Get in the Groove for Preschool
A nurturing, creative and imaginative preschool prep and preschool program for 2 to 4 year olds in Hoboken.
The Get in the Groove for Preschool program is a preschool prep program for 2 to 3 year olds in Hoboken. It incorporates music, art, dance, drama, books and storytelling, fun science projects, and yoga.
The music and movement portion of the class is all about encouraging the innate rhythm and the natural love of music and movement that your child demonstrates whenever they hear music.
During the art and sensory portion of the class, the children will have a great time exploring a world of color with paints, crayons, play-doh, and more. We will explore a variety of painting methods and tools.
We will start to slow things down at the end of class with a yoga session followed by storytime. We then have a Goodbye Circle Time where we will sing some final songs together as well as our Goodbye Song.
Our program provides a loving and nurturing environment where our young students can start to take their first steps toward independence and gaining confidence. We work closely with each family to ease this transition for both the child and the parent. As a mother of three children, I had one child walk into her first classroom and never look back, and two children who became intimately acquainted with my legs as they clung desperately to me. Having gone through this with my middle child, I found The Nest preschool for my youngest child, and the loving environment they provided gradually coaxed him from my leg and we watched him gain confidence in a richly creative classroom and loving community.
Having gone through that experience myself, I'm committed to providing a nurturing and creative environment that will feel safe and welcoming to even the most hesitant of children.
We will work with each family to make the separation as gentle as possible. However, we will encourage you to trust us to support your child through their sadness or other emotions when you leave. We assure you that we will reach out to you if your child is inconsolable. We will treat your child the way we would want our own children to be treated. When my son was at The Nest, the teachers encouraged me to walk away while he was still sobbing which was SO SO SO hard to do. However, as I paused around the corner from where his classroom was, I was able to hear for myself how quickly his crying stopped. When I picked him up at the end of the class, he was full of smiles and tales of what he had done that morning. Even as an 8th grader, he still talks about how happy he was there. He wouldn’t have had the chance to experience all those wonderful experiences if I hadn’t trusted the teachers that it was OK to walk away while he was crying.
I am so very proud of this program and of all the children who have participated in it before starting preschool. We love bumping into Get in the Groove for Preschool alumni as we walk around Hoboken!
If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Click here to send an email with any questions that you have.
Sally
Sally Robertson,
Founder of Creative Groove Studio
Registration closed on April 26th
Classes for the 2024/2025 school year have filled more quickly than in any prior year. Almost half of the spots have been taken by returning students and siblings of former students so we had fewer spots available for new families.
All classes were full but one spot has opened up in 3 of our classes due to families withdrawing their enrollments because of moving out of Hoboken or needing to switch their child to a full-time program.
We will accept enrollments
for the final couple of spots over the weekend.
What is the age policy?
In order to join our Get in the Groove for Preschool classes for 2 to 3 year olds, your child should turn 2 years old by December 31, 2024.*
Our 8.45am class on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings is for 3 to 4 year olds as we have students in this class who are returning for a second year with us. Children should turn 3 by October 31, 2024 to join the 3 to 4 year old class.
* Please note that, if your child’s birthday is between October and December, the 2024/2025 School Year is going to be Creative Groove’s final year. Quite a few of our former students with October to December birthdays come back to us for a second year as they miss the cut-off for local preK3 programs after their first year with us. We are not planning to offer classes for the 2025/2026 school year so we would not be able to offer a second year for younger students.
Does your child need to be potty trained?
Your child does not need to be potty trained in order to join the classes. However, we do ask that children wear pull-ups in class while potty training.
Refund Policy
When you register, you are committing for the full school year. If your plans change and you want to cancel your registration before May 1st, we will issue a full refund.
If you want to cancel your registration after May 1st, we will do everything that we can to help you to find a family to take your child’s spot in class for the school year. We will issue a refund if a family does take your spot in the class.
If your child attends the Fall Session but you need to withdraw him/her from the Winter and Spring sessions due to unforeseen circumstances, we will do everything that we can to fill the spot for you and will issue a refund if we are able to find another family to take your child’s spot in class. We do not enroll new students for the Spring Session only so if your child has to withdraw from the program for just the Spring Session, we would not fill your child’s spot and you would not receive a refund for that session.
We normally have a waitlist for our classes and a number of families often add extra mornings to their child's enrollment for the Winter or Spring Sessions so I am optimistic that we would be able to find a family to take your child’s spot in class if your plans change after May 1st for the full school year or before the Winter Session begins in January 2023. However, a refund is not guaranteed after May 1, 2024.
“Thank you all for giving Livia the best first year of school! The Creative Groove program so far exceeded our expectations and we couldn’t be happier with how Livia has grown and matured over this past year. You have all been so wonderful and nurturing to our girl and you made our first separation easy. Thank you a million for all of your hard work, care taking and love over this past year.”
— Livia’s Mom
Click here to be added to a waitlist
Registration for the 2024/2025 School Year closed on April 26th.
A breakdown
of the class schedule
Open Play
The class will open with Open Play when the children arrive. We will have different play areas set up: for example, a playdough table, trains/trucks, building blocks, books, drawing table, or seasonal activities.
Snack Time
Time to refuel! During snack time, we will do bathroom visits with the children who are already potty trained. We love the conversations that we have with the students during snack time!
Welcome Circle Time
We will then have a Welcome Circle Time session during which the teacher will sing the Hello song and talk about the theme for the day. We also sing our Days of the Week and What’s the Weather? songs.
Art or Sensory
During the art + sensory session, we will introduce the supplies that we are working with that morning and talk to the children about different ways they can use the supplies. We focus on Process Art which is child-directed and celebrates the process of discovery. The focus is on the creation not the outcome.
Music + Movement
The session is all about encouraging the innate rhythm and natural love of music and movement that your child demonstrates whenever they hear music. We will use shaky eggs, wrist bells, scarves and more.
STEM Session
In this session, the teacher will introduce a science, building, or math activity. All of the activities will be fun, stimulating, and age-appropriate.
Story Time
During this session, the teacher will read a book to the children. Storytime is very interactive with lots of questions about what is happening in the story.
Yoga Session
Our students LOVE doing yoga! Each week, the yoga session will reflect the theme of the class.
Goodbye Circle Time
During our closing circle time, the teacher will talk about what we have done in class that morning and will sing some closing songs and the Goodbye Song.
“The Creative Groove program has been a wonderfully positive experience for Jordan’s first drop-off experience. The warm, nurturing, and creative environment has really helped him to feel confident and excited about coming to “school.” He wakes up excited about going to school and runs in with enthusiasm. It is always difficult as a parent to leave your child in a new environment. But I was immediately impressed with the gentle way that the teachers at Creative Groove welcomed Jordan and helped him to feel comfortable.
— Jordan’s Mom