Building a community

The Early Childhood Center at JFC
by Jane Weil Emmer,  Director

Building a community is my “big picture” goal at the JFC ECC this year.

I hope that you will consider helping me achieve this goal.

The children are getting to know each other; the parents are getting to know each other. The teachers are getting to know the children, and the children are learning about their teachers.  We are becoming a community, a neighborhood of learners.
 
Mister Rogers (Mr. Community himself) wrote:  “As human beings our job in life is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is, that each of us has something that no one else has – or ever will have- something inside that is unique …”

Fred Rogers defines our goal at JFC ECC, to celebrate each individual child.  At the same time, we strive to incorporate each student into our bigger community.  These are the building blocks of building our larger community of JFC, and our more global community of Jewish Leaders.

Okay, you might think that I am getting away from myself here…. but I will continue.
The first three to five years of life are a time of extraordinary brain development.  Jewish experiences lay the groundwork for a lifelong Jewish identity and create the basis upon which all future learning is built. Jewish early childhood education is about building the foundation of a strong, vibrant, joyful Jewish identity for each child.  Each child is a vibrant and important member of the larger Jewish community.   A child who lights the candles and eats challah in his classroom each week in preparation for Shabbat begins to understand the rhythm of Jewish time.
The Jewish calendar gives us a framework for our year, beginning with Rosh Hashanah.  The holidays and festivals help us to appreciate and celebrate our heritage.  Shabbat gives us a structure for our week.  Each week we celebrate Shabbat as an entire school community.  Our first Shabbat was filled with Ruach (spirit).  If you are ever in town on Friday morning, please join us at 11:15 in the sanctuary for our Ruach-filled Shabbat, and maybe you can be a special guest for our Shabbat snack.

Todah Rabbah:
Dinah, Lynn, Ellen, Alison, Debra & Laura for a great beginning!
Rabbi Carla and Cantor Kerry for helping us to celebrate Shabbat.
Jolie and Kathleen for all that they do for the ECC.
Rachel Clott and Dara Marceau for agreeing to lead our ECC Committee.
Gillian Margolin, Marjorie Schiff, Jennifer Carter, Cassie Hollander and Marina Fried for agreeing to be our class parents.
Meredith Rudin for running our Scholastic fundraiser.