I am terribly remiss in not posting this news sooner.... sorry!
We are proud and pleased as punch to welcome Ms. Mindy to the Coop family as our new teacher of the "green team". We've only known her for a few weeks, but already she is family.
Here's a letter from Ms. Mindy introducing herself:
Dear Parents,
Hello and welcome to the three year old class! I am so excited to begin this school year with the Cooperative Playschool! My name is Mindy Miller and I am looking forward to working with your child this year!
I have been working with children for the past six years. In 2003, I entered Penn State as a returning adult student to pursue my dream of becoming a teacher. During this time, I began driving school bus while residing in Mifflin County.The job fit perfect into my busy school schedule and still allowed me time to spend with my son. Two years later I relocated to State College. I graduated from Penn State in the spring of 2007 with a B.S. in Elementary and Kindergarten Education.
During my years in college I worked in the infant through preschool rooms at Nittany Christian School. After graduation I began substituting at Nittany Christian, as well as State College & Bellefonte Area School Districts.I also spent a year employed as a long term substitute for the Central Intermediate Unit #10. I was a preschool developmental teacher working with children on the Autism spectrum.
I have two absolutely wonderful children. My son, Devin, is thirteen and began seventh grade last week. My daughter, Kinzley, just turned three in June!We have a home in Park Forest and love living in State College.
Please feel free to ask me any questions your may have.I can be reached at 814-(redacted) or you can email me at (redacted). I check my email every evening. Thank you for taking the time to read this.I look forward to getting to know you and your child this year!
This past May the Coop generously paid my tuition to attend a workshop with Bev Bos. Bev Bos was the mentor of Mrs. Nancy and came highly recommended as the ‘expert on play based programs’. I was not disappointed.She was a dynamic, enthusiastic, talented, insightful preschool teacher/director who left me inspired and motivated.Her departing advice was to “start with one or two areas and apply these ideas.”She is the author of several books which will be available on the Parent Lending Library Shelf. Please sign out these books for one week and learn what a brilliant child advocate can accomplish at her own play based school.
One of the biggest tenants of her program is to set up areas that encourage exploration and discovery. She has an amazing assortment of accoutrements in her block center that yield ramps, tunnels, marble runs, ping pong ball tracks and more. She asks that no toy be brought in front of the children with only one attribute. She decries the use of character toys because are locked into one identity and application.She refuses to let art be anything other than an exploration of materials.She made me cringe when she said “If there is an adult model of the project, then I question if it is really art.” While some ‘craft projects’ are acceptable, the bulk of her program focuses on developing creativity. Ileft the workshop vowing to create a clay play area, build a large sand pit and add on to their block building centers.
With the support and contagious enthusiasm of our Co-Chairs and Mrs. Lori we all took up her challenges and are doing our best to enrich your child’s experience here at Coop. Our first steps are to add a clay area and to have a large art exploration center using the bulletin board as an easel.Her book Please Don’t Move the Muffin Tins; A Hands Off Guide to Art for the Young Child has many ideas and examples of ways to rotate new materials and mediums in and around the art center. Please feel free to sign up to be the facilitator at this center as an activity.We will also be rotating the clay play area with the woodworking table to bring more exploration with a variety of materials.
Our challenge to provide open ended sand play gave rise to the construction of a large sand pit near the playground fence.Using a hose or filling the magic well with water and providing buckets gets these engineers inspired to build moats, lakes, waterfalls, and roadways.We hope to bring out the cars, shovels, sifters, shells, treasure box etc. to this area and use it as long as possible.Bev Boss has photos of children stripped down to their underwear in the cold November weather filling moats with water! This area will also become the site for our butterfly garden.If you have perennials that need dividing this fall that are insect friendly, please give us some plants. We are hoping to construct a shed with the children’s help to store our gardening and sand play equipment.If this inspires you please see the Co-Chairs or the Teachers and we will co-conspire to build a small lean-to shed together.Bev’s book Tumbling Over the Edge,A Rant for Children’s Play has many inspiring and creative outdoor and indoor ideas along these lines.
Lastly, we are hoping to have your cooperation as snack parents to help us make that a meaningful activity, rather than something done in the kitchen before the children arrive. We understand that some of you don’t have the time or inclination to cook with kids, and there will be times when a bag of pretzels and some grapes will be our snack option, but we hope to have many parents embrace our goal of making the snack preparation a chance for the children to learn and explore and make discoveries too. Some of our ideas are : husk corn and serve corn on the cob; make butter in a jar;make ice cream in a bag; bread baking in it’s many forms and incarnations (pretzels, bread, pita, doughnuts, fry bread,chapattis, tortillas) ; making nut butters; making applesauce; using the apple peeler/corer to prepare apples for snack; scrubbing potatoes and making mashed or broiled potatoes; simple soups using a few vegetables the kids wash and put through a food processor or hand slice; mixing up trail mix, making pasta, preparing pizza, baking a pie, no-bake cookies, healthy muffins etc. etc.The children will also be washing their own cloth napkins each week as part of our effort to cut down on disposables.Mrs. Kat will provide a hand wringer washer for this weekly ritual, as well as a child sized clothes hanger. We hope to make every part of our day meaningful and play-based to give your children the best experience possible.
“Please remember when you are a working parent that the teachers need you to post your activity or snack 2 weeks in advance of the work day.” We’ve been hearing this at least once a week, and maybe we, as parents, need some help in this area. With that in mind, I offer the following FAQ:
Q: Where do I sign up for an activity or snack?
A: Right on the sign-up calendar, on the line below your name. A very brief description will do, i.e. “play outside” or “make kites” or “clay table”. Or, in the case of snacks, “muffins” or “berries”.
Q: Then I just show up that day?
A: Not quite. We ask that a week or so before your working day, you briefly get with the lead teacher for your work week and check in. The teachers try to get with you, too, but if both sides try, you’ll be sure to connect. Remind the teacher of your plans. The teachers will often plan other activities around parent ideas, and this is a great way to get the whole team on the same page.
For example, once I did a craft where the kids colored their favorite kinds of ice cream, and made up new flavors. Mrs. Lori set up an ice cream stand that same day, so the kids “sold” the ice cream they had colored back and forth all morning. Another mom had planned to put on a puppet show, so the teachers made a big deal of the kids going to the show, and needing tickets, etc.
Q: Help! How do I decide on an Activity?
A: Remember, this is a play-based and child-driven environment. Your activity doesn’t need to be anything fancy, and will hopefully be something you enjoy. I’ve included a list of ideas for springtime here to help jog your imagination. Or ask the teachers for an idea—they’re full of them! Or ask another parent, or go into the supply closet and pray for inspiration, or check out the idea shelf in the hallway…
As for me, I try to remember the stuff I liked as a kid. Playing doctor with the dolls, playing restaurant, dress-up, painting, running races, dancing… one of my most successful working days was when it was cold out and I brought in a CD of kids music, and we just danced around.
And remember: the weather and the kids could make you ignore your planned activity anyway! That’s the way the Co-op bounces….
Have more questions about being a working parent? Please reply to this post, and we'll be happy to answer them!
At 9:50 am, children at the “Co-Op” are busily stacking blocks, drawing on blueprint paper and pouring water through funnels at the water table.“Watch out! Here comes the lava,” shouts one of the children.A small group is preparing bouquets for a princess wedding while another child is talking to felted snow fairies as she weaves them in and out of fabric-draped branches adorned with crystal beads.Everyone is lost in their own world of imagination, exploration and self-expression.A teacher sings,“Ten minutes ‘til clean up time.”
Five year old Jolie earnestly responds, “ I can’t yet because first I have to work on this important thing that has to go in here like this. . .” her voice trailing off as she bends to pick up an uncooked noodle that has fallen under the table.She has a basket full of noodles, sparkly pipe cleaners, a pile of cotton batting and a blue scale lined up on what had been the nature table just twenty minutes before.
By the end of clean up, the noodles are on the scale, the batting is draped over a felt bird and the pipe cleaners are loosely twisted around the scale’s top.Ten minutes later, it’s no wonder Jolie says she’s tired and needs a snack for “new energy.”Play is hard work!
While it seems obvious that children’s play is their work and that having fun can promote learning, there’s more to it than meets the eye.Dr. James Johnson, professor-in-charge of Early Childhood Education at Penn State, says that play contributes to the emotional, cognitive, physical, social and over-all development of the child.He adds that teachers and parents can help children reap the promises of healthy self-directed play, namely:knowing one’s self and others better, heightened creativity and imagination and problem-solving skills, greater emotional and personal and spiritual well-being, self-motivation and will- power to control one’s experiences, achieving and maintaining a sense of contentment, having confidence and a good moral compass and, finally, being a compassionate and a loving person. All these promises are possible for our children when the power of play is unleashed, and harnessed.
Providing opportunities for children to engage in rich, imaginative play doesn’t have to be costly or require a full schedule of play dates.Simple household props, toys that have open-ended or multiple uses and some quiet time and space are often all that’s needed for a child to launch into rich, self-sustained play.Quality children’s literature is also an excellent springboard for imaginative play.
For more information on the importance of play visit: www.earlychildhoodnews.com, www.aap.org (American Academy of Pediatrics, keyword: play), www.npr.org(Article: Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills.) The public is also invited to attend, “The Power of Play” at Schlow Regional Library on Sunday, March 29th from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.The free program is sponsored by The Cooperative Playschool of State College and the library.Info at: www.cooperativeplayschool.com.
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)
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.
.jpg)
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.
