Hilltop Nursery School Infant & Toddler Program began in September of 1991, and is licensed by New Jersey’s Department of Human Services. We make it a priority to exceed the requirements that are set for quality care by our licensing division. Hilltop Nursery School’s level of cleanliness by far exceeds what is required by the Health Department. Our school is regularly inspected by these divisions, and consistently meets their standards.
After several additions, Hilltop Nursery School is proud to offer 9 separate classrooms that are appropriately equipped for infants and toddlers. This gives our school the ability to group the children in small, developmentally appropriate classrooms. Your child would be placed with a group of children who are at the same stage of development. This allows them to grow and learn together as well as relate to one another socially.
Hilltop Nursery School’s infant and toddler classrooms base their learning experiences and daily activities on a combination of the “Creative Curriculum for Infants, Toddlers and Twos,” and our own set of goals and standards for the development of our students. Our qualified and caring teachers plan and carryout age appropriate learning activities and experiences that are overseen and approved by our board of directors. Our teachers use the “readiness approach.” At no time are the children discouraged or reproached for not understanding a concept being discussed.
Daily charts are sent home to keep you informed of your child’s daily activities as well as your child’s feeding, sleeping, and diapering schedule.
Young Infant Room:
Our beautiful infant room has the ideal set-up to accommodate our youngest of students. The room is divided into two sections, the “Active Room” and the “Quiet Room.” Since all of the babies in this class eat and sleep on demand, we are very excited that we can offer these two different spaces to meet their individual needs.
A sleepy child can be fed a bottle and rocked to sleep in our “Quiet Room” and be placed in his/her own crib to sleep quietly. Soothing music is also played to help the children sleep.
Our “Active Room” is where the children spend their waking hours. In this bright and cheery room, the children can play, eat their meals, and get their frequent diaper changes. Hilltop provides a vast array of age-appropriate toys for the infants as well as “excer-saucers,” play mats, and push toys that encourage gross motor development and fun! All toys are disinfected after each use to ensure a high level of cleanliness.
Even the babies have “curriculum” goals at Hilltop Nursery School. Our infant room staff is always on the floor with the babies making sure they get ample “tummy time” and extra help while learning to crawl and walk. You will also see our staff repeating words clearly to children to help to encourage their speech development. We even introduce some sign-language to our infants to help them learn how to express their needs. Books are read daily and music is enjoyed throughout the day.
Fresh air and outdoor recreation is important for children of ALL ages. To provide these experiences to our infants we take them out on frequent buggy rides as well as bring them onto their designated play area outside.
The children’s individual supplies are conveniently stored around the room for easy access. Each child has a designated spot for his/her diaper bag, as well as a basket in the refrigerator for food storage, and a “cubbie” near the changing station to store their diapers and wipes.
Older Infants & Woddler Rooms:
Our Older Infant & Woddler Rooms are designed for children starting to explore. During this exciting time in their development they are eager to keep active with educational play. Each of these three classrooms can accommodate a class size of twelve children; which helps to keep the classes small and the individual attention that the children receive very high.
The children in these classes have a uniform schedule. The children do their teacher planned activities, eating, diapering, sleeping, and outdoor play together.
Our caring teachers and assistants in these rooms are always encouraging the continued development of the children. Our curriculum follows through with sign language development as well as language development. One of the biggest goals for children in this age group is developing their speech skills as well as working on their gross motor skills.
A child’s coordination abilities are growing at an unstoppable pace during this stage of their development. It is imperative to their growth that they are offered experiences that involve every part of their body to work together. Hilltop helps to foster this aspect of their development by incorporating gross-motor movement throughout the day. The children will be encouraged to dance and sing to appropriate and fun children’s music. We will also bring the children outside as often as possible to run, jump, climb, ride, and explore our large and age-appropriate playgrounds.
Like all children at Hilltop, our Older Infants and Woddlers learn through play and exploration. Age appropriate lesson plans are developed by each classrooms teacher and regularly monitored by the administrative staff for growth and development appropriateness. Because each teacher is responsible for these duties, it enables the children to be doing activities that are extremely appropriate for their needs and interests. For example, if the class enjoys a topic, the teacher can expand the learning time spent on it. If they pick up on a new skill quickly, they can move on to a new one as soon as they are ready. We feel that because there is not a stringent lesson plan schedule, our classes are able to meet the individual needs of the students as well as the overall classroom goals in a more fun and relaxed way.
Toddlers:
There is so much to do when you are a Toddler at Hilltop Nursery School! This stage of learning is the most important in a child’s life, and we work very hard to encourage positive growth in every one of our students. So much of their learning is accomplished through play and fun activities. There are many times during the day when the children can choose a desired activity, however the classes do have a structured daily schedule and routine.
The children do art projects daily. Not only are they creating individual “works of art,” they are expanding their imagination, developing fine motor skills, and learning to listen to and follow directions. During art we can also reinforce using our senses to identify colors, shapes, and even different textures.
The children play with their friends all day long. Through this play we encourage positive social skills like empathy, sharing, taking turns, kindness, good manners, and communication skills.
The children have outside play on our playgrounds. During this time they can socialize with their peers while they get fresh air and exercise. Which is not only good for their health and physical fitness, but also aides in their gross motor skill development. Not to mention that the children love to play on our large and well-equipped playgrounds.
A child’s sense of independence and growing self-help skills are essential to their future successes in school and life. We encourage children of all ages to grow in their ability to perform tasks on their own. One of the most important of these skills is becoming toilet trained. Toilet training is a major part of our daily schedule and over-all goals. Our staff members make it a priority to encourage children to use the bathroom and graduate from being dependant on diapers to having independent bathroom skills.
An example of a woddler and/or toddler classroom schedule is below:
- 7:30 to 8:30 Arrival & Breakfast Time
- 8:30 to 9:00 Playing With Manipulative & Creative Toys
- 9:00 to 9:30 Diaper Changing and Washing Up
- 9:30 to 9:45 Circle and Story Time
- 9:45 to 10:00 Snack Time
- 10:00 to 10:15 Art Time
- 10:15 to 10:45 Outside or Gross Motor Activity Time
- 10:45 to 11:15 Diaper Changing Time and Washing Up for Lunch Time
- 11:15 to 12:00 Lunch Time
- 12:00 to 12:30 Washing Up From Lunch and Getting Ready for Rest Time
- 12:30 to 2:30 Rest Time
- 2:30 to 3:00 Diaper Changing and Washing Up
- 3:00 to 3:15 Snack Time
- 3:15 to 3:30 Story Time
- 3:30 to 4:00 Manipulative Play, Books, and Puzzles
- 4:00 to Dismissal Diaper Changing as Needed and Outdoor Play
