Little Sprouts Receives Gifts from Hilltop Country Day School Students

Hilltop Country Day School Students

 

To honor the memory of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King recently, students from the Hilltop Country Day School preschool class participated in a service project designed to help local children in need.  The students created gift bags brimming with all the supplies needed for a festive birthday party and donated the Birthday Party Bags to the students at the Little Sprouts Early Learning Center, the early childhood development facility operated by Project Self-Sufficiency in Newton.  Hilltop Country Day School parents donated cake mix, icing, baking cups, sprinkles, candles, balloons, blank birthday cards and small birthday backpacks filled with coloring books, crayons, and playdoh.  Christine De Stefano, Hilltop Country Day School Preschool Teacher, explained, “We wanted the children to participate in a service project to honor the kindness and compassion of Dr. Martin Luther KIng, Jr.  As a teacher of three and four-year-old students at Hilltop for 27 years, I wanted to find a project that the children could relate to and the parents would appreciate participating in.  Thus, The Birthday Bag Project was born.”

Project Self-Sufficiency Executive Director Deborah Berry-Toon applauded the outreach project, noting “Hilltop Country Day School holds the school record for the greatest number of years contributing to our annual toy drive, so it is no surprise that the parents, children and staff would continue that spirit of giving throughout the remainder of the year.  These beautiful bags will be provided to agency clients that may have difficulty in providing a birthday celebration for their child.”

The Little Sprouts Early Learning Center offers daycare, preschool and care for children before and after school, as well as during the summer months.  The facility uses Creative Curriculum, the curriculum approved by the State of New Jersey and endorsed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, in all classrooms to help children learn important skills in math, literacy, science, social studies, the arts, and technology. Fully qualified teachers are available in each school room and the child-teacher ratio adheres to or exceeds state standards.  Each classroom has new equipment, as well as learning centers for dramatic play, computers, science, housekeeping, sand and water play, reading, and music.  The center also contains an all-purpose room for active indoor play and parent presentations, as well as a sick room for those children who may fall ill during the day.  The center is equipped with two separate playgrounds, one for younger tots and one for older children.

Little Sprouts Early Learning Center offers space for 83 youngsters, ages 6 weeks to 6 years.  Free preschool is available for Newton residents ages 3 – 4; students must have turned 3 years old by October 1, 2019.    All types of subsidized daycare are accepted, including New Jersey Cares for Kids and Work First New Jersey.  Interested parents are invited to schedule a tour of the facility by calling Little Sprouts at 973-940-3540 or by completing a form on the website, www.littlesproutsearlylearningcenter.org.  The Little Sprouts Early Learning Center is conveniently located on the campus of Project Self-Sufficiency, across from Sussex County Community College, at 127 Mill Street in Newton.