In a preschool or daycare setting, question for teachers and teachers aides?

Question

can you please describe rountines that are used at your daycare/preschool for greeting and transitions, clean up time, snack time, naptime, toileting and circle time.

what works well and what areas are challenging?

Answer 1

8:30-Teachers arrive and prepare environment (make sure everything is stocked (paper on art activities, pencils sharpened, materials are in place…).

9:00-Children arrive. We have a magnetic “responsibility chart” where children choose what they will take care of after work time (pushing in chairs, cleaning tables, making sure the books in the library are tidy…) by placing their name on that responsibility. You would be amazed at what they can do! We then go outside. If it is raining they stay in at circle and look at books.

9:30-We ring a bell. The children put away what they have used outside and then line up. If all things have not gotten put away, we ask if any children are feeling helpful and want to help tidy up.

9:05-A teacher sits just inside the door and greets every child by saying “Good morning” and shaking their hands. This helps slow them down a bit. Children come inside, hang up their coats and come to circle and walk on a painted line in the shape of a circle to music. We sometimes mix it up by having them walk backward, carry a bell without ringing it (very challenging), carry a small vial of water without spilling…Once all of the children have been greeted and arrived to circle, we turn off the music, say in a singsong voice “Quietly sit down” and start circle by having a short discussion where children can raise their hands to say something or the teacher shares something. This is a good time to talk about any misbehavior on the yard because all children can participate in the discussion. Circle is started with a greeting song where every child is named. We then do the calendar. If children have sharing they do so after calendar. After that we then demonstrate one of the classroom materials, usually something new. Children are then excused to go to “work time” by showing their name card, excusing them by what color they are wearing, or by the first sound in their name. It works best to excuse them slowly.

9:45ish-Work time begins. In my classroom, two children are selected to make the snack for the class. There is a 3 person table for snack. If a child wants snack, they choose their name card, place it at the table on a placeholder, wash their hands, and the children in charge of snack serve them. If there is not a person in charge of snack they serve themselves. Cards are placed by the snack with a number (or picture) of how much they can have. During work time, teachers move throughout the classroom and help children in need. If the classroom starts to get loud or the children begin to “run a muck,” a quiet chime is rung (The chime was presented at circle so the children knew what to expect when they heard it.) It works like magic!

11:10-The child who picked the responsibility for the “Music box” is given a hand winding music box. They travel around the classroom with it so every child can hear. The children know that this means it is time to put away what they were doing, take care of their responsibility, and come back to circle. After all of the children arrive to circle, we ask if they took care of their responsibilities. Sometimes, if something wasn’t taken care of, some children are asked to help with it. A story is read and songs are sung. We do a lot of finger plays and movement activities.

11:30-Parents begin to arrive. Children are dismissed.

The children in my program are potty trained. We don’t have a “Toilet time.” The children just go when they need to. I was at one program where there was a “Toilet time.” After snack, lunch, before and after naptime, I just got real animated and said “Guess what? It’s potty time!” There were several bathrooms in the classroom so all of the children went at the same time, encouraging each other.

I would suggest with naptime that you just keep your routine consistent. Choose something that you do each day at the same time such as reading a story.

The beginning of the school year is challenging because the children have to take a lot in about how the classroom runs. We do lots of lessons at circle in the beginning about how to push in a chair, walk inside, get a snack, choose activities…It takes a little time but really pays off! It can also get challenging if one teacher is caught up doing something (speaking to a parent, taking care of a potty accident, dealing with a child who is misbehaving) and the other teacher has to run the class.

Hope this help you! Good luck!

Answer 2

we do changes every two hours and feed every two hours. 7:30 breakfast, 8:30 changes, 9:30 snack and so on. In between those times we have music development, large motor play (outside time), small motor play (puzzles, artwork), and language development(circle/story time). The most challanging times are transitions and changings. Transitions are made easier when children are on a set schedule and know what to expect. Same with greetings. I have the parents find a routine that works with them when they come in. Such as sit down and read a book with mom before she leaves, quick hug kiss and goodbye. Not sure if this has helped you but good luck.

Answer 3

we start at 9:30 but we have the bus route it takes about 2 hr we have 20 kids to pick up and put in seats so we have a cook that is there so we can eat asap 9:30 the kids unload put things in cubbys go to circle time we call roll then two by two we toilet and and wash hand then back to circle time plaing games sing and tell about there night while we wait on everyone to finish washing then the helper calls a color if u have it on u go to table get your own plate and sit when eveyone is sitting we pass the food
next brush teeth say the pleag month day and year then we sing the days of the week, months of the year, do some small group work like counting 1-20 then20-1 colors , names ,ryming word are the hardest
then back to circle for all togather work
next play time 15-20-min
play pick em up song the kids try to beat the song and it work back to circle for hand washing again then meal time
after lunch we do more work then go outside to play or on a walk