This is our Daily Routine at the Kindergarten unit. The timings below show you how our day is set out, and below the timings are an explanation of each part of the day.
7:30 – Open; self registration, free play and exploration of the morning’s learning centres
8:30 – Morning meetings in K1 and K2 classes
8:40 – Choosing a learning centre and free flow [and toileting focus]
9:20 – Tidy up time
9:30 – Focused Activity Rotation
10:30 – Free play and TWO adult initiated activities | Painting & Garden activities [and toileting focus]
11:05 – K1 Tidy up time
11:15 – K1 circle time
11:30 – Red group Lunch, Blue group extended circle time
11:45 – Blue group Lunch, and K2 Tidy up time
11:55 – K2 Circle Time
12:10 – Yellow group Lunch, Green group extended circle time
12:25 – Green group lunch
*** Nap Time – all children in K2 classroom***
2:00 – Free play, use of K1 and outside space and COOKING ACTIVITY [and toileting focus]
2:45 – All sleepers up, and K2 classroom fully functioning as learning centres | Numeracy and Literacy daily teaching sessions for specific colour groups
4:00 -Tidy up time
4:10 – 3 Story Circles and snack from cooking activity
4:30 – Close
4:30 – 5:50 – There is an afternoon club in the building, joint with the Toddlers group – for any children who wish to stay between after 4:30, this can be booked as a permanent arrangement, or booked in advance on an ad-hoc basis if there are spaces available.
Key Elements of the Day
Morning Meeting
During the morning meeting the children meet in their home class with their practitioners. They review the day of the week, and say good morning to each other. The practitioners will show the children each of the learning centres which have been set up, and give some explanation of how to use them. They will review the visual timetable of the day, and then choose which learning centre they wish to start at
Toileting focus
There are a few toiling toiling focuses spread across the day. This is where one identified staff member checks on every children to ensure that they visit the toilet during this period, or if they are still in nappies, that these are changed. Toilets are freely accessed by children all through the day, but these focus times help to ensure that children learn to regularly visit the toilet as a matter of routine.
Tidy up time!
Scattered throughout the day are a series of ‘Tidy up Times’ – these are accompanied with a song, and each child has a specific task to help with. This helps up to keep the nursery organised and accessible and teaches the children to have a sense of responsibility and ownership over their space.
Focused Activity Rotation (FAR)
During the daily FAR session, the children are grouped into their colour groups, and spend 15 minutes at 4 different activity stations. At each station, there is a carefully planned activity with one of the practitioners. Each activity has a clear start, middle and end and a learning intention to support children’s learning and development. FAR activities touch on each aspect of the early years foundation stage over the course of time, and include sitting and more active sessions. Example include making things, such as craft activities, challenge based activities such as throwing hoops, matching games, music and rhythm based activities – the list goes on! Every two weeks, we publish the fortnightly plan for parents, so that you can see the FAR activities planned for each day.
Adult Initiated Activities
These are activities that are planned during free play times, and children can flow in and out of as they wish. At 10:40 everyday there are two to choose from; one is always a painting activity (painting with brushes, painting with rollers, painting with sponges, painting with hands etc) and one is always an outside/physical gross motor skills based activity. At 2pm each day, there is a cooking activity and at 2:45 there is one further adult initiative activity.
Literacy and Numeracy teaching sessions
Each day one of the colour groups has an extended literacy teaching session and one group has an extended numeracy teaching session. During the literacy session, we start to explore early phonics, initial word sounds, matching games the older colour groups will start with phoneme-Grapheme correspondence (early reading skills). The numeracy session introduces and develops counting skills, shape and space concepts and pattern work. Each colour group has between 5 and 8 children, and so these teaching sessions are carefully targeted to the children’s stage of development and understanding. Their weekly numeracy and literacy session will last from between 20 at the beginning of the year and up to 45 minutes by the end, growing in length as the year progresses. These sessions will help lay a strong foundation for children in the core skills they will need as they progress on from Rainbow.