Archive for June 2008
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Dear Cooperative Playschool Families, and Alumni Families,
Are you in town for the Arts Festival this summer? We need YOUR help!
(Click here to link to the web page)
What: Cooperative Playschool Children's Day Face Painting Booth
When: July 9, 2007 10:00-3:00 (See below for time slots, or look at current available time slots online here)
Where: Old Main Lawn
Please volunteer for an hour or two at our table. Bring the kids and enjoy the festival! No artistic talent needed.
Any questions? Call or email Ona Feinberg 353-8290, ofeinberg@verizon.net
Thanks!
Greg and Ona Feinberg
Publicity/Communication Chair 2007-2008
We need a line leader and 3 face painters each hour from 10:00 - 3:00. We also need volunteers to help with set up at 9:15, and clean up from 3:00 - 3:45.
9:00 - 10:00 Set up
10:00 - 11:00 Line Leader(1) /Face Painting (3)
11:00 - 12:00 Line Leader(1) /Face Painting (3)
12:00 - 1:00 Line Leader(1) /Face Painting (3)
1:00 - 2:00 Line Leader(1) /Face Painting (3)
2:00 - 3:00 Line Leader(1) /Face Painting (3)
3:00 - 3:45 Clean up
Filed under Outreach, School, Volunteer
It's 9:00 a.m. and the three quiet rooms come alive as small voices fill the air and children become engaged in a variety of activities. On the blue rug, three children gather and work cooperatively putting a large floor puzzle together. At a table, a small group of children are working with plastic letters, spelling real words and creating make-believe words. Children are also busy stringing beads, investigating how magnets work and assembling puzzles at the manipulative table. The activity room is bustling with activity as it is transformed into a post office. Here the children explore with a variety of writing materials including paper, pencils, pens, envelopes and rubberstamps. In the green rug room, a tall block building is under construction. The dress up corner is host to active firefighters creating maps of their community and extinguishing pretend fires. In other areas of the school, children are actively engaged with painting, cutting, gluing, drawing, dancing, and creating.
This is just a glimpse of what goes on at the Co-op on a typical day. The children are playing and having fun, but they are also learning. It is through creative play that children learn about themselves, their peers and their world. The Co-op offers meaningful, age-appropriate experiences that encourage children to learn through play.
Perhaps it is easy to see how hopping, jumping, or dancing help build large motor coordination just as it is evident that stringing beads, cutting, drawing, or putting a puzzle together help children to develop small muscle dexterity and eye-hand coordination. However, this is just a small sample of the benefits of play.
Children playing in the post office are free to explore and discover different stages of writing. Some children are writing their names, names of family members, messages like, "I love you" or their street addresses. Other children are making straight lines and squiggles. Don't discount these marks as just scribbling. Just as babbling is a foundation for speaking, scribbling is a foundation for writing. Writing is a natural and gradual process. Whether it is random or controlled scribbling or writing mock letters and words, this is evidence of emergent literacy in young children.
Children playing in the dress up corner, the dollhouse or make-believe scenarios can create situations that they can deal with and control. Children may work out their fears or anxieties through make-believe.
Materials at the manipulative table, legos, or large wooden blocks provide children with many learning opportunities. These activities promote social growth, sharing, exploration of sizes, shapes, distances, proportions and weight, concepts such as "smaller than" or "bigger than", counting, one-to-one correspondence, classification, sorting and matching.
The variety of activities offered at the Co-op give children a feeling of satisfaction and joy. These positive feelings allow children to gain confidence in their skills and abilities, resulting in a strong self-concept. Playing also encourages children to think and create divergently. Play encourages many positive outcomes, so let's encourage play. Play is the work of children!
(Written by Julie Maxwell, former Cooperative Playschool teacher)
Filed under Curriculum, Stories
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At the Cooperative Playschool children have the freedom to explore and discover through creative play a sense of what their world is all about. Activities and play areas are structured in ways that allow for social interaction, creative expression, and thoughtful investigations. One particular area of development that is enriched through play and teacher guidance is the children's emerging skill with writing.
Children become writers mostly through discovery. Learning to write is a gradual developmental process, much like learning to talk, during which children discover and then revise different strategies for producing print.
Research shows that when creative play areas are rich with print and when real-life props are provided for the children to use, children's awareness and use of print is enhanced. At the Co-op, play areas and various activities throughout the year provide opportunities for children to make discoveries about writing. The post office is supplied with paper and envelopes, rubber stamps and ink pads, pens, pencils, markers, mail slots, and a mail carrier's bag. If you are working at the Co-op on a day when the post office is open, notice the variety of activities that go on there. Children talk about what or to whom they are writing. They stamp, staple, fold, seal, and deliver important messages.
Read more
Filed under Curriculum, Stories
"The Cooperative Playschool is a celebration of children's development and growth."
"Children and parents alike grow in the self-confidence and trust as they interact with each other and the skillful, caring teachers."
"I gained a better understanding of my child as I watched him relate to other adults and to his peers."
"We loved the sense of involvement we got from the Cooperative Playschool."
"I look forward to the days I help out at the Co-op - it's my chance to be a kid again."
"The wisdom I gained from the teachers enhanced my own parenting skills and improved our family relationships."
"The Co-op provided us with a network for developing friendships with families who share similar interests and values."
"With my husband and myself invovled, my child enjoyed a more natural and secure first school experience."
"We met some of our best friends at the Co-op."
"I appreciated the non-competitive, creative learning that seemed to occur spontaneously with little effort, as I learned to listen and trust the wisdom of the children."
"And it's fun!" - Co-op Children
Filed under Stories
