Page 10 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • February 1, 2012 Waldwick Watch Nursery school holds Open House The Ho-Ho-Kus/Waldwick Cooperative Nursery School, 400 Warren Avenue, will hold its annual Open House Feb. 3 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and Feb. 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. Parents and their preschoolers are invited to visit the classrooms and meet the teachers and current members. Classes for children ages two through four are available for 2012-13. The nursery school offers various educational enrichment programs including music and Spanish. Extended day options are available. The school offers a co-op opportunity for parents to assist in their child’s classroom. A non-participating co-op status is also available. The Ho-Ho-Kus/Waldwick Cooperative Nursery School is a state-approved, nonprofit, and non-sectarian school. For further information, call (201) 445-8424. Building Blocks to hold Beefsteak Fundraiser Building Blocks Child Center of Waldwick will host its Second Annual Beefsteak Fundraiser on Saturday, April 21 at 6 p.m. The event will be held in the school gym at 136 Wyckoff Avenue in Waldwick. Tickets are $40 per person and include entry, a beefsteak dinner with salad, french fries, beverage, ice cream, coffee, and a “starter kit” with prize tickets. Tickets will be available the first week of February. Donations of prizes and gift certificates from individuals and businesses are welcome. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Building Blocks Child Center, a ministry of Christ Community Church. For more information, call (201) 446-7047. Wine Tasting benefit set The Waldwick Community Alliance and Maratene’s Fine Wine and Spirits will host the annual Wine Tasting benefit on Saturday, March 3 from 7 to 10 p.m. at Saint Luke’s Church, 340 North Franklin Turnpike, Ho-Ho-Kus. The event will include a sampling of over 100 quality wines from around the world, craft beers, hors d oeuvres, chocolates, and prizes. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the event and 20 percent of the wine sales will benefit the restoration of the Waldwick Train Station. Tickets are $45 each, and a limited number will be sold. To purchase tickets, call (201) 873-8919 or visit http://waldwickcommunityalliance.org/annual_wine_tasting0.aspx. The alliance is participating in a “Donate a Buck” program where every dollar donated to the alliance will be matched with an additional $3 by the county. To contribute to the “Donate a Buck” program, visit http://waldwickcommunityalliance.org/ donate_a_buck0.aspx. Register for spring lacrosse program The Waldwick Lacrosse Association is accepting registration for its spring lacrosse program online at www.wlax.net. Programs are available for children in kindergarten through grade eight. The cost for boys and girls in grades three through eight is $110 plus a $25 membership fee to U.S. Lacrosse, which is required for league play. The Fiddlesticks program, for boys and girls in kindergarten through grade two, is $50. League membership is not required for Fiddlesticks players. Call John or Meg Wanamaker at (201) 670-4862. Vintage toy watches on display The vintage toy watch collection of Jonathan Cobin is now on display at the Waldwick Public Library and will remain on exhibit through Wednesday, Feb. 29. The exhibit includes a wide variety of inexpensive dime store watches manufactured from metals and assorted plastics. Cobin, a retired New York City police detective, was born in Manhattan and currently resides in Waldwick with his family. An antiques and retro culture collector for more than 30 years, Cobin’s collection now houses thousands of vintage toys spanning many categories and decades. He is the author of the recently published “Art on Toys: A Look at Packaging Art found on Vintage Dime Store Toys.” The library is at 19 East Prospect Street. Hours are Monday through Thursday from 10 to 9, and Friday and Saturday from 10 to 5. Call (201) 652-5104. All-day kindergarten (continued from page 3) afford children the academic learning time needed to prepare for mastery of elementary level reading and mathematics skills. In doing so, such programs help to reduce the need for remediation in subsequent grades (Plucker, et.al, 2004). Additionally, developmentally appropriate full-day programs frequently offer a more relaxed atmosphere and increased opportunities for students to engage in creative projects and free play, as well as increased time for the enhancement of social skills (Elicker & Mathur, 1997; Rayfoth, 2004). “In a multi-year experimental study conducted by the University of Minnesota, students from the full-day cohort entered and exited both first and second grades ahead of the national average on standardized tests while their counterparts in the half-day cohort did not. Furthermore, students from the full-day cohort continued to perform above average throughout the third grade, when the study was concluded. (Walstrom, Michlin, & Hansen, 2007). “In the past two years, the New Jersey Department of Education has revised the Core Curriculum Content Standards in all content areas reflecting raised expectations and increased rigor for all grade levels (New Jersey Department of Education, 2010). Furthermore, the New Jersey Standards in Literacy and Mathematics have been coupled with the national Common Core Project, an initiative joined by 47 states to standardize expectations in those two content areas. Consequently the new required objectives for kindergarten resemble the curriculum in the past for first graders. “As a result of joining the national Common Core Project, in the next two to three years the NJDOE will be abandoning the currently used battery of state assessments in favor of a new system designed to measure New Jersey students with students from the other 46 participating states. The data collected will also be used to determine if the yearly progress made in grades four through eight and at the high school level, in each New Jersey school, is consistent with other schools statewide belonging to the same District Factor Group. Therefore, the annual progress of our students and teachers will be compared across New Jersey and even if growth occurs, if it is not at the same rate as similar schools, we will be seen as deficient. Since over 70 percent of New Jersey districts have fullday kindergarten programs, we will be placing our students and their teachers in a less than equal starting position in this very public competition.” Additionally, offering all-day kindergarten gives the borough an edge, according to Levine. “We have to be competitive with other districts,” she said. “The first thing people considering moving to Waldwick ask is whether we have all-day Kindergarten.”