Joni & Stanley Tate
Early Childhood Center
Welcome
Welcome to The Joni & Stanley Tate Early Childhood Center, at Temple Israel of Greater Miami.
Our commitment and driving force is to provide our little ones with the very best education, Jewish values and traditions, coupled with broad and diverse experiences. While we nurture a Jewish identity, we are open to all faiths.
Our Early Childhood Center provides a warm, caring and safe environment providing the children physical, social, emotional and intellectual development, raising their self-esteem, independence and pride in themselves.
Our highest priority is for our little ones to feel confident, safe and loved - then we’ll teach them how wonderful and magnificent the world can be which they will discover through a variety of activities.
Philosophy
The Joni & Stanley Tate Early Childhood Center is owned and operated by Temple Israel of Greater Miami. The Joni & Stanley Tate Early Childhood Center is a pre-school program with extended hours recognizing that people can combine positive parenting with the pursuit of a career or education. For the child, a nurturing and loving childcare center can promote a healthy self-image and independence. Parents can feel comfortable knowing their child is being cared for in a pleasant, developmentally sound environment.
Early childhood is a time for wonder, exploration, creating and play. This is a time when young children develop belief in themselves and their world that lasts a lifetime. The uniqueness of The Joni & Stanley Tate Early Childhood Center can be found in the quality of day-to-day interactions among children, staff and parents. To the children it feels like family, a place where they belong. Our environment encourages young children to develop at their own pace, to become independent and to enjoy learning. To the parents, it feels secure and reassuring, as close to home as possible. To the staff it feels like caring for a member of their own family.
Our staff is dedicated to strengthening family life through the transmission of values and Jewish traditions while at the same time, welcoming families of all faiths. We have created a caring environment, which encourages your child to begin at his/her own level to develop emotionally, spiritually, socially, physically and cognitively. Our curriculum is based on the belief that children learn best by actively taking part in their learning. A child’s play is his work and our children enjoy an active day building with blocks, experimenting with science and math, creating with art and taking part in cooking and dramatic play. Our loving teachers give students many opportunities to explore and experiment, question and guess and to try, try, try…. again and succeed. Outdoors children enjoy a special place and continue to develop and grow. The playground is divided into two sections, one for our youngest students, equipped with safe age-appropriate climbing, riding and push toys. The play area for our “older” students consists of a sandy area, large climbing structure and riding toys that promotes motor skills and further enhances social skills. Both sections have shaded areas for quiet reflection and picnics.
Since the preschool years are the time when behavior patterns, value systems, and attitudes emerge, it is essential to our philosophy to provide individualized attention. Our program provides quality care as shown by:
- A nurturing environment
- Staff trained in current child development methods
- Age and developmentally appropriate curriculum
- Safe, well maintained physical environment
- Ample space, materials and equipment
- Consistent communication with parents, both formal and informal
The following factors are the keys to realizing our goals:
- Building a positive self-image and high self-esteem in children
- Encouraging patterns of learning and problem solving
- Encouraging self-reliance
- Encouraging empathy and concern for others
- Developing an ability to cooperate with others
- Providing a healthy, safe and pleasant child oriented environment for optimum growth and development.
Our Jewish Education
We offer a strong Judaic curriculum. This includes regular visits from Rabbi Jody Cohen, weekly Shabbat celebrations, creative and interactive programming for special holidays such as the Rosh Hashanah lunch, Passover Seder, Tu B’shvat, Shavuot and Yom Haatzmahut and outreach programs such as our “Ask the Rabbi” series and Sababa Shabbat, special Shabbat program designed for families with young children. These programs offer different opportunities for family members to participate in their children’s Jewish education and resulting in them spending more time at our religious institution. Accomplishing some of these same goals and to further educate our parents, the ECC offered family workshops by community professionals included such important themes as nutrition, the effects of stress and building self-esteem in our children.
The school participates in the PJ Library (a program that provides Jewish children with a free Jewish book every month) by participating in PJ Library events and purchasing PJ books for the center, providing daily Jewish literacy to our students.
Hours of Operation
The Center is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 AM to 6:00 P.M. Full-time attendance is for up to ten hours per day.
Holiday Closings
Each August a calendar of closings and special events will be distributed. We will close for all Jewish holidays as observed by the Union for Reform Judaism. The school will close for one week in December and one week in August for refurbishing. We strive to close as infrequently as possible in order to serve our working families.
WE ARE VPK PROVIDERS!!!
We are pleased to inform you that our school has achieved the highest scores for VPK provider Kindergarten Readiness. This rating has being assigned by the Department of Education. This score comes as a result of all the intensive learning experiences our former children have been exposed to in our Center.
Please, visit the VPK website and learn more about our Center. You can go to https://vpk.fldoe.org or you can click here.
Our Staff
Our Staff is committed to excellence. We have a low child/teacher ratio and a staff comprised and dedicated, loving educators who are carefully selected for their Early Childhood Education backgrounds, teaching experience and sensitivity to the needs of young children and their families. Our staff is constantly participating in diverse classes that provide them with more tools to properly handle ongoing challenges we face at school. Our entire staff has upgraded their credentials. We currently have teachers certified with National CDA’s..
Parent/School communication is essential. On regular basis we will send home e-mails and also a monthly calendar.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to stop by the office or schedule an appointment. We can be reached by phone at (786) 248-3033 or by email at: vmichanie@templeisrael.net and mleiman@templeisrael.net
Valeria Michanie - Bio
Director of Religious School and Director of Education at the Joni and Stanley Tate Early Childhood Center located at Temple Israel.
Valeria has a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood Education. For the last eight years, Valeria has taught in our Religious School as well as the Early Childhood Center. Prior to moving to the United States with her husband and three children in 2003, Valeria taught preschool in Israel and Argentina, acquiring 20 years of preschool teaching experience.
Melba Leiman - Bio
Director of Administration. Melba has a Master’s Degree in Arts. She has a background in journalism and taught college for four years before coming to work at the Joni and Stanley Tate Early Childhood Center. Melba has been a valuable staff member at the Early Childhood Center for the past nine years. Melba and her two children have made Temple Israel their home and learning center.
Parent Involvement
Passover Play
Best Moments at School
Watch the best moments at school video.
