Contact Information:
Ellen Zames
Program Coordinator
Hagedorn Family Resource Center
120 Greenwich Street
Hempstead, NY 11550

Telephone: 516-483-3776
Fax: 516-483-5023
Email: ezames@familyandchildrens.org

La Escuelita, The Little School, opened in the Fall of 2006.  This program is a dual language Universal Pre Kindergarten program for 4 year old children who live in the Hempstead School District and are from primarily Spanish-speaking homes.  The program was developed to help these children not only develop school readiness skills for kindergarten, but also to facilitate their acquisition of English. The program builds on the strengths the children bring with them and uses their knowledge of Spanish to help build a bridge to English language learning.  Further, because bilingualism is valued, the program works to maintain and further develop the children's native language.    Throughout the school year we encourage parent participation which includes providing opportunities for them to share with us their individual cultural background.  We foster the importance of each child’s family customs and also introduce new ideas to stress the importance of diversity in our school and community. Having children enter this program the year prior to kindergarten will help pave the way for future academic success.

Educational Approach

Our curriculum builds on the skills and knowledge that the children bring with them to school in order to facilitate their social/emotional, physical and cognitive growth.  We feel the most effective way to do this is through the early childhood educational model of being “child-centered.”  For our program, a child-centered model has the following characteristics: 

1.) A physical environment that strengthens the developing skills and interests of the children as well as introduces new concepts.

2.) A daily schedule and weekly lesson plans that incorporate both free choice time during which children have access to explore the different learning centers as well as individual, small group and large group activities. 

The schedule and activities are carefully planned by teachers but always take into account children’s interests and skills as a source for future planning.

The Learning Centers include:

• Library/Listening
• Writing
• Computers
• Block Building/Construction
• Art
• Dramatic Play
• Math/Manipulatives
• Science/Sensory

The program is designed for each child to learn all the necessary skills and understandings to succeed in Kindergarten and continue to thrive academically and socially.

The Environment

The La Escuelita classroom is a print rich environment where all objects in the room are labeled in both Spanish and English.  It is important that preschool children see the written word surrounding them.  Having the labeling done in both Spanish and English is a great way to reinforce the importance of bilingualism.

La Escuelita is supported in part by a New York State Early Childhood Innovative program grant and fund from the Rauch Foundation.  The program collaborates with the NYS Department of Education as well as the NYS Office of Children and Family Services.  The program director reports, “We have seen a great desire for the parents to become more involved in their children’s learning experience.  We believe this is due to the fact that they can develop relationships with program staff that is full bilingual and therefore feel that they can be an active part of the process.”

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