A Day in the Life

Here is a sampling of what your child's day would look like:

 

Table Time:

This is the child’s introduction to the day at preschool where the students may choose from 3 or 4 activities, restricted to the table area of the classroom, that help build thinking and fine motor skills. Such as:

• A play dough table (building strength in the hands),
• An art table (rotating cutting and gluing, coloring, beading, dry erase boards, watercolors, etc.),
• A manipulative table (blocks, K'nex, counting activities, lacing cards, magnets, etc.)
• The Easel for painting.
• Counting & Sorting activities
• We often provide a form of "science" to observe (something that was found outside to look at and investigate with magnifying glasses)

Table Time also includes:

• Sign In sheet for the children to ‘sign in’ to class
• Question of the Day which reinforces the themes of the week as well as helping name recognition

 

Circle Time / Whole Group Meeting:

Warm-up songs, calendar, weather, book, planning our project, math minute, jobs chart & show and tell.

Whole group time is a wonderful opportunity for the children to develop their listening skills and the idea of taking turns to speak. Show and Tell is a great activity the children love, where they get their first chance at speaking in front of a group of their peers. Activities in this whole group time address both math (i.e., graphing, sequencing & patterns with the calendar and weather) and literacy (i.e, following a story). With the jobs chart the children develop on the idea of personal responsibility.

Group Project:

This project will reinforce the theme of the week and is completed by the children at the same time at the tables, with the assistance of the teachers. Over the course of the year the children are encouraged to show greater independence with their work and will start to make connections between the instruction received in the Group Meeting and their responsibility for the project. At this time, the children will also get to have some time working in their journals.
 

Free Choice/Centers/Small Group Work:

At this time children are free to direct their own learning by using anything in the classroom. Puzzles, games, toys etc. are changed on a regular basis. This is a great time for the children to develop their friendships as well as learning how to share, take turns and all while having fun! The centers will usually include:

• Imagination Center -- changed out monthly. We have offered a Vet's Office, a Shoe Store, a Hardware Store, a Bake Shop, a Pizza Restaurant, Ice House etc.
• Blocks Center -- a variety of blocks to build and manipulate.
• Library Center -- books, puppets, stuffed animals, puzzles and other quiet activities
• Art Center -- One of the teachers offers another optional activity for the students to complete that goes along with the current theme. Usually free art (paper, scissors, glue, crayons, etc.) and the Easel are open at this time too.
• Discovery Center - the sensory table is filled with a variety of different materials that correlate to the theme and is changed regularly. For example, during November it might contain corn meal and peas and other Harvest type materials. In Winter it can contain sugar cubes and salt along with vehicles that represent snow plows and they can make tracks through the snow. In Spring it might contain compost and seeds. It always has measuring containers and a variety of tools for the students to use to manipulate the materials.