The Cooperative Nursery School at USG

Spirits were high last Thursday as our CNS preschoolers, teachers, and co-op parents arrived for our beloved Pride On Wheels tradition! Around a track chalked by Teacher Leah in the parking lot safe zone, children pedaled and balanced their bikes and scooters while music played and bubbles floated by. Teacher Ann opened a “car wash” on the slight uphill and with a spray bottle provided a lightly cooling mist for the bikers and scooters to roll through. Imagine the children’s delight when a “popsicle stand” opened at the kitchen window and Teacher Jess offered a cool, rainbow colored treat through the open window! While many days rise to the occasion of it being “the best day EVER!” at CNS, there was consensus that this one was “THE best day EVER!” June 2026

Creating a welcoming space for everyone extends to the older caregivers in our community, some of whom we get to know as regulars dropping-off their preschoolers or meeting them at the end of their day. We also LOVE welcoming Grandparents & Grandfriends to campus every May for a special visit. Our visitors enjoyed circle time, Inquiry, and free play on the playground with us this year! Thank you to all our visitors for being with us!

Our little dove, Kai, is visiting again much to our and her shared delight! Kai is so happy on school days when her bonded flock of preschoolers arrive and sing to her at morning circle! At inquiry we enjoy bathing her, swaddling her in towels, and cuddling her to our chests so she warms up and feels safe in our arms. She comes outdoors with us in her crate so she can feel the wind, soak up the sun, and hear us play. Kai is a gentle silkie dove (hand-raised by last year’s preschool cohort) who has been our companion as we’ve been practicing caretaking for living things and for one another.

When we are playing, we make all kinds of nature discoveries! Take a look at what we found in the creek when the temperatures here in the city rose to 90+ degrees.

Look what we made! With bits and pieces of Lego and manipulatives, artists materials, nature’s loose parts, and an endless supply of preschool imagination and creativity, we created all these things!

After creating a tiny living world in a glass vase with lichen, fungus, and moss found in woods during the coldest days in winter, we learned more about their interest in mushrooms. We grew a box of mushrooms along with a sense of awe and curiosity. Later on we compared and contrasted various mushrooms from our local co-op during Inquiry Time. A few days later we had a mushroom stir-fry and tasted them!

CNS playtime is enriched by access to a small deciduous oasis with a canopy of mature oak trees and a beautiful willow tree. Underfoot a trickle of water flows into a rocky slope we call “The Creek.” Here the ferns grow tall and a diverse number of birds, insects, and amphibians make their home. Warmer spring weather compels many preschoolers to seek out creekside activities as explorers, naturalists, engineers, and fairy tale characters. Recently, foraged bamboo and knotweed were integrated into roofing materials for the “kitchen fort” and insect larvae were found under leaf packs in the water! If you see us in rainboots on a dry sunny day, you’ll know we are on our way to the creek!

Our CNS Night Party is an endearing, magical tradition held once a year in May. Teachers work industriously behind the scenes weeks prior to create special play spaces that come to life in the evening, after children return to school with their parents. Although the theme arises from the interests of the children and teachers share consensus around plans, in the end, the theme is a surprise for the parents and children alike. This year our theme highlighted some of our favorite dragon stories from our fiction and non-fiction book collection!

Have you heard about our Winged Wonders project with monarch butterflies? This spring, we received exciting news! The paper monarchs we created during the fall through Monarch Joint Venture’s Symbolic Monarch Migration pen pal project were received by children in schools across the United States and Mexico — and we received some of theirs, too!

Last fall, we raised, tagged, and released monarch butterflies from our school grounds and overwintered swallowtail butterflies for release this spring. More recently, we placed a preserved butterfly specimen under magnification to examine its scales and were in awe of the colors reflected back to our eyes. Did you know that butterfly scales create colors and patterns that can help protect them from predators? There is so much more we want to learn about creatures with scales!

Our Spring Fling is coming up soon, and we couldn’t be more excited to celebrate together on Saturday, April 25 from 2–5 PM at the Cooperative Nursery School!

This year, we’re shaking things up and bringing even more fun to the day. Instead of a silent auction, we’re hosting a Raffle Basket Extravaganza and an exciting 50/50 raffle—giving everyone a chance to win big while supporting our school.

Tickets are free! We hope you’ll join us for an afternoon of fun, community, and celebrating the very special school that CNS is. It’s going to be a fantastic day for all ages!