Daily
Routine

Drop your child off outside in our fenced yard between 8am-8:45, fully dressed for the weather and prepared for exploring the woods.

Before beginning outdoor explorations, teachers facilitate individual and group planning conversations to decide on the goals for the morning. When children practice making plans, they are developing specific pathways in the brain that are responsible for impulse control, problem solving, and effective communication. Throughout the year, teachers scaffold cooperative decision making and conversational tools to arrive at mutually beneficial solutions that support everyone's needs.

Outdoor exploration is when a great deal of learning takes place in our program. Children are free to explore and follow their own internal navigation toward answering questions that are meaningful to them. When children are allowed this freedom, they naturally gravitate towards experiences that meet their particular needs for learning, development, growth, and health.

Parents provide a healthy morning and afternoon snack, eaten outside (when possible), as children feel hungry. We allow children the freedom and support in learning how to care for themselves by noticing the many sensations that inform us about our needs.

This is a wonderful time of the day for self-expression and energy expression, dancing, playing instruments, testing skills through obstacle courses, playing active games like hopscotch and musical chairs, and singing songs together.

At morning meeting, we make maps, tables, and graphs, or children may bring an object to share with the group, tell a story about their play, or show something they made. Reflection helps to solidify learning, develop memory and language skills, build problem solving strategies, and create a sense of community and self-worth.