representation of ideas. Learning is embedded in all aspects of our day through meaningful experiences and opportunities for hands-on and minds-on engagement.
The walls of the art atelier (studio), facilitated by our skilled art atelierista, are filled with children’s photographs and work. Classrooms are infused with natural light, visually-pleasing and curiosity-inducing natural materials, as well as the culinary arts teaching kitchen. All contribute to age-appropriate opportunities for our students to grow in so many ways. Our environmentally-centered school culture has earned us the distinction of being the only early childhood center in America awarded the Green Ribbon School Award. Daily practices include recycling, composting and energy awareness beginning at a very young age. Our garden, chicken coop and nature atelier model our commitment to caring for our world.
Our school’s philosophy is centered around our Jewish values, the International Baccalaureate Learner Profile and the social constructivist theory which asserts that children build meaning from the world around them. We embrace the collaborative pedagogy approaches of Reggio Emilia and the International Baccalaureate to facilitate authentic exploration opportunities with the experiential world.
We use many of today’s best developmental practices in education including, but not limited to, project-based learning, collaborative exploration and differentiated instruction. We view children as powerful individuals. We respect children for who they are now, as well as for their potential.
We provide open-ended materials which invite and cultivate thinking, collaboration and representation of ideas. Learning is embedded in all aspects of our day through meaningful experiences and opportunities for full sensory engagement. We share a powerful partnership with our parents which is vital to the success of our school and our children. We offer families the assurance of a safe, caring, and nurturing environment for their children and an atmosphere of support and understanding for themselves.
CULTURE
At Temple Emanu-El ECEC, we value our local and global community as well as the individual. In order to show respect and openness for others and their perspectives, we aim to create a safe place for an exchange of perspectives and ways of being to exist. As professionals devoted to the field of education, and seeking to leave the world a better place through our tikkun olam (repair the world) service, we strive to maintain a growth mindset approach in all that we do. With this approach, focused on growing ourselves and thus improving our communities, we create a positive, supportive and welcoming environment for all.
CREDENTIALS
Temple Emanu-El’s Early Childhood Education Center is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for having demonstrated substantial compliance and excellence with nationally recognized criteria for high-quality early childhood programs.
The ECEC is licensed by the Texas Department of Protective & Regulatory Services.
Temple Emanu-El’s Early Childhood Education Center participates in the Early Childhood Education of Reform Judaism, The North American Reggio Alliance, Dallas Association of the Education of Young Children (DAEYC), the Teacher Learning Center of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas and the Jewish Pre-school Director’s Council.
OUR STAFF
Our dedicated educators facilitate the learning process by actively listening to and observing the children. Teachers enable opportunities for discovery and problem solving, guide and document the learning process and nurture individuals and relationships. Teachers help build a sense of community in each classroom and school wide.
CONTACT US
Shelly Sender, Senior Director of Early Childhood Education
214.706.0020