It has been a great "First Week" of preschool this year! I have put together a schedule that I believe will work for us.
9:00-9:20
Morning Work- the children will arrive and do "work" at the table while they wait for the others. Some examples of this "work" are playdoh, drawing, puzzles, unifix cubes, etc.
9:20-9:30
Circle Time- the children get an ABC mat and sit around the easel. During this time we see who is here, graph the weather and discuss what learning activities we will do today. We will also have short phonemic awareness lesson from our
Zoo Phonics program.
9:30-10:20
Centers- now the children are allowed to play in the various centers that are set up in the classroom. There is housekeeping, blocks and transportation, dress-up, art, science, literacy corner, puzzles and games and a sensory table.
Also during this time I will do an activity with a small group. It will be focused on our theme and/or letter of the week. Sometimes it will be something the children can take home and other times it will be a learning game such as memory or letter bingo.
Chase and Nolan are playing in the Blocks and Transportation center.
Trent and Addy are painting in the Art center.
10:20-10:35 Snack and Storytime- after playing in centers we take a break to use the bathroom, wash our hands and have a snack. While the children are eating I will read stories to them. We read their favorites and I also try to read a couple that go along with our learning objectives for that day. While reading we predict the endings, discuss rhyming words, talk about what happened to the characters, etc. We usually can read 2-4 books.
10:35-11:25 Centers The children go back to playing in the centers. I will generally do another activity with small groups.
11:25-11:45 Circle Time-the children clean up the centers and gather around the easel for another circle time. During this time we will do finger plays and/or sing songs. I will also do a group activity based on science, math, social studies, and that ties into our letter of the week. This will sometimes be followed with a group activity at the table to enforce the concept we just discussed.
11:45-12:15 Lunch- the children line up to use the bathroom and wash their hands. Then they eat lunch.
12:15-12:45 Outside Play- after lunch we clean up and go outside. They can ride scooters and tricycles, play in the sandbox and clubhouse, swing and slide, draw with chalk, etc. They love working their large muscles.
12:45-12:50
Clean up and Dismissal - after cleaning up the outside toys the children will come inside and wait for their parents.
12:50-1:00 Independent Reading time- after cleaning up our outside toys the children come inside and read. This is a quiet time as they wait for their parents to pick them up.
