same schedule different view

Last week, the teachers visited the Boston University Lab Preschool on the BU campus. We were struck by many good practices within the classroom that we wanted to try, however, it is hard to implement too many new things with small children. We decided to start with our schedule - something that both Judi and I have been struggling with all year. We wanted to have visual cues for the children so that they knew what to expect as the day went on. However, finding a way to present our activities was proving problematic.

This is our old schedule:

As you can see, it was jumbled, difficult to see and, therefore, difficult to follow and understand. We noticed at the Lab School, and then again in some of the other classrooms at TBSCC, their schedule was created horizontally, similar to how we read books. We decided to try it today!

This is our new schedule (going across the wood frame of the bulletin board below the Hebrew letters):

The new cards were easy to see and the order was simple to follow. We talked about the different events that happen each time we are at school (circle, snack, playground time) and the events that are special to a particular day (dance, music, mystery visitor).

Later in the day, one child felt a little sad and missed his mom. We went right over to the schedule and easily followed our day's events. We realized that we had one more activity and then we would be heading out to the playground where his mom would meet us. This new set up is awesome!!