About Maple Street School

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Maple Street School is play-based, cooperative preschool. 

Founded in 1978 by families in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn we maintain the vision of providing meaningful and joyful learning and play experiences to children ages 2-5 in our community and beyond.  

Maple Street’s curriculum is community-emergent and based on children, teachers, families, and the community’s resources and growth. We work to create a culture of beloved community, where we believe everyone gets to play.  

Maple Street classroom curriculums are inspired by the Bank Street Developmental Interactive Model and Reggio Emilia philosophies.  We are a school that embraces many philosophies and heros.  We are a vibrant, dynamic educational community of play, wondering, and learning together. We  believe that choosing one or even two philosophies is limiting for so many voices and needs.  We are all lifelong learners and are always researching and practicing how to best serve our early childhood community. 

Maple Street strives to be an inclusive school and pays attention to and learns about race, gender, identity, class, access, ability and special needs, allergies and medical conditions and more. We are always learning, expanding and growing. 

HOURS & LOCATIONS

626 Flatbush Ave.

Our dedicated facility at 626 Flatbush Avenue is the home to our 2s, 3s and 4s programs.

We now have two locations, one at 21 Lincoln Road and one at 626 Flatbush Avenue and we serve 111 children each day.  Families have the option to enroll full-time and we also offer several part-time schedules. We are open 8am-6pm Monday-Friday.  We loosely follow the public school schedule and are closed during their breaks.

21 Lincoln Road

Our home since 2001, 21 Lincoln Road is home to our Pre-K programs, both UPK and private, for 4s and 5s.


The Cooperative

Maple Street School is a cooperative preschool. Our school belongs to all of us, and we all work to keep our school thriving both operationally and culturally. Maple Street families are not considered customers, but stakeholders in the success of the school and integral members of an intentional community. Through the co-op, Maple Street families have the opportunity to gain deeper connections by actively participating in our community, help to keep costs down by collectively contributing to duties that we would otherwise have to pay for, and get to make a tangible contribution to the success of our community and school. Our families participate in nearly all facets of the school from helping to build emergent curriculum, to vital fundraising and event planning, to helping maintain our facilities, to planning community building events, and everything in between! In turn, our families build connections that go well beyond the classroom and often beyond the preschool years, develop a unique sense of belonging and ownership, and get to see the fruits of their efforts in the collective celebration of our community at numerous gatherings and celebrations throughout the year.

The Cooperative of Maple Street is a large part of what makes the school uniquely special and a valuable component of the school and community. All families of children enrolled in our morning and full day programs have coop responsibilities. Families in our after school, drop-in, and summer programs are encouraged to participate in the Coop.