San Francisco, CA
Glenridge Cooperative Nursery School

Glenridge Cooperative Nursery School is dedicated to providing children with a unique, child-centered learning program in one of the few natural environments left in San Francisco. The benefits of the co-op for children are nurturing love of our environment, laying a foundation for learning, and providing socialization skills. The benefits of the co-op for parents are allowing parents to actively participate in their child's education and providing a parental support system and a community for family development. A play-based curriculum is carefully planned in order to recognize each child's unique learning style, temperament, abilities, and development. Central to our teaching is the belief that children need to learn how to identify, express, and validate emotions and to develop social skills. Also, children need adult nurturing in developing problem solving and intellectual abilities as well as the shared experiences of communication and language. With our diverse curriculum and environment, we focus on the children's needs, abilities, and interests in order to promote each child's growing self-esteem and self-concept.

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Morning Program 9:30 - 12:30 The morning program has a Director, a Teacher, 5 parents, and 25 children. The day begins at 9:30 with free play and activity choices including art, daily hikes, dramatic play, journals, woodworking, manipulatives, cooking, blocks, tactile play, and gross motor movement play. We come together at circle time to read, sing, and do rhythm activities before snack. The children then have outdoor playtime consisting of bikes, climbing, nature, art, swings and dramatic play. A brief outdoor circle ends the program at 12:30.

Afternoon Program 12:30 - 3:30 The afternoon program begins at 12:30 with a Director, a Teacher, 3 parents, and 19 children. We have lunch together and afterward the children choose from various indoor and outdoor experiences such as art, science, nature, climbing, hiking, manipulatives, dramatics, blocks, woodworking, and tactile play. After clean up time we have a circle time with singing, games, creative movement, and time to discuss the day's activities. The day ends at 3:30 with snack and a story.

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