The Roosevelt Island Day Nursery

12/06/2024

This year, we celebrate Roosevelt Island Day Nursery’s 50th anniversary! For five decades, RIDN has nurtured curiosity, fostered a love of learning in every child, and built a community rooted in care and growth.

As we honor this incredible milestone, we are launching our 2024-2025 Annual Fund Campaign and inviting every member of our community to play a vital role in shaping the future of RIDN. The Annual Fund is essential to sustaining the nurturing and community-oriented education offered throughout our programs.

Your gift, no matter the size, directly supports:

Enhancing our curriculum to meet the evolving needs of students.
Arts and enrichment programs that inspire creativity and joy.

Cultivating a strong learning environment for every child in our care.

Crucial student to teacher ratios for personalized learning experience.

Professional development for our dedicated teachers.

This year, in honor of our 50th anniversary, we’ve set an ambitious goal to raise $100,000 by June 30, 2025, and we can’t do it without your support

The Roosevelt Island Day Nursery is an international non-profit school serving Roosevelt Island in th

10/02/2023

We will be hosting Open Houses on Thursday, October 12 and Wednesday, October 18. RSVP at www.ridn.org

06/11/2022

It’s Roosevelt Island Day today! We’re here to celebrate the lovely island we call home.

Come join us on the Meditation Lawn for coloring! We’d love to tell you more about our school!

06/02/2022

The warmer weather is a natural invitation for children to study plants. For young children, this often starts with exploring soil in a sensory table. From there, we introduce seeds - we like to use kidney beans or wheatgrass because they grow so quickly! After germinating in water and planting in soil, the seeds begin to sprout within a few days. This is often very exciting to see! These hands-on experiences show children how to gently care for and engage with the natural world around them. It is also an early introduction to scientific observation!

05/06/2022

03/24/2022

This Saturday March 26 at 2 PM, we will be holding an Open House at our preschool for families of children who will be 2 years, 9 months old to 3 years, 8 months old in September 2022.

(born any day in 2019)

Parents only please

To register, email [email protected]

For information regarding children who will be 12-36 months old in September 2022, please email [email protected].

02/09/2022

The Red Room, our older 2's/ young 3's have been making vegetable and rice soup!

The process of cooking at school brings an element of home for children. It also promotes early literacy as they follow the recipe written and illustrated on large chart paper. It provides an element of science as children see how the properties of the ingredients change. It also encourages turn-taking and teamwork.

We are happy to report that all of the children tried at least one bite and a lot of them finished their portion!

Teachers then added the recipe along with bowls, utensils and loose parts to the play kitchen for children to revisit this experience through dramatic play.

01/25/2022

Happy new year from all of us at RIDN!

Upon our return to school following the winter break, we were treated to a wonderful weather event, the first significant snowfall of the season!!! In Room A, because the snowfall had stopped before our scheduled outdoor time and the temperature was mild, the conditions were right for enjoying the newly fallen snow. We bundled up in our snow clothes and headed to the playground.

One child explored their tracks in the snow at the top of the playground where the snow covering was undisturbed. Others developed a game incorporating the snow. They piled snow at the bottom of the bumpy slide and then took turns sliding down and crashing through the snow. Many of the Room A children were only two and half years old when we experienced the last significant snowfall in 2021, and so this was a very exciting time!

We hope that those of you with children at home that day were able to spend some time with them outdoors exploring the winter wonder.

One of our favorite books is The Snowy Day by Jack Ezra Keats. Tell us, what's your favorite snow day activity?

12/23/2021

The festive lights on the island along with colder and darker days provide a great opportunity for light exploration in the classroom. At Riverwalk, our location with the youngest groups, lights have been front and center with LED tealights, a projector, string lights, flashlights and a light box. Children have been studying shadows, projections and the combination of color and light.

These new-to-the-classroom materials have changed the way the children see their environment. Light has permeated all areas of our day; from noticing shadows on our daily walks to sparking curiosity and joy as they make connections through their observations. The children's building has become more complex and familiar materials have been revisited with a new perspective.

12/10/2021

What a wonderful way to begin the holiday season!

In the spirit of giving, the families of RIDN raised $900 towards new books for the classrooms AND gifted each classroom with books on their wish lists!

Reading is integral to our day, and we are incredibly lucky to have a community that recognizes and supports our children’s needs and interests.

Here are some of the books we secured for each of the classrooms:

Blue Room (12-24m): When Mommy goes to work by Paul Schofield

Red Room (2s): Where does P**p go? by Katie Daynes

Room A (3s): I Breathe by Susie Brooks

Room B (UPK): All about Friends by Felicity Brooks

Room C (3s): Bob is a Unicorn by Michelle Nelson-Schmidt

Room D (UPK): All about Families by Felicity Brooks

A big thank you to the Parents Association for hosting this fun and important fundraising event!

Tell us, what are some of your favorite books to read with your children or what we’re your favorite childhood books?

12/02/2021

Our Parent Association Book Fair starts tonight at 8pm! It will go until Tuesday December 7th.

Once sales reach $250, 50% of sales will go towards our RIDN classrooms! (so if we have $2000 in sales, RIDN will have $1000 towards new books!!)

The virtual Facebook Party will kick off the Book Fair-- there will be raffles and early bird specials so try to "pop" in a few minutes prior to 8pm.

Happy shopping and thank you for your support in helping to enrich our classrooms with the gift of new books!!
RIDN PA

To join the facebook party group, please use this link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1068446557281050/

Here is the link for shopping! https://h5745.myubam.com --->Please be sure to click Roosevelt Island Day Nursery Book Fair after you click "shop".

View our current catalog which features the complete line of Usborne and Kane Miller titles. Need help? Just ask your Consultant.

12/01/2021

The abundance of crunchy leaves on Roosevelt Island has provided rich explorations for all of our classrooms.

Below is a snapshot from Room A, one of our 3's classrooms:

"Thanks to the two trees situated on the upper level of our playground and the reliable wind gusts on Roosevelt Island, the children have enjoyed playing with fallen leaves outside for the last couple of weeks. We’ve seen tossing, crunching and collecting. "

"Some children have enjoyed placing a small pile of leaves at the end of a slide for other children to burst through while others found a way to incorporate the dry fountain on the upper level of the playground into their play. One day one of the children observed that it was windy and predicted that the breeze would blow the leaves out of the fountain. Another child agreed but didn’t seem worried about it as they then offered a 'leaf shower'"

The changing and falling leaves provide the opportunity for scientific inquiry and observation. Beyond a tangible learning of the seasons, it also provides an exciting new material that can be used in endless ways through imaginative play.