Every now and then, people ask me to post my schedule for full day or half day Kindergarten. I also get questions about our schedule for easing Kindergartners into the full day. So for those that are interested, I have posted my schedules for half day, extended day, and full day Kindergarten. Of course, there are interruptions here and there on certain days when we go to the library or the computer lab, but the basics are below.
And by the way, our new Classroom Management Songs DVD is DONE! But more on that next week. If you would like to see some video clips from it, please click here. ***UPDATE SEPT 29*** Our Classroom Management DVD has been updated! The same great songs with NEW animation! The video below is from the new DVD! 
Easing Children Into the Full Day
Some of you may remember that my school district employs the wonderful practice of “easing” our little ones into the full day of school. This means that we transition the children gently from a half day schedule to a full day schedule. This is how we do it:
* During the first four weeks of school, the children attend for just half the day from 8:15 – 11:35. In the afternoons after the kids leave, we meet with each family individually and test their children while they watch, and then talk about the results with them. We let them know what they need to work on with their children in the coming months. It really is time well spent! I have been using the ESGI Software to test the children so that I can give the parents an instant set of customized flash cards. This incredible software allows teachers to print out flashcards for ONLY the items that each child needs to work on. I am hoping that this will make a real difference for my class this year. (This is the first time I will have started out the year using it.)
By the time we finish our fourth week of school, we are all definitely ready to have the children stay a bit longer! There really isn’t time to squeeze much of anything into the day in a half day schedule, and it starts to feel very rushed after a couple of weeks. The 1:20 dismissal time seems to be just perfect for the little ones, especially at this time of year!
* Beginning with the fifth week of school, the children stay for an extended day, from 8:15 – 1:20. However, each teacher is required to keep a small group of children for interventions after school from 1:20 – 2:15 on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. This little “tutoring group” usually has four to six children in it. Thursdays are reserved for meetings, since this is our school wide Compact Day, (and so on this day we dismiss five minutes early at 1:15.) Fridays are reserved for team planning and prep time. 
* At the start of the third trimester, the entire class stays from 8:15 – 2:15, except for our school wide Compact Day on Thursdays, on which we continue to dismiss at 1:15. At this point, there is no more after school tutoring, because the day is really long enough for them by 2:15, and they are very tired by that point. And so am I!
Here is my half day schedule: (First four weeks of school)
8:00-8:15: Before school recess. (Children meet on the playground before school.)
8:15-8:25: Opening activities: Attendance, flag, patriotic song, calendar activities.
8:25-8:30: Drill and practice of new concepts.
8:30-8:40: Music (I use it to help teach sight words, language arts, and math.)
8:40-8:50: Story and Morning Message
8:50-9:00: Explain art project and centers:
9:00-11:00: Academic Group Rotation (Includes Language Arts, Math, Art, and Misc. Centers, including some science, social studies, and physical education activities.)
9:00-9:20: 1st Rotation
(9:20-9:25: Music during five minute transition.)
9:25-9:45: 2nd Rotation
(9:45-9:50: Music during five minute transition.)
9:50-10:10 Recess
(10:10-10:15: Five minute transition to get lined up and get rotations restarted.)
10:15-10:35 3rd Rotation
(10:35-10:40: Music during five minute transition.)
10:40-11:00: 4th Rotation
11:00 – 11:10: Story time
11:10-11:25: Inside Playtime
11:25-11:30: Pack up and get ready to go home.
11:30-11:35: Short phonemic awareness activities (with backpacks in laps while we wait for dismissal time to come.)
Here is my extended day schedule: (Fifth week of school through end of second trimester)
8:00-8:15: Before school recess. (Children meet on the playground before school.)
8:15-8:25: Opening activities: Attendance, flag, patriotic song, calendar activities.
8:25-8:30: Drill and practice of new concepts.
8:30-8:40: Music (Sometimes I use music to review classroom rules and procedures.)
8:40-8:50: Story and Morning Message
8:50-9:00: Explain art project and centers:
9:00-11:00: Academic Group Rotation (Includes Language Arts, Math, Art, and Misc. Centers, which include some science, social studies and physical education activities.)
9:00-9:20: 1st Rotation
(9:20-9:25: Music during five minute transition; we review a lot of sight word songs during this time!)
9:25-9:45: 2nd Rotation
(9:45-9:50: Music during five minute transition.)
9:50-10:10 Recess
(10:10-10:15: Five minute transition to get lined up and get rotations restarted.)
10:15-10:35 3rd Rotation
(10:35-10:40: Music during five minute transition.)
10:40-11:00: 4th Rotation
11:00 – 11:13: Phonemic Awareness (We use Michael Heggerty’s Phonemic Awareness Book.)
11:13: Get ready for lunch.
11:15-12:00: Lunch time! (Includes a 15-20 minute recess for the kids.)
12:00-12:05: Five minutes to transition inside, get drinks, and get settled.
12:05-12:15: Story Time
12:15-12:20: Academic Concept Review Through Music (And a chance to get our wiggles out!)
12:20-12:35: Writing (Whole group instruction/ demonstration)
12:35-12:55: Inside Playtime (12:50: Clean Up)
12:55-1:15: Social Studies or Science
1:15-1:20: Pack up and dismissal.
Here are the things that often happen, though:
Our academic rotation runs long in the morning, and we run out of time for our phonemic awareness activities before lunch. So I push it back and do it immediately after lunch, and then have our story time after that. Then comes my whole group writing lesson, which at this point in the year usually includes making a “T Chart” about a whatever non-fiction book we just read. Our district also likes us to do a lot of categorization activities to help them with writing later on. (We are supposed to be following the Step Up to Writing program, and these activities are part of this program.) Then I will use the content to generate sentences and demonstrate the writing process for the children, given time. If there is just no more time and the children are too restless, then I may use the T-Chart to help me generate content for our morning message sentences the next day. All of this means that playtime will be shorter, of course. And it also means that we may need to skip social studies and/or science. At this time of year, since we are still establishing routines and procedures, this seems to happen more often than not, unfortunately! But I console myself by reminding myself that in Kindergarten, much of social studies is learning how to be in school, get along, follow the rules and the procedures, share, etc., etc., etc. And we do that ALL DAY LONG, so how bad can it really be?????
Here is my full day schedule: (Third trimester of school)
8:00-8:15: Before school recess. (Children meet on the playground before school.)
8:15-8:25: Opening activities: Attendance, flag, patriotic song, calendar activities.
8:25-8:30: Drill and practice of new concepts.
8:30-8:40: Music (We never run out of sight word songs!)
8:40-8:50: Story and Morning Message
8:50-9:00: Explain art project and centers:
9:00-11:00: Academic Group Rotation (Includes Language Arts, Math, Art, and Misc. Centers)
9:05-9:25: 1st Rotation
(9:25-9:30: Music during five minute transition.)
9:30-9:50: 2nd Rotation
(9:50-9:55: Music during five minute transition.)
9:55-10:15 Recess
(10:15-10:20: Five minute transition to get lined up and get rotations restarted.)
10:25-10:45 3rd Rotation
(10:45-10:50: Music during five minute transition.)
10:50-11:10: 4th Rotation
11:10-11:15 Get ready for lunch.
11:15-12:00: Lunch time!
12:00-12:05: Five minutes to transition inside, get drinks, and get settled.
12:05-12:15: Phonemic Awareness (We use Michael Heggerty’s Phonemic Awareness Book.)
12:15-12:30: Story Time
12:30-12:40: Academic Concept Review Through Music (And a chance to get our wiggles out!)
12:40-12:55: Writing (Whole group instruction/ demonstration)
12:55-1:15: Journal Writing (Whole Group)
1:15-1:20: Clean up journals, make sure back packs are packed and ready to go BEFORE we dismiss anyone for inside playtime!
1:20-1:50: Inside Playtime (Clean up at 1:45)
1:50-2:10: Social Studies/Science (We alternate units.)
2:10- 2:15 Get ready to go home, and dismissal.
In my school district in California, we don’t have “specials” the way many of you do in other places, where they take the children from you during the day and pull them out for music, library, and computer lab, etc. If my children learn music, they learn it from me. If they go the computer lab, then I take them or they go with a volunteer. When they go to the library, I go with them and manage my group of kids while they are there. My prep time comes at the end of the day, once the children have gone home, from 2:15-3:15. The teachers of the children in fourth and fifth grades do get their prep time during those pull out “specials,” which in our district are usually PE and music, as I recall. So, their prep time will come some time during the day while their kids are doing these activities.
Personally, I really like the uninterrupted blocks of time with my students, and I don’t mind at all taking them to the library, etc.
If you have any questions, please let me know!
Heidi
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