Guest Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 How do your sessions work? Although free flow do you have set times for storytime/newstime/tidy up time etc? Very interested to see how you work and to see how differently things are done.......we run like this: morning session 9 - 11.30 9.00 self register/free play (adult led activity) At about 9.55 we have a tidy up time when we ring a bell and announce 'tidy up time' .....this is one area I want to change. 10.00 free play inside & outside (continues until 11.15) 10.30 rolling snack bar opens 11.15 all children go into book corner for story/singing/days of the week song/news 11.25 get read for home time 11.30 end of session Throughout free play inside/outside every area is on offer to the children and accessible by them......we also do circle games/storys/singing/puppet show etc etc All the way through the session the children are calm (most of the time!!!) and focused...but at the tidy up time it turns into a frenzied rush around. Tried playing music. Anyone willing to share the way their sessions run.......? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fizzy Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 we run from 9.15-11.45 9.15 free play, snack bar open at 9.45 10.45 tidy up time and get ready for out door play. (we all have to go togeather as we use a public park situated next to the pre school. 11.25 back to pre school singing story 11.45 home time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 9.15 - 12.15, plus lunch until 1.15 optional 9.15 - 10.15 free play, child initiated 10.15 tidy up and carpet time to register and delegate jobs, (preparing snack, laying tables etc 10.30 - 10.50 snack time together as a group 10.50 - 11.50 - physical stimulation - walk, outdoor equipment etc 11.50 - 12.00 some adult led, some free play 12.00 - 12.15 - story time, reflection, circle time 12.15 - 12.45 - free play 12.45 wash hands for lunch 12.50 - 13.15 lunch time All of this obviously is sooooo flexible depending on the run of the session Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 We have free play from 9.00-11.00. Within that time we have: a small group activity which takes place in the office with small groups of 6/8 children-we have 3 groups at the moment craft activities snack time all the usual choices such as sand, water, construction, jigsaws etc. We tidy up and then split the children into two groups. One group has a story and the other does something like band, Sticky Kids, mini-gym. They then swap over. When it comes to tidy up time we found that the children were frantically running round telling each other to tidy up but not doing anything. We now ring a bell and the children come and sit down. We then give each child a job to do, such as 3 or 4 of them tidying the home corner, 4 to tidy a jigsaw each, 2 to tidy the construction area and so on. We have found this works so much better as each child is focussed with something to do. Linda Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 My session starts at 8:45 - 11:45, lunch 12-12:30, pm session 12:15 - 15:15. Children arrive anytime between 8:45 - 9:15, we have free play for the whole session. During the session we will have: Mat time, (register, hello's, news, etc) Story time Circle games Local walk / outdoor full group play ( can't have free flow between indoors/out) Rolling snack bar ( opens 9am-11:30) The timing of these adult led full group times depends on how engrossed children are in their activities. Sometimes the children even initiate story or circle time themselves. Sometimes we don't have 'register time' until an hour after the children have all arrived. Sometimes we even miss out on a full group story time, rather than disrupt purposeful play, the children can access stories individually and there is always tomorrow. Where does it say children have to have a full group story every day? or circle songs, or register etc. They will get all this timetabling when they start school. We find the children by the age of four set their own individual routines, ie: we know that Roxanne will access the snack bar at around 9:30 every morning, by 10:30am the children tend to be 'ready' for physical excertion (spl?) whereas younger Archie loves to have the wheeled fire engine to ride on arrival and will 'race' for a good half hour before he is ready to settle down to table/floor games. Near the end of the session he prefers a quiet story rather than circle song activities. The children are encouraged to tidy as they go along, we have a general tidy up just before the end of the session, it's not called tidy up time it's called, "lets get ready for lunch" or for those not staying, " Lets put that away before mum/dad arrives". We follow a similar routine in the afternoons. Basically, arrive, play, go home. When we call children into a full group they are asked to "go to the red mat", because we have assessed that the children are not as engaged in free choice activities as much as they should be ( ie: in-between engrossed play) they are happy to be led. Any individual child engrossed in say a puzzle or something similar has the choice to either continue what they are doing until finished then join the group, or in the case of going out for our walk, they know they can go back to it if they wish on our return, in other words it hasn't been tidied away. Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 We have 'tidy up teams' that rotate weekly to a different areas of nursery.Sand/water/role play/office at the moment-later in the year they will have 2 areas.Each child has a laminated coloured shape with their name on.We use different options for giving them out-recogising name-shape-colour.Each team places their cards on a base card then goes to their area to tidy.If they have 'finished' they sit in their area until an adult 'checks' then they return to the carpet and place their card in a basket and sit down for group input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 My session starts at 8:45 - 11:45, lunch 12-12:30, pm session 12:15 - 15:15. Children arrive anytime between 8:45 - 9:15, we have free play for the whole session. During the session we will have: Mat time, (register, hello's, news, etc) Story time Circle games Local walk / outdoor full group play ( can't have free flow between indoors/out) Rolling snack bar ( opens 9am-11:30) The timing of these adult led full group times depends on how engrossed children are in their activities. Sometimes the children even initiate story or circle time themselves. Sometimes we don't have 'register time' until an hour after the children have all arrived. Sometimes we even miss out on a full group story time, rather than disrupt purposeful play, the children can access stories individually and there is always tomorrow. Where does it say children have to have a full group story every day? or circle songs, or register etc. They will get all this timetabling when they start school. We find the children by the age of four set their own individual routines, ie: we know that Roxanne will access the snack bar at around 9:30 every morning, by 10:30am the children tend to be 'ready' for physical excertion (spl?) whereas younger Archie loves to have the wheeled fire engine to ride on arrival and will 'race' for a good half hour before he is ready to settle down to table/floor games. Near the end of the session he prefers a quiet story rather than circle song activities. The children are encouraged to tidy as they go along, we have a general tidy up just before the end of the session, it's not called tidy up time it's called, "lets get ready for lunch" or for those not staying, " Lets put that away before mum/dad arrives". We follow a similar routine in the afternoons. Basically, arrive, play, go home. When we call children into a full group they are asked to "go to the red mat", because we have assessed that the children are not as engaged in free choice activities as much as they should be ( ie: in-between engrossed play) they are happy to be led. Any individual child engrossed in say a puzzle or something similar has the choice to either continue what they are doing until finished then join the group, or in the case of going out for our walk, they know they can go back to it if they wish on our return, in other words it hasn't been tidied away. Peggy Peggy, you seem to have worked out my routine for me!!!! This is the way I like things to be, tidy as they go so there is not that big eruption of children shouting tidy up time and not actually doing any! flexibility and adult initiative(my new words for the term I shall tell the staff today that we won't be having a mass tidy up but to encourage the children to tidy as they go.... We usually finish the session with everyone sitting on the mat in the book corner to sing/story/news etc, I still prefer to do this as at this time of the session I have some children going home, some staying for lunch and some arriving for lunch & afternoon session....this does sometimes prove to much for some of the children...younger ones or my little chap with autism(even with his visual timetable). Any suggestions?? mrsb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Hi - Just something you might need to be aware of - We were informed by Ofsted (many years ago), and also by the Fire Safety Inspector that the register should be done immediately the children arrive - as if you had to evacuate the premises in the first 10 minutes, what record would you have of who was present. So we always register together as the children arrive before any play is offered. Works fine and sets the tone for the morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 just thought I'd add what we do to register the children. One of the staff marks the register as the children come in, but we do a registration later in the session at circle time where the children answer to there names. This seems to work well as it covers all the bases. Sal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Peggy, you seem to have worked out my routine for me!!!! This is the way I like things to be, tidy as they go so there is not that big eruption of children shouting tidy up time and not actually doing any! flexibility and adult initiative(my new words for the term I shall tell the staff today that we won't be having a mass tidy up but to encourage the children to tidy as they go.... We usually finish the session with everyone sitting on the mat in the book corner to sing/story/news etc, I still prefer to do this as at this time of the session I have some children going home, some staying for lunch and some arriving for lunch & afternoon session....this does sometimes prove to much for some of the children...younger ones or my little chap with autism(even with his visual timetable). Any suggestions?? mrsb It really is about your individual cildrens needs, gathering on the mat prior to lunchtime / home time is good if it works better for you than the children still playing. I personally found that when we did this it was more about a containment excercise than anything productive. If I tried to do a group song/story etc, then the parents arrivals interrupted this, the children would be distracted to see who was at the door and all call out, in echo's, Archie your mummys here" I like the idea that parents get the opportunity to see their children playing when they come to pick up, also if I need to have a word with the parent or vise versa, the child just carries on playing regardless while we chat, rather than waiting for mum to go. I did have a time when everytime the doorbell rang all the children would run to the door to see who it was, shouting, It's my mummy, it's my mummy" I used to joke that I'm not that bad that they are all so eager to go home. ( they called dad too). I am the same as you, some stay and some go. I try to plan it that the ons staying for lunch are washing hands and setting the table as parents arrive for the home goers. My setting enables this as the loo's are just off the main play room. Again, you know what works best for your current children, and flexible enough to change methods as and when needed. Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Hi - Just something you might need to be aware of - We were informed by Ofsted (many years ago), and also by the Fire Safety Inspector that the register should be done immediately the children arrive - as if you had to evacuate the premises in the first 10 minutes, what record would you have of who was present. So we always register together as the children arrive before any play is offered. Works fine and sets the tone for the morning. I'm the same as salsa, I mark the time that each child arrives on the register, I also mark another sheet each time a child/adult arrives or leaves which shows the total number of children/adults in the setting at any given time. When I say 'register time' this is really the morning get together as a group, the hello, mat time, sometimes doing the 'register' sometimes not, maybe news time, day of the week, me giving information if something really different is happening, me asking the children what they plan to play with first, even though they go in the opposite direction to their 'spoken' choice of activity. etc. Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dublinbay Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Our sessions run from 9am - 11.30 Children find their name cards outside the room. Parents register their child on the register. When all children are in the room the leader checks names and does a head count of adults and children. Free play for whole session - children are encouraged to participate in different activities but it is their choice (even for the focused activity). Outside on our verandah type playground we have an extension of our room - in summer time the door is left open and children can come and go as they please. In this colder weather they can still go out (and many do) but needs adult help to push the rather heavy door. Coats etc are on a trolly for them to access themselves. Rolling snackbar 9.45 to end of session. Children are also encouraged to tidy up as they go along - especially puzzles and games they have got down themselves. We usually have a general tidy up for circle time/singing at 10.45 -11am ish. Some different activities are then put out until 11.20 when we have short story and them hometime. Phew! Feet up with a cuppa before I go home !!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Peggy, can I ask another question please? Do you let the parents in to collect the children? At the end of our circle/mat time the children going home collect there belongings from pegs and look in there tray for any work, they then find a seat to sit at the tables. The children staying for lunch stay with an adult in the book corner. We all choose a number to count to....count this number and sing our goodbye song. An adult opens the door and calls each child individually when there grown ups can be seen clearly. when these have all gone the children coming in for lunch come in and join the other in the book corner listening to a story or whatever else is going on. I think I'm going to stick with this arrangement as it suits our setting.....we didn't have a mass tidy up time on Friday but tidied as we went and this also seemed to work well (early days i know!!!) mrsb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Hi I run a pre-school which runs from 9.30 - 12 We have just started using the schools playground next door, this has been a fantastic boost to the childrens gross motor and physical development however it has also confused the routine a little currently we have free play from 9.30 - 9.50 then we go to school (no tidying up) we return at 10.30 we have circle time + fruit together in two separate groups (includes story) from around 10.45 -11 we have free play inside and outside until 11.30 when we tidy up everywhere 11.45 ish we all get together (currently outside) to do a round up of the day and song time At 12 one of us lets the parents in, some children go home and some stay for lunch as they are part of the daycare project During the session there will be an adult focus activity which is optional and perhaps small group work again which is optional, we are very much child initiated. Ofsted are coming next week so we will find out if we are doing it right or not!!!!! You may wonder why we go to the school if we have our own outdoor space? Our outdoor space is like no other I have ever seen, it is in a basement and so is 90% covered. There are many structural pillars etc and it is not ideal but we use it to maximise the space we have available I am hoping to introduce a jobs board for tidy up time as this often becomes the time to run around for many and I think if they were given responsibility they would take it and this time would be better managed hope that makes sense, "taking a break" from writing my research proposal!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dublinbay Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 Good luck for your inspection next week Wendles. Show off all the great things that you do and enjoy it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 21, 2008 Share Posted July 21, 2008 How do your sessions work? Although free flow do you have set times for storytime/newstime/tidy up time etc?Very interested to see how you work and to see how differently things are done.......we run like this: morning session 9 - 11.30 9.00 self register/free play (adult led activity) At about 9.55 we have a tidy up time when we ring a bell and announce 'tidy up time' .....this is one area I want to change. 10.00 free play inside & outside (continues until 11.15) 10.30 rolling snack bar opens 11.15 all children go into book corner for story/singing/days of the week song/news 11.25 get read for home time 11.30 end of session Throughout free play inside/outside every area is on offer to the children and accessible by them......we also do circle games/storys/singing/puppet show etc etc All the way through the session the children are calm (most of the time!!!) and focused...but at the tidy up time it turns into a frenzied rush around. Tried playing music. Anyone willing to share the way their sessions run.......? hi there im in reception but my free flow time is similiar to urs. everything is accessible to the chn inside and out and i shake an instrument five mins b4 tidy up time we then have music chosen by the children. The children's aim is to tidy up b4 the music stops n that way they can dnace to the music this has worked really well hope it helps dizzy nic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 We found tidying up at the end of each session a problem. So we introduced a board that has photographs of all areas in our setting. We took photos of the children and they are all allocated an area to tidy. We check at the end to see if they have tidied their allocated area and if they have they receive a sticker. It does seem to work and everyone tidies rather than just some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyMaz Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 Like this idea, Rachael11 (although we don't use stickers as an incentive). It sounds simple and easy to understand for the children (and less likely to result in children going and laying down in the book corner when tidy up time comes!). Welcome to the Forum and thanks for this really useful idea! Keep them coming... Maz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hali Posted August 6, 2008 Share Posted August 6, 2008 hello and welcome Rachael - does sound like a great idea - thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 My session starts at 8:45 - 11:45, lunch 12-12:30, pm session 12:15 - 15:15. Children arrive anytime between 8:45 - 9:15, we have free play for the whole session. During the session we will have: Mat time, (register, hello's, news, etc) Story time Circle games Local walk / outdoor full group play ( can't have free flow between indoors/out) Rolling snack bar ( opens 9am-11:30) The timing of these adult led full group times depends on how engrossed children are in their activities. Sometimes the children even initiate story or circle time themselves. Sometimes we don't have 'register time' until an hour after the children have all arrived. Sometimes we even miss out on a full group story time, rather than disrupt purposeful play, the children can access stories individually and there is always tomorrow. Where does it say children have to have a full group story every day? or circle songs, or register etc. They will get all this timetabling when they start school. We find the children by the age of four set their own individual routines, ie: we know that Roxanne will access the snack bar at around 9:30 every morning, by 10:30am the children tend to be 'ready' for physical excertion (spl?) whereas younger Archie loves to have the wheeled fire engine to ride on arrival and will 'race' for a good half hour before he is ready to settle down to table/floor games. Near the end of the session he prefers a quiet story rather than circle song activities. The children are encouraged to tidy as they go along, we have a general tidy up just before the end of the session, it's not called tidy up time it's called, "lets get ready for lunch" or for those not staying, " Lets put that away before mum/dad arrives". We follow a similar routine in the afternoons. Basically, arrive, play, go home. When we call children into a full group they are asked to "go to the red mat", because we have assessed that the children are not as engaged in free choice activities as much as they should be ( ie: in-between engrossed play) they are happy to be led. Any individual child engrossed in say a puzzle or something similar has the choice to either continue what they are doing until finished then join the group, or in the case of going out for our walk, they know they can go back to it if they wish on our return, in other words it hasn't been tidied away. Peggy i love the sound of your session, all based on what the children want to do,im trying to gt my preschool unit the same as this but i still have set times for th childrent to come to the carpet, mainly as has been said for "containment purposes" which i hate!! but cant find any other ways, we run from 8-6, sessions ar 8-1 and 1-6 or full days 8-6 so the children hav lunch at 12ish and tea at 3.30ish so we need to prepare for lunch and i feel sitting down for songs before meals calms them slightl and gives us a chance to send a few children at a time to wash there hands etc before meals. we also need to tidy uo after lunch so the childrn sit togethr for stories, again mainly to gt them out of the way to clean up, writing that sounds so bad but there isnt a way we could clean and have them playng around us! any other ideas as i do find som children just dont want to sit down in a group, and also dont want to interupt play if the child is engrossed? also you say you have mat time, circle games, story time, do you just start these sessions and see who joins you or ask the children to come join you, again we had a set cirlce time at 9.15 ish aftr all children arrived but i stopped this as i found the children who arrivd at 8 where to busy playing and i didnt wnat to intrupt them!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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