Nursery school and kindergarten educators were urged to “teach the child, reach the family” at the 23rd Early Childhood Fall Conference sponsored by the Partnership for Jewish Learning and Life, an agency of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.

More than 450 teachers and administrative personnel from the MetroWest area took part in the event, held Oct. 26 at Temple Beth Shalom in Livingston.

Linda Jum, managing director for the Partnership, led the session on “Welcoming Every Child: The Diversity of Today’s Families,” one of 18 presentations.

Topics ranged from the cerebral (Jewish literacy for children and adults) to the active (“Wiggle, Jiggle, and Move!”) to the spiritual (how to make the classroom a makom shalom, or “peaceful place”).

“We need to build inclusive and welcoming communities and give the teachers strategies for how to do that,” Jum said. Such strategies, she said, include “how to talk about multiculturalism and what it really means and talk about how the definition of the Jewish family has broadened.”

“We work together with all of the [religious school] directors and plan an in-service day,” said Joan Bronspiegel Dickman, director of the Partnership’s early childhood initiatives program, explaining the philosophy of the annual meeting. She noted that with so many teachers in attendance, most of the area religious schools had been closed for the day to allow the opportunity for educators to work on “professional development.”

“Our…mission is to teach the child [and] reach the family,” Dickman said. “All of the presenters are finding ways — whether it’s about nature or a Jewish holiday or a secular theme — to address how we can involve families and get them to their Jewish journeys through the process of their child having a rich experience in the classroom.”