CONTINUUM OF SERVICES

KOCO provides full and part time quality child care for children ages 8 weeks to 12 years. Once your child is enrolled in a program at KOCO, they remain enrolled. We automatically guarantee your child a space in the next program.

• Under 3 area serves Infants, Waddlers and Toddlers (rooms 107-111).

• Preschool programs provide kindergarten readiness to 3- and 4-year-olds (rooms 105 and 106). 

• Kindergarten/ Schoolage program offers before- and after-school care, as well as holiday care and summer camp (rooms 101-104)

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NOT-FOR-PROFIT CHILD CARE CENTER

KOCO, Kids of Chatham Organization, Inc., is a not-for-profit center dedicated to providing quality child care programs to families in East Hampton, CT and the surrounding communities. KOCO was established on March 15, 1988 as a tax-exempt, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation.

 

ADMINISTRATION & TEACHING STAFF

An annually elected Board of Directors participates in company policy decision-making impacting child care programs.

 

Executive Director Janet Santos, Director Laurie Caron, Assistant Director Brian Barber, Opening Supervisor Laurie Webster, and Closing Supervisor Thomas Santos manage day-to-day operations.

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LEARNING EXPERIENCES: "Investigations"

The teachers and students at KOCO investigate topics  of interest throughout the school year. In lieu of a traditional lesson plan, each class decides what they already Know about a particular topic, discuss what they Want to know about the topic, and then they devise learning experiences to help them Learn (K-W-L model). Topics for early childhood investigations are ideally quite simple; recent investigations topics have included Hands, Apples, Balls, and Shoes.  

 

Ideas generated by each "investigation" are webbed collaboratively; the web becomes a "living document", to be added to, changed, and otherwise revised as the investigation progresses. Students control the depth and length of each investigation (topics of great interest may generate investigations of a month or more!).

 

Visit Eastern Connecticut State University's Center for Early Childhood Education to learn more about Investigations-style learning experiences.

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GET SET FOR SCHOOL and ELM CURRICULUM

KOCO’s kindergarten readiness curriculum includes Get Set for School, a precursor to the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum implemented by the East Hampton School District. We also use the Early Learning Matters or ELM Curriculum from Purdue University.

 

VISITING CURRICULUM

Our “Visiting Curriculum” provides daily enrichment and features a blend of outside visitors (music & movement, gymnastics, storytellers, etc.) and in-house programs:

• Second Step: social-emotional curriculum

• Story Kitchen: book and a cooking project

• Signing Time: American Sign Language

• Muzzy Spanish: for 4-year-old preschool