I often get emails asking about my kindergarten daily schedule. For the longest time, I couldn’t imagine how it would be helpful to other teachers. However, I recently asked my Facebook followers about their own schedules and realized just how crucial it is for teachers, especially those new to teaching kindergarten or transitioning to a full-day schedule. The responses I received were so varied, it really hit home how useful it might be to share my own example of a typical kindergarten daily schedule. I have so much respect for the teachers who juggle everything our little ones need to learn in just a half-day schedule. It’s no easy feat and they deserve major kudos for their hard work. Even with a full-day schedule, it’s still a big challenge to make sure everything gets done.
Kindergarten Daily Schedules
It can be tough to schedule everything when you have 26 classrooms and just one instructor for PE, Art, and Music at a school. Odds are, your schedule won’t be perfect. I really feel for the scheduling team who have to figure it all out. But, it’s important to remember that you can’t always get everything you want and need to prioritize what’s important. If you get the chance to put in your preferences for scheduling, be sure to think carefully about what matters most to you. For me, the two most important things are having ELA and Math taught before lunchtime without interruptions and having a special activity each day.
As for my number one request, I will give up almost anything as long as I can have that time at the same time every morning to give the most important instruction of the day. That consistency is so important, and anyone that has taught kindergarten knows, after lunch . . . you lose them. They’re tired. So the best time for that instruction happens before they fill their bellies.
Last year’s Daily Schedule (seen above) was about as perfect as it could get. This coming fall . . . my lunch falls about half an hour too early and I’m concerned, but I will tackle that mountain when I get to it in August. And as for specials, I have one every day but one. It’s been a long time since that wish list item has been filled, but having four out of five days with one . . . I’ll take it.
Daily Activities
To make things a bit clearer, let me tell you about all the different items that make up a typical day in my kindergarten class.
Morning Work
Our mornings start with Morning Work Tubs. I know that many people have different ideas about morning work and what ‘works’ for them. For me, Morning Work Tubs are specially designed to engage students in fine motor activities that address essential skills. Because we serve breakfast in our classroom, these Morning Work Tubs are a great way to keep all students active and get their brains primed for learning, while I have time to do all the things that teachers have to do at the beginning of the day.
If you’d like to learn more about how I organize Morning Work and what activities I include, check out my blog post HERE or by clicking on the picture below.
Announcements/Movement/Music
In most classrooms, this routine is pretty much the same, I’m sure. After completing Morning Work, we typically listen to announcements and take a short break for movement activities. this could involve a fun GoNoodle session or a quick game depending on the time available before I start my whole group ELA instruction.
Whole Group ELA/Heggerty
During a typical week, this will be the time that I introduce our new phonics skill, heart word, and word family, and complete our Heggerty activities. While it takes a few weeks to build of the routines for the instruction that goes on during this time, once we are up and running, it goes by quickly with students engaged and working. Students learn the Heggerty motions quite quickly and mapping heart words becomes familiar and students are successful in managing the tools we use to do it together.
Literacy Stations
The time directly after Whole Group ELA is used for practicing those skills we are learning. We do this during Literacy Stations. Literacy Stations consist of 6 stations that students rotate through. They go to three of those six stations the first day and the second of those three stations the next. Each station period lasts about 20 minutes. It is also during this time that work with students in small groups. Students who do not work with me are working at independent stations.
Music/Movement/Poetry
By now, students need drinks and a bathroom break, so I offer a movement and music break while those tasks can be taken care of and I can set up for Calendar Math/ Whole Group Math Instruction.
Whole Group Math
Whole group math is a time to introduce new skills and practice skills as a whole group. Just like with whole group literacy, this time needs to be interactive. Learning math skills together thru multisensory activities that incorporate us moving our bodies, chanting, tracing, listening, and moving manipulatives.
Lunch/Recess
Depending on the time of year, it can take me either 5 or 15 minutes to get them ready for lunch. Snow pants are the devil and during those first few weeks of snow season, dressing for the weather can really eat into my instructional time. We work very hard and quickly to get those skills of dressing for winter mastered.
Read Aloud/Knowledge
After lunch, I have just enough time on days that we have specials, to complete a read-aloud and ‘knowledge’ lesson. This is when we are focusing on our literacy skills such as vocabulary, comprehension, and making connections with books.
Specials/Art/Music/PE
Art, music, and PE are all scheduled at the same time each day that I have them. I do kind of love that. It wasn’t that way the first several years that I taught kindergarten and it made it difficult for students to get used to a daily schedule. When I can have activities consistent every day, students tend to adjust to kindergarten easier.
Rest/Read/Write/Assess
Yes! We rest in kindergarten. Do you know that even in the last week of kindergarten, I had students (as in more than one) falling asleep during our rest time? Little bodies that have so many demands to learn during a day will need this time to stop their bodies even if for a few moments. Usually, I put on an educational video for them to watch. That being said, if they aren’t tired and don’t want to rest, they always have the option to read or write quietly. I also use this time for me to read with students (We do book bags with decodable readers that are sent home each night.), assess and monitor skills. This is my public acknowledgment that there is too much assessment in kindergarten. That being said, if I do not use this time to do it, it will never get completed.
Social Studies/Science/SEL
A lot of our social studies and science curriculum is included in our Knowledge/Read Aloud time. But I also use this time for additional instruction in these areas and our SEL – Friendzy curriculum. These are short lessons that fit nicely into this time period before snack and recess time.
Snack and Pack
Students take turns bringing snack in for the class. If a child can not provide snack, I always make sure I have extra snacks for days that someone forgets. They also use this time to pack up an items from the day into their folders and pack them away into their backpacks before heading outside for recess.
Recess
Almost 20 minutes for me to breath, answer emails, sit down and, most importantly, head to the bathroom.
Math Stations or Learning Centers
Because students are spent by this time of the day, I reserve this time for things I know they will enjoy and will feel like play. Math stations are the time of day when students get to practice what they know by doing. It’s all about games and hands-on learning. Students LOVE it, and I love that they think it’s play.
Learning centers is exploratory play. Student work with STEM items, art materials, sensory bins and spend time in dramatic play. It’s what kindergarten used to be and what we need more of today, but the important social aspects of kindergarten that we never seen to have time for any more.
Dismissal
Finally, it’s time for dismissal. Students are tagged with their appropriate ‘how we get home’ tag at the beginning of the year because there is no greater fear those first several weeks of school than sending a kindergartner home the wrong way.
And finally, when they are all gone, you clean up. Gather items you need for the next day. Take a deep breath and go home to ready yourself for another day . . . tomorrow.
What a great post!! As a teacher going from 2nd to kindergarten it is great to get a look at what a schedule could look like.
Sarah, I am going to kinder after 15 years in second! Kinder is my dream. I am so excited. Happy new year to you!
Thank you so very much for taking the tme to make this post! It was wonderful to get a feel for the flow of your day, and an idea of your pacing. It is also interesting to see that very few kindergarten teachers have play time any more. I think with hands-on, fun work stations in both math and reading it is do-able. You are as wonderful a teacher of other teachers as you are of little kinders!! Thanks for all the links and examples 🙂 <3
Thank you for sharing! I always appreciate your well thought out ideas and implementation. In your district are you expected to assess using Teaching Strategies Gold as our ADKs are in WA state?
Love this post! I love hearing about what other teachers do in their classrooms and how they set up their schedules! What do you use for your students’ calendar books during calendar math time?
Thank you for this post! I am sure it took a long time to compile! I am hoping to be employed this year and this post has a lot of helpful tips!
So jealous of your schedule!! We are not allowed to have rest time, centers, etc. My schedule most days (some variance due to an early release on Thursdays) is as follows:
8:30-8:45 – morning work (as students come in; 2nd bell rings at 8:45)
8:45-8:50 – calendar
8:50-9:50 – Reader’s Workshop (60 minutes mandated)
9:50-10:45 – Writer’s Workshop (60 minutes mandated, though I do 55 because of lunch)
10:45-11:10 – lunch
11:15-11:35 – word work/phonics instruction block (in K, we are only allowed to take 20 minutes for this)
11:35-12:20 – Guided Reading (my kinders who are not in my groups do literacy stations at this time…the closest thing to centers we’re allowed to have–all stations must be academic)
12:25-12:55 – recess
12:55-1:50 – math (60 minutes mandated; 5 minutes in the morning + 55 here)
1:50-1:55 – snack
1:55-2:20 – science or social studies; 1 day a week this is computer lab time, and 1 day a week it’s for specials due to early release, so we get science or SS 3x/week.
2:20-3:20 – specials (PE, Art, Music, Library, Counselor, Health–first 4 get 1 hr/wk, counselor/health are 30 min/wk)
3:20 – pack up, dismiss at 3:30
We had time for centers every day 3 years ago when I started, but that got taken away after my first year in favor of more time in Reader’s/Writer’s workshop. Reader’s Workshop consists of a 15 minute mini lesson, 35 minutes of independent reading, and 10 minutes of sharing time at the end. I’ll let you guess how 35 minutes of independent reading goes with 5 year olds! Seeing that some people have schedules like yours gives me hope that someday before I get to retire (a long time from now) the pendulum will swing back in that direction for everyone!
Do they seriously read for 35 min s? Tell me that you work them up to that time? You don’t just start out there. I would think that reading would be more appropriate in the pm (they might take a little nap then) and the word work would be best in the morning when they are bright eyed and bushy tailed.
Marsha
What type of calendar did you give your students? I love the idea but don’t know where to start? Thanks, Christine
Hi Marsha!
First let me tell you how much I love your philosophy and methods of instruction! I’m a very pro play based, age appropriate type person and in such a data driven education system it can feel like a battle, but you’ve done a wonderful job implementing hands on and engaging lessons with your students. It always makes me smile to read your posts and I often say “that’s how I want to be!”
I do have a couple questions, specifically related to Daily 5 (6), if you’d be so kind to answer.
My teammate and I are implementing the Daily 5 this year and love the way you run it in your class. We were wondering the following things–
1. Do you gather at the carpet between your 20 minute rotations to check in or do you set a timer/call time when they are supposed to move on to the next rotation?
2. Since your groups are composed of varying levels (blue, orange green–I know this is down the line after time for assessment), what are you doing with them at their “Meet the Teach” rotation? Can you give us a little insight to what you do during these meetings?
3. How often do you switch out your word work and work on writing activities? When we looked at your first 2 week schedule it looks like you have 12 centers total, are all of these put out on Monday and then changed every Monday thereafter or do you use the same centers for more than one week?
I appreciate your time, as I know it is precious with 3 young boys to take care of too (I have 2 boys)!
Thanks a bunch,
Kate
Kate, thanks for your thoughtful comments and questions. Ok, lets see if I can answer them. Gathering on the carpet . . . during the first few weeks of school yes. Remember that your students haven’t built up stamina for 20 minutes yet so quite often after 10-12 minutes (when I see a problem or attention is fading) I bring them back to the carpet for 3-5 minutes. I will warn you though, every class is different. And if I see a class is having difficulty transition to the next station because they loose their momentum, I might skip the meeting and move them right along. I really read the class and students when at all possible. Eventually as my students have developed their stamina and are in a station for 20 minutes at a time, I won’t go back to the carpet. While those are great opportunities for mini-lessons, again, I think sometimes they loose their momentum. I prefer to keep them moving along.
2. Even though their are various levels working together during my guided reading time, I can still easily differentiate. I don’t know if you followed my Guided Reading Book Study last summer, but I kind of lay out how that small group instruction time goes. Take a look at those posts and they might help. Here’s the link:
http://www.differentiatedkindergarten.com/2013/07/chapter-three-of-next-step-non-readers.html
3. When you look at my first 2 weeks of school, there seems like a lot of stations because I have not yet implemented ‘read to self’ or all the other D5 components. Instead, I am focusing on teaching those activities that students will be seeing in their word work and writing stations. Once students have learned those activities, they become part of their ‘choices’ within word work 1 and word work 2 station. Some of those activities will stay in there for a couple of weeks, some I switch out when we switch themes or skills. For instance, you will always find play-doh, or a self-correcting activity, or scented markers in my word work drawer, but the way students use them will change from time to time. Establishing those basic activities, allows for independence throughout the year. Once they understand how the self-correcting mats work, you can switch out the skills and even the manipulatives they use. Put playdoh stamps in for a while and then put in magnets or rocks with letters or something else thematic.
I hope this answers some of your questions. Please feel to contact me if there is anything else.
Marsha
Wonderful! Thank you so much for the help, it is so appreciated. I hope your ill guy is on the mend soon.
Enjoy the rest of your summer and thanks again for taking the time to respond.
Kate
I love love love when you share the details of your teaching/schedule! Your materials are fabulous and it is so valuable to see how you use them and how accomplishing all of these amazing things is possible. Thanks for taking the time to spell it out, it helps a ton. I am looking forward to reading about your literacy stations!
I would love to know more about your calendar math – what type of books are the students doing? thanks for all your sharing
I am a pretty new teacher and very new to the centers/ Daily 5 and I am still trying to wrap my head around how to implement the Daily 5 while completing the McGraw Hill Wonders lessons. HELP please. How do you structure your day to implement both along with everything else we are suppose to teach them? Any help/advice is greatly appreciated!!!
I have a post that outlines how my day usually looks. I think if you just type in search ‘daily lesson plan’ it should come up. Take a look at that and let me know if you have any questions. I’m happy to help if I can.
Marsha
Really enjoy your posts and reading all of the neat things you do! Where do you find your calendar resources? Do you create the calendar books they are completing or do you buy them? Thanks.
I have a calendar book for students. It’s my own design, but I don’t currently sell it.
Marsha
Marsha,
Excellent post. I love reading other peoples schedules and plans. Thanks for sharing!
I’m glad you found it useful Patti.
Marsha
Dear Marsha,
I feel like you are my new best friend(ok no such thing as a BFF) because you seem to write like you are talking directly to me and with such enthusiasm and passion and wit about helping young brains grow! So first, I have purchased many of your materials, second am doing so for my non verbal 21 year daughter who may have missed many fine motor and sensory motor minutes in her childhood
And third, would you please provide some commentary on your actual calendar time and calendar book? Thank you again! Colleen( mother of 4 grown up girls with one who is getting her kindergarten differentiated for her now!)?