A 2021-2022 Day in the Life of Puzzle Primes (3 yrs.)

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8:00-9:00 Greetings, getting started, and game plan

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All children arrive at school between 8:00 and 8:15 and are greeted at their classroom door by a teacher. Outside of the classroom, children organize their morning snack and water bottles into the appropriate baskets and go on to join their friends who are playing outside. During this first hour of school, we are all saying good morning to each other and acclimating to the new day. Some friends might read a book with a teacher, and others might get right to work in the sand area. Around 9:00, a teacher calls out, “Olly olly Puzzle Primes!” which signals for friends to stop what they’re doing and join the group for further instructions. At this point of the morning, teachers share what our choice time plan is for that particular day. Maybe there’s an insect carcass to observe closely in the classroom, or maybe there’s some project work we are planning to revisit.

9:00-10:20 Choice Time and Project Work

As we move into our classroom and the next phase of our day, children are asked to check in with their bodies to decide if they are hungry for snack or if they will delay their snack a little while longer. When a child is choosing to have their snack, they wash their hands, collect their snack bag from the basket, and note their choice by placing their clothespin inside of the bowl.

During this period of time, friends are busy exploring the classroom space and participating in project work while teachers are busy scaffolding the play, observing, and documenting pertinent dialogue and ideas. At the end of choice time, a teacher turns off the lights to give a clean-up message, turns on our clean-up song, and we all work together to put our materials back where they belong.

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10:25-10:45 Meeting 

After cleaning our space, we gather in a circle for a meeting. During this time we greet each other with a greeting or a song, and there is an opportunity to share with the group what work took place during choice time. Teachers will often use this time to get group input on conflicts or problems that need solving. At the end of our meeting, we think about the weather, and how we need to prepare our bodies for the woods.

11:00-12:30 Woods play

Children pack their adventure packs with their water and all necessary supplies for our woods spot. Some days we might pack lunch for a woods picnic. In our woods spot, friends get right to work digging in the dirt, balancing on logs, walking on slacklines, building forts, finding bugs, and imagining in the magical world of the woods.

12:30-1:15 Lunch

Teachers tell the kids to wash up their hands and take out their lunchboxes. We all eat lunch as a class so that we can talk amongst ourselves about our day so far, weekend plans, home life, etc. We also do a ton of talking about food during lunch time, which is a great way for everyone to have something to add to the lunch conversation. Lunch is an important community building time. Often towards the end of lunch a teacher will choose a story to read. This often helps the kids take those last few bites without being too distracted by their neighbors.

1:30-2:15 Rest time 

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After lunch is cleaned up we will start calming down the room for our rest time. Teachers do this by dimming the lights a bit and encouraging calm bodies. Students will go to the bathroom and find their cozy rest spot. Once most of the children are on their nap mats a teacher will turn on some quiet music. Students are encouraged to look at books quietly at this time so that their bodies and minds can have a break from the stimulation of the day. Teachers will float around the room tucking students in and making sure their rest time needs are being met. Some children will sleep and some will continue to look at books until it is time to transition into pick up and quiet play.

2-3 Indoor/outdoor choice and goodbyes

Once rest time mats are put away and everyone is awake and moving about, we will have some choice play time while we wait for grown-ups to come. Most days we open up our door to the outside so that children can choose where they would like to play. All the gear that needs to go home will be packed up and ready outside for grown-ups to snag when they come for their child. Some of the play choices at this time include drawing at the easel, doing a puzzle, reading more books, and playing with play doh. Then we say our goodbyes and students leave for the day.