Parent / Toddler

12-18 Month Program - Annual Tuition: $4150
18-24 Month Program - Annual Tuition: $4640

Hanna Fenichel offers a Parent & Toddler Program for children ages 12 months to 2 years of age where the child attends each class with a parent. Parents gradually separate from their children in the spring and meet with our parent educator on the Hanna campus.

Goals for the Toddler Program are as follows: To provide children with their first play group experience away from home in which:

• Developmental needs are met
• Trust is fostered
• A sense of autonomy is nurtured

To help fulfill the program’s goals, two teachers interact with 6-7 children in a creative, developmentally appropriate, and reassuring environment. The daily schedule includes indoor and outdoor exploration, snack time, music, stories, art material exploration and a goodbye gathering.

Parents stay for the duration of the class with their child and are encouraged to be aware of and follow their child’s verbal and nonverbal cues regarding separation and playing.
Meetings with our parent educator include issues relevant to parents' observations and wonderings and other topics related to early childhood development.

Goals for the Parent Group Discussions are as follows:

• To relate and reflect on parenting experiences and provide parents with a support system
• To explore similarities and differences, challenges and successes, and share experiences to learn from one another
• To use research about child development to increase understanding of their experiences
• To discuss developmentally appropriate techniques for discipline, sibling interaction, and more. All in a non-judgmental and compassionate environment
• To provide parents with an opportunity to observe thei child in interaction with peers, teachers, and other adults
  

Transition

*Hours: 2 Days a Week - 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Annual Tuition: $8400

The Hanna Fenichel Center offers a bi-weekly transitional program for children ages 2–3 years of age to support children in separating from primary caregivers and to comfortably settle into our preschool environment. Children entering into the Transition Program will remain with the same peer group for their Transition & 3 Day school years. The teacher/child ratio for these Programs is 1:4 or 1:5.
Goals for the Transition Program are as follows:

• To provide a safe, caring environment, which fosters growth and the development of positive social interactions
• To support and enhance wonderings and curiosities about the world
• To encourage independence and self-exploration
• To provide individual and group learning experiences
• To expose children to a myriad of open-ended materials that invite exploration and discovery

To help fulfill these goals, teachers interact with a group of 12-13 children in a loving and supportive manner and offer a daily schedule that includes a morning gathering, indoor and outdoor explorations, art studio invitations, a community snack, and a goodbye gathering.

Educators encourage a sense of autonomy in children by providing an environment that is rich with inspirational materials that offer independent and group interaction. Educators listen closely to children’s ideas in order to deepen and extend their play.

At Hanna, we place high value on a smooth transition from home to school through home visits, Social Stories, classroom tours, and individual family guidance. Parents are encouraged to work with their teachers during the transition/separation process and we respect that the timing will vary for each child.

3 Day

*Hours: 3 Days a Week - 9:00 am to 12:30 p.m.

Annual Tuition: $9070 or $10330 (Extended Day)

The Hanna Fenichel Center Center offers a 3 Day program for children 3-4 years of age. This program is designed for children to begin exploring projects and investigations that are based on their curiosities about the world around them. Discovering and experimenting is viewed as learning and is essential to development. The classrooms provide open-ended possibilities. This emergent curriculum supplies experiential opportunities for making observations, asking questions, and testing hypotheses. In this way, children can develop the skills essential for future learning by way of discovering the many ways these skills can be implemented in different environments.
Goals for the 3 Day Program are as follows: Social Growth:

• To gain respect for the rights and feelings of others
• To foster cooperative play situations
• To develop and expand conflict-resolution skills

Emotional Growth:

• To encourage independent thought and understanding of feelings and behaviors
• To support the expression of emotions
• To gain consideration for others
• To provide support in the process of separation

Cognitive Growth:

• To facilitate the development of each child’s ability to think logically
• To use words and ideas clearly and to apply knowledge
• To provide an environment rich in opportunities as an avenue to practice skills necessary for future success
• To ask questions and follow lines of inquiry

Physical Growth:

• To facilitate the development of small and large motor skills

To achieve these goals, the program offers a welcome meeting, indoor and outdoor exploration, community snack, small group and large group investigations, and a goodbye gathering.

Prekindergarten

*Hours: Monday through Thursday from 8:50 a.m. to 1:20 p.m., Fridays from 8:50 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Annual Tuition: $15,000

Hanna's Prekindergarten program is for children 4-5 years of age and the classes are made up of 13-14 children with two educators. This program is designed for children to explore projects and investigations more deeply and to prepare children for their transition into kindergarten. Our classrooms provide an open-ended, emergent curriculum with many opportunities for making observations, asking questions, and testing hypotheses arising from direct experience. Discovery and experimentation is key learning and essential to multi-level development. This program, as in all our classrooms, seeks to help children develop a positive disposition toward future learning environments.
The goals of the Prekindergarten Program are as follows:
Social & Emotional Growth:

• To gain respect for the rights and feelings of others
• To foster cooperative play
• To develop and expand conflict resolution skills
• To encourage independent thought and understanding of feelings and behaviors
• To support the expression of emotion

Intellectual Growth:

• To facilitate the development of each child’s ability to think logically
• To use words and ideas clearly and to apply knowledge
• To provide an environment rich in opportunities to practice skills necessary for future academic success
• To ask questions and follow lines of inquiry

Physical Growth:

• To facilitate the development of small and large motor skills through daily play and the daily use of classroom materials
• Support hand skills, such as proper pencil/tool positioning, essential for handwriting

Kindergarten Readiness:

• Alphabet and numerical recognition
• Early phonemic awareness
• Ability to write and recognize own name and other important words/names in the child's experiences
• Group turn-taking skills
• Learning collaboration and collective group agreement strategies.
  To achieve these goals, the program offers a morning gathering and storytime, a Reflection Meeting, indoor and outdoor explorations, open snack time, small and large group learning groups, and a goodbye gathering.
  

Garden Classroom

Our Garden Classroom, located in our upper outdoor space, is serenly shaded by a bountiful pepper tree and constructed of repurposed building materials. The area is primarily focused on providing our children with a natural environment for collaborative exploration of nature. Abundant raw materials (such as stones, sticks and pinecones), along with other loose parts and compostables are examples of the organic composition that makes the Garden Classroom such a special place for exploration and discovery. Here, children are encouraged to work together, imploring their imaginations to discover the world's physical elements. Examples of discovery include children working in the mud kitchen, maintaining the raised garden beds, bird and lizard watching, examining insects through microscopes, and much more. Our explorations are deepened by plenty of books and music. Smokey and Marshmallow, friendly rabbits and members of our school family, live in the garden and are tenderly cared for by the children of the school.