Blog

Frosty’s Table

Frosty’s Table is a tradition where the children get to “shop” for gifts for their family members and it was a huge success. Thanks to all the parents who volunteered to come in an extra time this month to help the kids shop & wrap as well as the Board to organize.  The kids really get a kick out of picking for their immediate and extended family. We hope everyone enjoys their holiday surprises, picked with love, from their kids!

Presents to choose from

(don’t be fooled. there were lots of choices! this was after all the shopping)
Wrapping choices. The kids had one-on-one time to pick paper and talk to the helping parent.
Wrapped and ready to go home!
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Thankful

This fall, each of the 3’s and 4’s classes held a “Friendsgiving” the last class before Thanksgiving break.  It was a wonderful time of community, food, and crafts!

Thanksgiving Haiku:
It’s that time of year.
Family and friends together.
We gather, thankful.

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Fall Trip to Fire Station

In November, the 4’s classes got to participate in a fun field trip to the local Waugh Chapel Fire Station and learn how firefighters help serve our community.  They also got to see all the cool gear the firefighters use and wear!

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Fall Field Trip to a Farm

The 4s classes went to Sharp’s Farm together for way more than your standard pumpkin patch field trip!  We met up at the chicken coops (always a good way to start a day!) The farmers let the kids feed the chickens some lettuce, pet a bunny named peanut butter, watch the pigs eat pumpkins with their whole faces inside them, feed the goats some corn, and pet a donkey.

71-year-old Farmer, Chad, taught the kids all about beekeeping including trying on a beekeeper’s hat. Then we all boarded a hayride that included a very exciting fake engine failure in the middle of a creek. All the kids went home with a sugar pumpkin they picked off the vine themselves and an ear of popping corn they pulled off the stalk.  The parents enjoyed getting to know each other better and the quiet rides home as the tuckered out kiddos napped on the way back to Crofton.

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Back to School!

 

 

We are all jazzed to be back to school!  The teachers, students and families are settling into their routines and getting to know each other. 

 

 

 

 

 

We would like to thank Mrs. Pamela Cartee for her four years of wonderful teaching service to our 3s program.  She has touched so many young lives and been a memorable, patient and nurturing member of our community as a co-op parent, co-op President and teacher.  We will miss her and wish her and her family all the best!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

And in other exciting co-op news, we would like to welcome Mrs. Tara Johnson  as our new 3s teacher.  We are thrilled to have Mrs. Johnson “back” since she has been a member of our community since 2011 as a co-op parent and co-op President previously.  Her heart has always been here, now we are happy to have her as a teacher.

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly, there are a few openings in the PM classes. Email or call Membership for enrollment information at membership.cns@gmail.com or 443-292-6625. 

Here’s to a fantastic 2018-2019 school year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Summertime Fun!!

Summertime is in full effect!  Please keep an eye on our facebook page for upcoming events for CNS!!  We will be getting outside to nearby parks throughout the summer to get the kiddos together and enjoy the sunshine!  We will also be attending a few of the Crofton Farmers Markets throughout the summer.  Please feel free to join us!

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Roses are red, violets are blue …

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! There is nothing more uplifting than celebrating holidays with kids and when the holiday is Valentine’s Day, a day filled with sweets and treats and sharing our love with our friends and family, it really doesn’t get much better! Today, at CNS we had a fun filled day with music, laughter, crafts and exchanging valentines, it was a blast!

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Miss Kelly came for a special Valentine’s Day music class filled with lots of learning and lots of fun! Miss Kelly’s music classes help to support our curriculum and reinforce what we are working on in the classroom … the pledge of allegiance, shapes, letters, sight-words, left/right, etc. It is a wonderful and FUN way to help encourage the love of learning at a young age!

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Miss Kelly helped the kids dance and sing along to special Valentine’s Day songs and as always she helped get those extra wiggles and giggles out of the kids 🙂

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Together we made “love bugs” and even though the kids might not know it, they worked on math while doing this craft. We discussed how to compare and order things based on size. Our “love bugs” went from biggest to smallest and we discussed the different ways to describe the same things with different words, for example “tallest to shortest” or “biggest to smallest” etc. My favorite part of this activity was seeing the creativity in each child’s very own “love bug”.

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We exchanged valentines with our classmates and shared a very special Valentine’s Day treat. Thank you again to all of our wonderful working parents who always take the extra step to make these days even more special for the kids!

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Making Mittens

With the cold weather blowing through us here in Maryland, we all need our hats, gloves and mittens more than ever. Today at CNS, we made our very own mittens to celebrate the wonders of wintertime!

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The students worked on writing their names on the back of their mittens and then they got to let their creativity run wild decorating them.

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Glue, buttons, gems, feathers and more! Each mitten was as unique as the child making them! It is wonderful watching their young minds coming up with new creations!

 

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Winter STEM Fun

The weather has been getting colder and colder and for most of us that means bundling up and trying to stay warm but for a Minnesota girl like Mrs. Scott-Kem it means fun with science! There are not many people who can get a group of 4 and 5 year olds together to make a scientific hypothesis, test their hypothesis and track the results, Mrs. Scott-Kem however, is one of those people and we are very lucky to have her here at CNS!

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Mrs. Scott-Kem discussed the difference between a solid and a liquid and how some of the things we see everyday are different forms of the same exact thing, like water. To help better understand this, the class did a fun science experiment.

 

 

 

We filled 2 containers with water, one had a lid and could hold more water and the other was a shallow bowl without a lid. We placed both containers outside on a very, very cold January morning. But which container would freeze first? … and so the fun begins! Together the class came up with their own hypotheses about which container would freeze and we tracked each student’s prediction on our magnet board.

 

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While the kids were waiting for the water to freeze, we discussed the reasons why they felt one container would freeze before the other. We discussed how the volume of the liquid, (which one has more or less than the other) as well as having a lid might affect the results. This might sound like a lot for 4 year olds to comprehend, but they didn’t skip a beat! At the end of class we brought the containers inside and discussed the results. Since the blue bowl was shallow (held less water) and had no lid, it was the first to freeze. As you can see from our hypotheses, most of the kids were spot on! And the ones who predicted the other container proved that even at 4 and 5 years old, they can make their own choices and not just follow the crowd. It was really fun watching their big brains at work! Yay for STEM at CNS!

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