New School Year- New Schedule/Program

[Guest]

When the new school year starts, a lot of the children at our center change rooms. There is room in our preschool program due to the children going to kindergarten, so each age group moves children up. (Children do move up throughout the year due to age regulations, but rarely during the summer, and usually only one or two at a time) This means that we are losing our oldest children (6) and getting a new group of littles (7). We are basically reconstructing our program.

We are a play based program, so we don't want too strict of a schedule, but at the same time too much complete freedom leads to chaos and behavior issues. Especially with the age group we have. Our youngest children turned 2 over the summer, and our oldest will be 3 starting in October.

As far as schedule goes, we are almost working with a blank slate. There are a few things we can't change however, due to the fact that we have to share the outdoor space and that we cannot change the time for lunch/nap. So this is what we have.

Breakfast upon arrival (until 9- then breakfast is at home)
Our outside time is 9-10
Lunch is at 11
Nap after lunch until about 2:15

Aside from that, we just need to have time for snack in the afternoon.

I know it's a lot to ask, and please don't think I am asking anyone to completely plan our schedule/program. Just any advice I can get will be super helpful. I can use advice I get here, plus mine and my co-workers knowledge and pool it all together and make an awesome program. Though I have been working in childcare for over 10 years and have my ece degree, this age group is still very new to me.

Thank you!

[Play Care]

When my group is that young (as it was this past year) I call it my "training" year. I take out a lot of the toys to keep choices simple. Certain toys are no longer available all day (blocks, puzzles, games) but come out at specific times(and only when I can be right with them). I find I spend a lot of time teaching them how to play appropriately with toys - pretend to eat the play food not really eating it, don't just dump bins, books are for reading nicely not tossing on the floor, how to ask for (and wait for!) their turn, how to clean up, etc. etc.

I tend to go in cycles where I'll start out with a young group, then have them in the "sweet spot" for a couple of years before they go to K. Then I start a new, younger group and for a couple of months I'm always thinking "I don't remember this with my old group!" Before I remember the intensive work I did at the beginning

[Cradle2crayons]

When my group is that young (as it was this past year) I call it my "training" year. I take out a lot of the toys to keep choices simple. Certain toys are no longer available all day (blocks, puzzles, games) but come out at specific times(and only when I can be right with them). I find I spend a lot of time teaching them how to play appropriately with toys - pretend to eat the play food not really eating it, don't just dump bins, books are for reading nicely not tossing on the floor) how to ask for (and wait for!) their turn, how to clean up, etc. etc.

I tend to go in cycles where I'll start out with a young group, then have them in the "sweet spot" for a couple of years before they go to K. Then I start a new, younger group and for a couple of months I'm always thinking "I don't remember this with my old group!" Before I remember the intensive work I did at the beginning

I agree. The younger ages here ..... I also spend a great deal of time teaching appropriate behavior. Right now I have a three sibling set ages 2,3 and 6. All three of them I had to start from scratch and still haven't progressed very far.

All three of them came to me with very unacceptable, almost primitive behaviors. Such as scratching privates, girls walki around with their dresses up even in public, nose picking, unable to eat from spoons appropriately, you name it.

Basically children who haven't been parented at all.

It's been tough going, but I'm working on it. They are good kids really. Just they have parents who have dropped the ball.

I agree it's very important in the littles to teach a skill based approach. Appropriate play behaviors. Appropriate social behaviors. Play based learning. Etc.

[Sunshine74]

When my group is that young (as it was this past year) I call it my "training" year. I take out a lot of the toys to keep choices simple. Certain toys are no longer available all day (blocks, puzzles, games) but come out at specific times(and only when I can be right with them). I find I spend a lot of time teaching them how to play appropriately with toys - pretend to eat the play food not really eating it, don't just dump bins, books are for reading nicely not tossing on the floor, how to ask for (and wait for!) their turn, how to clean up, etc. etc.

I tend to go in cycles where I'll start out with a young group, then have them in the "sweet spot" for a couple of years before they go to K. Then I start a new, younger group and for a couple of months I'm always thinking "I don't remember this with my old group!" Before I remember the intensive work I did at the beginning

Our group is always in that age group, so we don't ever really get to that same "sweet spot" that you do. We've just never moved up so many young ones all at the same time before. Or at least not that I know of. It is my first year with this age group so it's all very new to me.

I am trying to figure out what I want to do for a circle time, if I want to do monthly themes , etc.

[Play Care]

Our group is always in that age group, so we don't ever really get to that same "sweet spot" that you do. We've just never moved up so many young ones all at the same time before. Or at least not that I know of. It is my first year with this age group so it's all very new to me.

I am trying to figure out what I want to do for a circle time, if I want to do monthly themes , etc.

I still do those things, but do not plan as many activities around them if that makes sense. Circle time is usually short and sometimes I'll do it right before I serve lunch when they are all at the table (captive audience :: ) But I also don't sweat it if we don't get to everything. I feel like when I have a young group it's more about the training and nurturing and less about the other stuff.

[Soccermom]

Hi

Here is my daily routine for the 2-4 year olds.

Breakfast until 8h15
Free play until 9h00
Attempted circle time at 9h00 (I usually just get them all to sit together and talk about the weather or ask what they did last night. We will make an attempt to sing a song and then read a book)
Preschool work, coloring, playdoh or other fine motor skill activity from 9h15-9h45
Bathroom and handwashing then snack at 10am
Outdoor time after morning snack until 11h15 or so...
Come inside and free play until lunch at 11h45
1pm - 2h30 is quiet time
2h45 bathroom and hand washing
3pm afternoon snack
3h15-4h00 Outdoor Play or craft if weather is bad
4h00 Free play until clean up at 4h30...
4h30-pick up Quiet play (I let them watch a show for 30 minutes..)

Not sure if this helps but this is what works for us and the kids seem to transition well from one activity to the other.

[spinnymarie]

I have a mixed age group, one 4.5, three just turned 3, one 2 and one 18 m, our sched is similar to Soccermom, except I fit circle time/calendar in between outdoor time and lunch.
7:30 - 8 breakfast/free play - I pull kids over from free play for short craft/fine motor activities
9:50 clean up from free play
10:00 snack
1015 - 11:15 outside
1115 - 11:45 circle time/songs/calendar/stories - I like this after outdoor time bc it helps everyone calm down and they have extra sitting stamina.
1145 - 12:00 book - kids read books quietly
12:00 - 12:30 lunch
12:30 - 2:30 naps
2:30 - 3:50 free play
3:50 clean up
4:00 more books and songs until 4:30 when the kids go home