Open Enrollment

Coop has begun accepting applications for the 2011-2012 school year. We offer half-day classes for 2 year olds, 3 year olds, and 4 year olds. We also have a parent-child playgroup that meets on Friday mornings. Potty trained is not a requirement of our program. Visit our website: www.coopnursery.org or telephone the school: 217 384-1128 for more information.

We will be holding two informational open houses on Wednesday February 23 from 5-7 p.m. and Friday March 11 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Please stop in and meet our teachers!

Open House!

The Cooperative Nursery School will be holding their informational open house on Wednesday February 23 from 5-7 p.m. We will begin accepting applications for the 2011-2012 school year on Tuesday February 1, 2011. You can visit our website www.coopnursery.org to download an application. We are proud to state that we are a preschool where children, parents, and teachers work together!

Awww Play.......

Our preschool uses the Creative Curriculum. Alot of what you see going on in our classrooms looks like play and it is, but the learning is tremendous! I am proud of the fact that the children in our school make up games, create and act in their own plays, problem solve, learn to take turns, and use materials in the classroom creatively!

I hear people complain all the time about insensitivity, rudeness, anger, just bad behaviour in general in our communities. Perhaps it's because we've forgotten how to play. My best childhood memories are about play. We played from the moment we got up on a summer's morning until the fireflies went to bed. We came home when we heard our mother's call and ate our meals as a family at one table and then back outside we went! In the winter we escaped to our basements, porches, bedrooms to use our imaginations for hours. We didn't need TV's, computers, video games to entertain us and stay out of our parent's hair, we just entertained ourselves and did a great job at it. We learned to make up games, rules, and to settle arguments. Yet we knew we always had the safe haven of our parents arms to run to when the going got a little too tough for us to handle.

The New York Times recently published an article about the movement to restore children's play. Click on the link and enjoy!

The Movement to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum - NYTimes.com

Happy New Year!

Sending out wishes to all for a wonderful, healthy, and loving new year! Enjoy reading the linked blog post on a new year's list for tired parents.

http://takomacooperativeschool.org/2010/12/a-new-years-list-for-tired-parents/

Happy Holidays!

Singing among snowflakes! The teachers and Board of Directors wish all of our families, current and past, a wonderful holiday season!

Keeping active during cold weather

It's fun to walk like a crab!

It's been awhile since I've posted here. We've been so busy doing lots of fun things! We celebrated Thanksgiving with lots of fun activities! Recently the weather has been very cold and that keeps us from going outside to play. We have to find fun things to do inside that will stretch our large muscles and use up some of that "holiday" energy! We're very lucky to have had a visit from a local gymnastics coach for children. He did some great activities with the children to burn up some of that excess energy while focusing on their listening skills and following directions.

This is our last week of school before winter break. The children will soon be delighting the parent audience with some winter tunes at our annual winter concert! It's so hard to believe that the first semester is nearly over! Looking forward to a fun, educational, and adventurous second semester!

Fun with Science!

Cornstarch and water is so much fun!

Playing with helium balloons and weights.

Our four's class has been investigating science this week. They've studied gravity and air, solids and liquids, and chemical reactions. We've mixed cornstarch and water, played with vinegar and baking soda, and had one of our dad's come in to explore gravity with the children! It's been a busy week!





One of our favorite activities this week was making Irish Soda Bread. After exploring what happens when you mix vinegar and baking soda together, we made the bread. If the bread turns out right, which ours did, then the children will see holes in the baked bread very similar to the holes left in the baking soda after dripping the vinegar onto the soda.





Irish Soda Bread





Ingredients:


1 cup milk


1 teaspoon vinegar


2 cups flour


1/2 teaspoon salt


1/2 teaspoon baking soda





Preheat oven to 400 degrees


Mix milk and vinegar in cup and set aside for about 10 minutes. This will curdle the milk.


In the bowl, stir together the flour, salt, and baking soda.


Stir the milk mixture into the flour mixture until smooth.


Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface.


Form dough into disk shape and put into pan.


Bake for approximately 15 minutes.





Have the children observe the air pockets in the bread. Discuss how the mixing of the baking soda and vinegar created bubbles. The bubbles in the bread happened to become stuck in the dough.