Westville Nursery School Keeps Play Alive

Mud happens and wet happens and messy clothes happen and it’s all good. 

Those are the words of author and play space designer Rusty Keeler about risky play, a philosophy that involves, in simplest terms, letting kids be kids, and is practiced at Westville Community Nursery School, a place where the tradition of jumping on mattresses has passed from generation to generation.

This Saturday, Dec. 9, WCNS, which offers preschool for children between the ages of 3 and 5, with some younger students, will hold an open house from 3 to 5 p.m.. The open house will include hot cocoa and crafts, and will culminate in the annual Westville tree lighting at 5:30, executive director Shannon Knudsen said.

Knudsen joined the Tour Avenue institution as executive director in August with one priority: extending the operating hours to 5:30 p.m. She got it done. 

“The board understood that it’s a hardship for parents to pick up their kids at 1 or 3 o’clock because many parents work,” she said on a recent afternoon as a young student approached the sink toward the end of nap time.

“Too cold,” the student told Knudsen amid the strains of ​“Hush Little Baby” in the mellow light of the 3,000-square foot open space.

“If you move the handle this way over here,” Knudsen replied, pointing to her left, ​“that makes it warmer, just let it warm up, it’ll warm up.”

The practice of play-based learning by doing has been a hallmark of WCNS since it was founded in 1971. It’s another way, in addition to the extended hours, that the nonprofit is quietly doing its part to ensure access to quality early childhood care and education to as many area families as it can.

“We are proudly on the front lines of the child care crisis,” Knudsen said. ​“Our focus is on giving each of our kids a great start in life by embracing the science and the research on how kids grow best.”

One example: a philosophy that has open-ended activities ​“not as something that gets in the way of teaching, but as a tool to develop creative thinking,” said Juanita Ayala, who’s been teaching at WCNS since 2006. ​“So if a child, say, doesn’t want to wear shoes outside, we ask ​‘why do you think you have to wear shoes’ and they can come up with some incredible answers.”

There are learning opportunities in the mud kitchen, the music wall, and the garden in the playground, as well as the stations in the open space that range from a letter-writing desk to one with building blocks, another with puzzles and games, and still another with a host of art supplies. 

“My son was really into writing, and he was always at that writing table,” said Tahera Parvez, a board member and parent of one current student and three WCNS alums. ​“That was the point, to see what he gravitated to, and they not only let him, they leaned into it.” 

For Parvez, ​“it really takes a master teacher to recognize this as a passion and enrich it, rather than saying ​‘time to move to the science area, or he won’t be well-rounded.’”

Ayala sees her role as drawing out the natural curiosity of her charges.

“If they want to figure out how to build a bridge, we ask ​‘what materials do we need for a bridge,’ and then we let them see what works and what doesn’t and what else we can try.’”

On a recent walk to Mitchell Library, ​“it wasn’t about getting from Point A to Point B,” Knudsen said. ​“It was about stopping and looking at the Cat Cafe, peeking into the hair salon, looking at the mailboxes on the street, just taking in the surroundings, the beauty and complexity of our neighborhood.” 

At WCNS, ​“it’s really about building our sense of community, not just between the kids and the families, but with the larger Westville village,” said Jaime Kane, who’s been teaching at the preschool since 2008. Kane, who runs an after school drama club at Edgewood School, said she delights in seeing her former students around the neighborhood and beyond. 

That’s because WCNS works with families to apply for the School Readiness Preschool Program that benefits high-need communities and the Connecticut Office of Early Childhood’s Care 4 Kids that helps low-to-moderate income families in Connecticut pay for childcare costs, Knudsen said. 

“Both organizations have liaisons for families and the school also has liaisons,” she said. 

That means the 20 students come not only from Westville but from throughout New Haven, as well as Hamden, North Haven, and Woodbridge, affording, Knudsen said, ​“a wide range of racial and economic diversity.” 

No doubt the job ​“can be physically and emotional demanding, and not just changing diapers but trying to figure out how to help a kid who’s struggling,” said Anne Olcott, a WCNS teacher since 2004. 

“But one of the great things is that we’re all team players and we all have a deep passion for this work,” she said, of her rapport with Ayala, Kane, and Knudsen, along with long-time assistant Sandy Houston and Jorgie Bruckmann, teacher’s assistant for the aftercare program.

“We’re constantly throwing out ideas to each other on how to incorporate new thinking, or sharing observations of the kids, whether in the classroom, nights, or weekends.”

“Sometimes what we get from going to a workshop or reading a new book is validation of what we’re already doing, but sometimes we get a new idea about how to do something a little bit different, and we get so jazzed.” 

In other words, Knudsen said, ​“letting kids get muddy and jump on mattresses never gets old.”