Rocky Hill Cooperative Nursery School

We’re at the Montgomery Moms Preschool Fair Today!

Director — Sat, 12 May 2012 11:45:29 +0000

Come to Harlingen Reformed Church today from 10-1 to chat with Mrs. Linden (our Director and Head Teacher) about our program! Also at the fair: Barbara from Kids Music Round will be demonstrating at 10.30 am. Our other participants are Art Sparks, West Minister Conservatory of Music, Princeton Fitness, Joy the Clown. They are also hosting a Bake Sale for a cause.
Don’t forget our yard sale at the school from 8-3! We’ll have our own bake sale!

Come to our Yard Sale!

Director — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:53:21 +0000

Tomorrow, from 8-3, we’ll be a part of the town wide yard sale in Rocky HIll, NJ! Come support us! Thanks!

What can you Learn from a Nature Hike?

Director — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 12:45:40 +0000

There’s not much that angers me. I’m pretty much a go with the flow person. (Ok, there is one.. leave cleaning products out where the children can reach. THAT will anger me!) But I can see the positives and negatives in most situations.
Recently, however, I had a conversation in which I learned how academic Kindergarten has become in a particular district. I was angry…and sad. I’m sorry, but you CAN teach in a fun, developmentally appropriate manner! Coming from a special education background, our focus was on learning objectives. Not only did I have objectives for the lesson, but the objectives on the child’s IEP had to be noted. It didn’t mean I had to “drill and kill” (I think the “kill” is for their spirit!)
So… what can a child learn on a hike?

JOY!

Our Path

Visual Discrimination: What are the differences between a path made by a mower, a walking path, and a deer path? How are they the same? (Comparing and contrasting) Think about it: When children learn to write letters, they often trace the lines. Before that, they do “path-tracing.” What better way to learn to TRACE a path than to be able to WALK a path first??!?!?!

Math/Science: “Leaves of Three, Leave them Be” Could this be poison ivy? How many leaves are there? Count them.

"It looks like Madagascar!"

Visual Discrimination: Size/shape comparison. Decision making. Should this go in your nature bag? Creative thinking.

Observing an Asiatic clam!

I was absolutely shocked to find clam shells in the fresh water creek! An email to Jeff Hoagland at the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association, and I learned that these are Asiatic Clams, an invasive species brought to NJ in 1938. Yes, we’ll be looking at the map to see where in the world they came from!
Science/Geography/Math (symmetry) Reasoning skills: I wonder where the clam went..

Experimenting, Decision Making, Observing

Some children fearlessly jumped in the water. Others took their time to observe, think, and make their own decisions. “Look! I can see the stones! It gets cloudy when I step!”

"Look! This one has something in it! I wonder what it is!"

I was amazed at how many skills they were developing playing on the dirt hill. Having volunteered in a gross motor program, I know that moving different parts of the body stimulates different parts of the brain. The children were engaged in motor planning, balance and “cross-integration of the upper and lower extremities.” Yes, that’s education-ese for using arms and legs in a crawling/climbing motion, which stimulates the brain! I also saw examples of kinesthesia and vestibular stimulation. (More fancy words for play that helps the body AND brain develop!)

Self-help skills/developing independence. Take your boots off and squeeze out your socks!

Did I mention that we had FUN?!?!?!?

Off to a Conference!

Director — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 12:36:09 +0000

I love to learn! I believe strongly that teachers need to expand their horizons, evaluate their programs, and learn what others are doing. This weekend, two RHCNS board members and I are attending the Parent Cooperative Preschools International conference in Washington DC. We’ll tour other co-ops, attend business meetings, and learn how other co-ops work. I’m so excited!
www.preschools.coop/

But in the morning… another nature hike and visit to the creek! This time with my three day group!

The Best Day EVER!

Director — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:37:44 +0000

One of my goals is to provide opportunities for my students to experience things their parents can’t or may not want to do at home. It’s not often you have 16 other children for your child to play with! Today? A visit to the woods and a creek. Splashing with their buddies, building with stones, sliding down a dirt hill.
The pictures say it all!

FYI:

Director — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:48:31 +0000

I decided to start posting relevant articles and links in case anyone is interested! Here’s one on educating boys…

http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=414

“Excuse Me, Colorado is Missing!”

Director — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 15:00:48 +0000

Oh, I LOVE my job! I think I drive some people crazy because I say it so often! Yesterday (ironically, Friday the 13th!) was one of the golden days of teaching.
Fridays are my “Just Threes” day. This group is happy, delightful, funny, encouraging, kind….I could go on and on!
While I do have themes and learning objectives, I also follow the children’s lead and support their interests, not just what *I* think they should learn. We have a few 3′s, early 4′s that happen to love geography! The others are getting intrigued!
Yesterday, in the middle of Children’s Choice (there were towers being built, rice excavated, caterpillars examined, pizza being made…) I felt a light tap on my leg.
“Excuse me Mrs. Linden, but Colorado is missing.”
I look over at our new US puzzle, and sure enough, all of the states in in place EXCEPT for Colorado!

"Colorado is missing!"

Me: “Ok everyone, Colorado is missing! Let’s all search for Colorado!” Mrs. G and I break into “Where Oh Where is Colorado?” and “Oh Where, Oh Where Has Colorado Gone, oh where, oh where can it be?”

The children joined in: “Are you stepping on Colorado? Who’s Colorado? Look if Colorado is under the blocks! Are you sitting on Colorado?….”

Then we heard “I found Colorado!”

Here's Colorado!

Yes, he found Colorado, but it was from a different puzzle!

The search continued:

Then, “I FOUND IT! HERE’S COLORADO!”

It was sitting on the magnifying glass all that time!

It went back where it belongs!

A little while later, there was another tap on my leg:

“Mrs. Linden, the Earth is spinning!”

Rolling the Earth around the room, while holding The Cat in the Hat.

I LOVE Parent Co-ops!

Director — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:42:31 +0000

I’ve taught in many different settings over the past 30+ years, but I have to say, working in a co-op is by far my favorite! Parents bring a wealth of talents and ideas!
Last Friday, a mom emailed and said her husband was on spring break and could he spend the day at school with us? ABSOLUTELY! My question: Would he like to do something with the children? “How about some soccer?”

So… last Friday, we had a high school soccer coach (aka: “Helping Dad”) play Simon Says, Steal the Bacon, Fox and the Hound…What a blast! AND a fabulous opportunity!

Simon Says, Put your head on the ball!

Wacky Wednesday

Director — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:57:06 +0000

Painting with cars at the easel

That's using your head! (the paint brush is taped to the hat!)

or trying using your head AND a car!

Things got wackier when we added water to M&Ms... we sorted them first by color (and no one ate any!!)

We made M&M "paint!"

We experimented with absorption…

At the end, all of the color disappeared! Now THAT was wacky!

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish

Director — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:38:02 +0000

Children have many different learning styles. Preschoolers especially need to be moving and doing as they learn. When we read One Fish Two Fish… by Dr. Seuss I had several objectives in mind. I wanted to reinforce counting, introduce tally marks, and give the children some writing practice. First, we learned about the tally marks.

Then we searched around the room, counting the number of hidden fish:

Children eagerly counted their tally marks and recorded their results:

Then a little graphing at snack!