CNS OCTOBER 2025 Newsletter
Dear CNS Families,
Fall has arrived, bringing with it the crisp air, golden leaves, and that unmistakable energy that fills our schoolyard this time of year. The children are busy noticing the changes around them — crunching through leaves, collecting acorns, and sharing laughter with friends as they explore the outdoors together. Fall reminds us how beautiful change can be, and how much joy there is in simply being present with one another.
This season is all about celebrating nature and friendship — the heart of what makes our community so special. Whether we’re taking a walk through the woods, building together in the sandbox, or creating art inspired by the colors of fall, our children are learning about connection: to the world around them, to their friends, and to themselves.
As families, these moments extend beyond the classroom too, from apple picking and leaf piles to cozy story times at home. We hope you take time to slow down, step outside, and soak in the wonder of the season with your children. These shared experiences, big and small, are what make this time of year so magical.
What’s New
CNS Window Painting & Scarecrow
Thank you to everyone who came down to the library to help decorate the CNS window! The painting beautifully captures the spirit of our community. Students are truly “falling in love with learning” through their colorful handprints and joyful artwork! Thank you, Lindsay, for bringing this wonderful display to life!
Likewise, the CNS Scarecrow located on the town green also highlights the spirit of our school — a joyful celebration of reading, creativity, and fall festivities. Thank you to everyone who joined in the fun and cast a vote to support our school community.
Construction at CNS!
Exciting progress is underway at Community Nursery School — the foundation for our new schoolhouse is complete! This marks an incredible step forward in creating an inviting, accessible space where more children can learn, play, and grow.
This project reflects the heart of our CNS community — teamwork, generosity, and a shared commitment to nurturing young learners. We’ve already reached $150,000 toward our $400,000 goal, and every contribution helps bring our dream closer to reality.
Join us in laying the groundwork for the next generation of CNS students:
https://donorbox.org/new-school-house.
Happy 70th Birthday CNS!
Sunday, October 19th, 2025 - Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate our Nursery School’s 70th anniversary! It was a wonderful afternoon filled with outdoor activities, laughter, and connection. This milestone celebration was not only a tribute to our school’s rich history, but also a beautiful community-building event that brought families, friends, and neighbors together. We’re so grateful to everyone who helped make it so special!
Everyday Literacy Adventures
to Try at Home
Story Basket
What to do: Fill a small basket with a favorite book and objects or toys that appear in the story.
How it helps build literacy skills: Encourages oral language, comprehension, and story recall as child make connections between the objects, act out the story while reading it, or even use the objects to help “read” the book.
Alphabet Nature Hunt
What to do: Take a walk and look for items outdoors that start with each letter (e.g., “B” for Bark, “L” for leaf).
How it helps build literacy skills: Searching for objects that begin with specific letters helps children connect sounds to symbols and builds early phonemic awareness in a playful, hands-on way.
Story Stones - Paint or draw simple pictures on rocks (sun, dog, tree…) and use them to tell outdoor stories.
How it helps build literacy skills: Using stones with pictures to create and tell stories encourages vocabulary development, sequencing, and oral language skills — all of which are foundational for reading comprehension and storytelling.
Family Spotlight
The Sulkowskis
We’re Maggie and Parker Sulkowski, proud parents of Nora (4), who is in Mrs. Krischtschun’s class, and Molly (1½), who is in Nature 2’s with Mrs. Sullivan. Parker is a scientist, and Maggie works part-time as a dietitian while also spending time at home with the girls. Parker grew up right here in Guilford, while Maggie is from West Hartford, and together we’ve called Guilford home since 2015—along with our chocolate lab, Stella.
As a family, we love exploring the area and spending as much time outdoors as possible. Parker enjoys golfing, Maggie loves to read, and we’re always looking for new adventures to share with the girls!
Classroom Corner
Our Nature School classes use emergent curriculum. What this means is that the teachers observe the students' interests and scaffold the learning off of what they are drawn to in the world around them. We call this following a thread of inquiry, and the one that has emerged first this year is.....spiders! This began when the children saw a web on the trail, and then another on the barn. Their excitement and curiosity has them deep in studying spiders! If you spent the day at basecamp you would see children looking at a spider's exoskeleton, making webs with yarn, reading fiction and non-fiction spider books, and engaging in all things spider. This is an amazing, organic way to learn content standards and Nature School is so perfectly situated for this special kind of curriculum.
Rachel Daniels, CNS Director
