Community – Chappaqua Friends Nursery School

Our Community

Connection and Belonging

We are very fortunate to be part of a community that deeply cares about Chappaqua Friends Nursery School. Our community thrives with friendships, creativity, collaboration and involvement among our children, their families, the surrounding Westchester towns and our network of Friends schools.

What is community?
Community is a concept we explore deeply with our children. Children explore their expanding social world-from home and family-to the wider communities of friends, school and neighborhood.

Our family community
Building a bridge between families and schools is critical to a child feeling positive about school. Knowing that their parents are part of the school experience, witnessing their teachers’ and parents’ warm and friendly relationships serves as a foundation for positive and secure feelings about school for their entire time at CFNS.

We welcome and encourage families-parents, siblings, grandparents and anybody else special in a child’s life-to join us for our traditional Chappaqua Friends events. Not only does it foster a child’s positive feelings about their school and allow family members to share in the joy of our setting, but it also fosters lifelong friendships among parents and siblings for generations.

Our traditional family events include:

Fall Festival and Spring Celebration
Winter Holidays Sing-a-long

Spring Fling Annual Benefit
Stuart’s Fruit Farm Field Trip
Audubon Field Trip
Parent Back-to-School Night

“Chappaqua Friends is the most thoughtful community of teachers and parents who go above and beyond to work together to continue to develop the finest early childhood program. The passion throughout the entire community is energizing and compassionate. We feel so fortunate to be part of such a giving community.”

Giving

Gifts for excellence

We thank our community. Through their generosity and giving, our community affords us the ability to provide the finest program possible to set the foundation for lifelong learning for our children. Through donations of time, talent and financial giving, we are able to continuously improve, upgrade and innovate our space purposefully to build on our curriculum and best prepare children for life beyond our school.

Each year, our Chappaqua Friends Community of parents, teachers, and friends directly impact the lives of our young children through their support. The fundraising efforts close the gap between tuition and the actual cost of supporting the early childhood program that Chappaqua Friends offers. Only through the generous support of the entire Chappaqua Friends Community can we continue to provide an excellent program for children and their families-and we thank them wholeheartedly.

Community giving has afforded very meaningful projects that leave a lasting impression on the children including:

The Newly Renovated KIDchen
The Playscape – Birds Nest Structure

The Playscape – Mud Kitchen

The Playscape – Adirondack Lean-to
The Playscape – Surrounding plantings
The Big Room – Magnetic Science Wall
The Big Room – Small Parts

Each gift ensures that Chappaqua Friends will continue to have all the resources necessary to continue providing the richest early childhood educational experience for young children and their families.

Your support truly makes a difference
If you are interested in supporting Chappaqua Friends to continue to raise the standard for excellence in early childhood education, please contact Janet Himel.

Janet Himel
Director
(914)238-6831
janet@chappaquafriends.com

“To our family, Chappaqua Friends has become more than just our children’s preschool. Chappaqua Friends is a place through which each member of our family has cultivated lasting friendships, new appreciations and the general sense of connection and belonging that is often hard to find in a new community.”

2019 Giving Tree

Let’s Pretend with Friends

The Giving Tree will return post-pandemic when we can once again gather as a community for our annual fundraiser to benefit the school.

Welcome to the 2019 Giving Tree. We are so grateful for our Giving Tree each year and the families that contribute to our annual fundraising campaign in this way. It is such a special way for families to support specific programs to enrich and strengthen the curriculum at our school.

Let’s Pretend with Friends
Our 2019 Giving Tree provides families the opportunity to purchase items, handpicked by our CFNS teachers and director, that will enrich and strengthen the curriculum at our school.

In keeping with the theme of this year’s fundraiser, “Let’s Pretend with Friends,” the Giving Tree is chock-full of dress-up clothing, pretend wooden food, mixing bowls, measuring cups, and items that will enhance our dramatic play curriculum. With these new tools and kitchen items, plus new wooden kitchen furniture, our children will be able to “cook” in the outdoor mud kitchen that we are planning to build and transform the indoor dramatic play area into a kitchen, bakery, castle, or any other place that their imaginations bring them! Additionally, through the Giving Tree, you will have the opportunity to donate “your time” to help us construct the mud kitchen over the summer.

When you visit the site, you can browse through the various ways to donate – towards the purchase of a piece of dramatic play furniture, towards the purchase of a smaller kitchen item, or simply donating a dollar amount of your choice towards our fundraising goal. If you would like to fund the purchase of a specific item, simply click on the item, add it to your cart, and complete your donation online via credit card. If an item is showing “out of stock,” then it has already been fulfilled, so we invite you to choose another item or way to donate.

Finally, you will also be able to purchase raffle tickets online for a chance to win our “Mystery Basket.” Tickets are 1 for $10 or 6 for $50, and the winner will be drawn at the Spring Fling on March 29th. If you purchase your raffle tickets online, we will automatically enter your name on your tickets for you. Representatives from each class will also be selling raffle tickets in person at drop off and pick up during the week leading up to the Spring Fling.

How to give
Visit our 2019 Giving Tree where you can:

Donate individual items

Purchase Raffle Tickets

Thank you and please share

Thank you for your kindness and being part of our 2019 Giving Tree. Each gift allows us to continue to build the richest early childhood educational experience for young children and their families.

It is our goal to reach 100% participation in this essential aspect of our fundraiser and encourage you to share our 2019 Giving Tree with grandparents, family members, and others who may wish to support the incredible learning experiences that happen every day at Chappaqua Friends Nursery School!