For more than a century, a pre-K center on the Upper East Side has been shaping the futures of New York City kids
Fox News Antoine Lewis has more on the Early Childhood Center at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
This classroom is called the Sunshine Classroom, and the warmth that's on display has nothing to do with the elements outside
Not too much, but it's going to fall. These are students of the Early Childhood Center at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House on Manhattan's Upper East Side
The center was founded in 1894 when a group of New York women wanted to start a kindergarten for immigrant children in their neighborhood
Since that time, generation after generation after generation of New York City kids have been shown the road to success begins with teachers who care
It's centric to developing a group of individuals that are going to be great citizens, that are going to be strong people and are going to be good learners
And that's what we want. We want a future of people that want to learn. I see it in my staff. Our staff are learners because they want to learn and they want to teach
So it helps the growth of all of us. The children are between three to five years old
The curriculum is tailored to meet each child where their interests are, while also focusing on educational, social, and emotional development
They're interested in learning about race cars. We use those topics to integrate those core skills
So for race cars, we had numbers on the side, and they did a matching amount of stickers that matched the numbers So we able to do those things but in a way that feels very authentic and engaging for them For Anayeli Lozama the center dual language program
has had the most impact on her son. My child's first language is Spanish. We speak to him in
Spanish only. So it's amazing to see that he's already telling me words in English. And I'm like
oh, wow, you're learning. You're already learning both languages. You're already catching those two. So that's been like a weight lifted off my shoulders. This blueberry tree is
part of a garden the center has on its grounds that's used to provide three square meals a day
for each child. It's part of the center's farm to table program where they're learning about
agriculture and healthy eating. There's also a full-size pool in the basement where swimming
is taught as part of phys ed. My first son started in 2015 and then I have a three-year-old here now
For Fritz Donnelly, the fact that the students reflect the melting pot that is New York convinced Tim to send all five of his children through the program
It's extremely diverse in terms of class background, cultural background, faith, all that kind of stuff
The school represents, like New York, this medley of all these wonderful influences
The early childhood program at Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is year-round and free to families who meet federal Head Start age and income requirements
Its mission unchanged, putting children first for the last 132 years and counting
From the Upper East Side, Antoine Lewis, Fox 5 News