Not Enough Hours in the Day

I teach preschool in a Head Start classroom. Our class day runs from 8:30 until 12:30 five days a week. As many preschool teachers would agree, it is tough to fit in all of the curriculum needs into the school day. Planning the daily schedule to include all the necessary components takes time and consideration.

Our school day includes:

8:30-8:45 Arrival
8:45-8:55 Wash Hands & Morning Meeting
8:55-9:25 Breakfast
9:25-9:35 Clean Up & Brush Teeth
9:35-10:15 Outside
10:15-11:15 Free Choice/Centers
11:15-11:30 Clean Up & Wash Hands
11:30-11:45 Circle/Large Group
11:45-12:15 Lunch
12:15-12:30 Clean Up & Manipulatives or Music and Movement
12:30 Departure

At the beginning of the school year, our schedule looked very different. We have several children in our class that have difficulty with transitions, so we took a close look at the schedule and cut out any that we could. This leaves large blocks of mostly unstructured time in our day with lots of goals still to work toward.

This forces us to be very mindful of creating "teachable moments" in order to reach our teaching goals. Where we used to have a story time so the children had direct exposure to being read to daily, we now read to children in small groups during free choice time.

Head Start has taken on a new initiative called "I Am Moving, I Am Learning" which focuses on increased physical activity and an increased awareness of nutrition. One of our teaching goals is to have 30 minutes of structured physical activity every day (60 minutes is recommended but given that our program is a 1/2 day program, it's unrealistic that we'll be able to reach that goal). Because of the challenges we have with transitions, we will need to meet this goal in creative and spontaneous ways. We already incorporate music and movement at least once or twice a week after lunch. This meets 1/2 of our goal for those days.

We are always trying to figure out ways to incorporate our Literacy, Math, Science, and other goals. We are selective when choosing which activities to do, preferring activities that are rich in multiple areas of cognition with the intent of covering several of our teaching goals in one activity. Children need the opportunity to repeat activities, to hear stories over and over, and to be able to explore materials used in activities on their own. This requires intense consideration when planning your activities. Visit www.creativepreschoolcurriculum.com for some cognitively rich activities to try with your children.

As preschool teachers, we all face similar challenges, but we each have unique experiences and approach our challenges in different ways. Utilize the ideas of fellow teachers so that you spend less time planning (reinventing the wheel) and more time working toward your teaching goals. Make learning fun and exciting and keep those children's minds and bodies in motion!