Playground opens at nursery school

The Yorkton Nursery School Cooperative has settled into its new location downtown and opened its own publicly accessible playground.

Since September, the long-established nursery school has been operating out of the former Curves location in the Yorkton Co-op Marketplace building on Argyle Street. The move was necessitated by a rent increase at the school's old location, but sharing a building with another cooperative has turned out to be ideal for the non-profit organization and its students.

"It suits us, what we're all about," said nursery school teacher Lana Haider. "It's a great partnership for us here."

This month, the school completed a new $36,000 playground built using donations from local businesses and community groups, the largest being a $10,000 contribution from the Kinsmen of Yorkton. The playground will be used daily by the children of the nursery school and will also be available to the public during all hours that the Co-op Marketplace is open.

The small playground is unique in Yorkton for its durable, rubberized cement base.

"It's zero maintenance and very safe," said teacher Karly Wagner.

The cooperative's new location brings with it some other advantages. The space was renovated to suit the needs of a modern nursery school, which included a shift from two classrooms to a single integrated classroom.

"Here, what we wanted to do was have the three[-year-old]s and four[-year-old]s interact with each other more to work on their social skills-learn how to share and socialize with each other," said Haider. "They have been doing amazingly."

One of the nursery school's next projects will be a citywide coloring contest to determine the name of the new playground.