WANTAGE — Deb Puskas' kindergarteners at the Clifton E. Lawrence School were busy drawing dragonflies when a white robot started slowly gravitating toward a table.

The children weren't startled by its sudden, staggered movements. In fact, they waved to it.

"Hey, Anthony," said 5-year-old Jacob Goldenberg, as he waved to a screen situated in the front of the robot.

The robot is what Anthony Longo, a 6-year-old student who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in January, uses to participate in class. Anthony's medical condition prevents him from physically being in class every day. So the Valerie Fund Children's Center at Morristown Medical Center loaned him the robot, known as a VGo, to keep him caught up with his peers in class.

"It helps motivate him because it's hard (being out of the classroom)," said Puskas. "He's been out of class since January. ... But he still feels connected."

On Jan. 19, Anthony, who lives with his grandparents, woke up with a 105.5 temperature, said his grandmother, Ilene Sargent. She said he was trying to fight off strep throat, but he wasn't getting better so his grandparents took him to Newton Medical Center. When the doctors received his blood work, they were able to see that he had leukemia, Sargent said.

In the midst of an ice storm, Anthony was transferred by ambulance to Goryeb Children's Hospital at Morristown Medical Center, where he remained for the next 22 days.

"There are no words to describe it," Sargent said of the moment she heard her grandson had leukemia. "It took a month for us to even say the word (without) bawling our eyes out."

Anthony goes to the hospital every Wednesday to have blood work done and receives chemotherapy treatment, Sargent said. Every three weeks, he stays at the hospital from Wednesday to Friday evening for an extended treatment, in which he receives chemo intravenously, she said.

"The people down at the hospital are just awesome," said Sargent, 51. "I call it an amusement park with doctors. They have so much for the kids to do there. They're just so good with all the kids, they do so much with them. It's great there."

Puskas, too, expressed gratitude when talking about what Morristown Medical Center has done for Anthony. Along with the VGo and iPad he uses to control it, the hospital gave Anthony a stuffed monkey that sits in a large brown rocking chair to signify his place in the class.

"We're just so thankful to Morristown," she said.

Principal William Kochis said Anthony uses the iPad as a touch screen to control the robot. It has a set of arrows he touches to navigate it up and down, Kochis said.

"The big thing is it connects him with his peers, and it helps him continue to build relationships with his peers for next year," Kochis said.

Anthony has been using the VGo since spring break, Kochis said.

He is currently the fifth student actively using a VGo through the Valerie Fund at Morristown Medical Center and is also the youngest operator, said Joann Spera, educational liaison for the Valerie Fund Children's Center. But Spera is in the process of bringing a VGo to a student in the same grade as Anthony.

Spera, who just received four more machines with help of a grant from the New Jersey SIM Foudation, said there's an "endless amount of kids" who could use one.

She said the students who use a VGo not only benefit from maintaining social interaction with their peers, but they are more alert when teachers visit them for home instruction.

"The kids are just sitting around all day; They're really isolated," Spera said. "The big difference is (the children) would wake up in the morning and go right to the computer and be in school so to speak. (The students) were way more alert and motivated, because (they) didn't sit around all day and wait for the teacher to come."

Douglas Gabel, president of the NJ SIM Foundation, said donating money toward the VGo project was a no-brainer when it was proposed to the board.

"It was very impressive," Gabel said, after seeing a VGo demo at a fundraising event. "And it was very easy for us to continue to promote the goodness that the foundation does in raising funds when you see something like that actually happen and occur."

For Anthony, none of this would have happened if it wasn't for Puskas learning how to use the technology and integrating it into the classroom in such a short amount of time, Kochis said.

"For a lot of teachers that would be scary," he said. "She jumped in over spring break and learned the technology and embraced it. She's gone above and beyond. He wouldn't be where he is academically if it wasn't for his family and Ms. Puskas as well."

Along with having the robot in class, Puskas visits Anthony at his residence for home instruction five hours a week, Sargent said.

On Thursday, while the students drew dragonflies in the classroom, Anthony's assignment at home was to look for dragonflies outside his window. At 3:45 p.m., when school let out, Puskas was going straight to Anthony's house to talk about the assignment and help him get caught up.

"He was six weeks behind and now he's almost caught up to where the kids are in the classroom," Sargent, Anthony's grandmother, said.

Kochis, the principal, said the goal is to get Anthony back in the classroom in September for the first grade.

Anthony is going into week 15 of a 19-week treatment period, Sargent said. He'll continue to receive maintenance treatments for the next two and a half years, which means he'll still miss class every so often when he returns, Sargent said.

But, until then, his fellow students embrace having him in class via the VGo, Puskas said.

"They love him being there and they love to include him," she said, adding that the children always ask her to bring Anthony things from the classroom, like a book or a drawing.

As the activity period came to an end Thursday, the children gathered their belongings in preparation for lunch. Anthony can't take the trip to the cafeteria yet but hopefully he will soon, Puskas said.

For now, he sits at home and eats lunch and waits for his peers to get back into the classroom.

"Children, Anthony is already at lunch, you better hurry," Puskas announced.

The kids quickly shuffle into line and begin leaving the classroom, one by one. For the first time in a while, Puskas said, they are early for lunch.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.