Daily Schedule

As all educators and parents know, flexibility is the MOST important quality when working with children. We are experiencing this first hand in regards to our daily schedule. Here is what we started with...

7:00-8:30 Early drop off
8:30 Enter Classroom
8:45 Morning Meeting
        Free Choice
        Clean Up
10:30 Snack
        Outdoor Play
12:00 Lunch
12:45 Whole Group Game
1:10 Enrichment Class / Prep
1:40 Outside
2:45 Closing Meeting
3:00 Go Home / Snack- join activity

Mondays
9:00 School Meeting
10:30 Music in classroom
10:50 Movement

Tuesday/Wednesday
11:00/9:30 Music

Fridays
10:00 School Meeting

Well, within the first two hours of the first day of school our schedule already changed. And, not to mention that Mondays are already very busy- the kids wanted more indoor time to dive into their projects. Annnnnd.... a lot of kids did not arrive until closer to 9:00am.

Ok. Reminder- BE FLEXIBLE!

First hurdle- Monday enrichment got moved from 1:10 to 1:45. We ended up using the time after lunch to extend their indoor play and went outside after enrichment. This did not work.

1. the room next to use is being used for nap on Mondays- we cannot be loud. You all know how hard it is to keep kids quiet, and especially after lunch. 
2. we were outside with the younger children after enrichment. This would not normally be an issue, except for that they went inside at 2:45 for snack. I tried having the Hummingbirds join activity to prep for snack at this time, but it didn't feel right. We didn't have a closing circle and everyone was a little confused. 

New schedule on second day...

8:45 Meeting

        Free Choice

        NO clean up

10:30 Snack

11:00 Music

        Continued Free Choice - in classroom 

        Clean Up

12:00 Lunch

        Outside

2:00 Inside

        Group Games

        Books

        Closing circle

We entered the day hoping to start our morning meeting a 8:45, but again, this did not happen. 

NEW new schedule for the remainder of this week...

8:30 Outside drop off

9:00 Morning Meeting

        Free Choice

        NO clean up

10:30 Snack

11:00 Music

        Free Choice - in classroom 

        Clean Up

12:00 Lunch

        Outside

2:00 Inside

        Group Games

        Books

        Closing circle

Our goal is to eventually get to morning meetings at 8:45. Eventually. Additionally, we changed our drop off from inside to outside to create a better flow of the day. Having the meeting start after the children were already involved in play felt haphazard and their focus was not on the discussion at hand. 

Ok. Let's try this. Remember- BE FLEXIBLE! =)