Creating a schedule for children, directions and templetes are attached below.

Part C Schedules

A well-planned, developmentally appropriate schedule includes:

• Routine care activities

• Opportunities for varied interactions between child/child and teacher/children,

• Flexible, hands-on, child-directed, meaningful explorations with varied materials and equipment. 

In early childhood programs, lessons and activities should most often be provided to small groups or individuals, rather than in large group formats.  MOST of the day, children CHOOSE activities from among the learning centers. Teachers position themselves within the centers to interact with a few children at a time.  The early childhood teacher is NOT the sage-on-the-stage.  Instead she/he is the guide-on-the-side! Worksheets and Drills are not developmentally appropriate.

Directions for Writing a DAP Schedule

Write a Best Practice daily schedule for a program whose operating hours are from 6:30 -6:00.  Assume that your children are 3-4 years-old.  Some of the children arrive at 6:30 A.M. and leave at 6:00 P.M.

To complete this assignment, you will need to:

• Study the PowerPoint, SCHEDULES (Scroll to find the link at the bottom of this page.)

• Submit answers to the Challenge Questions

• Complete and submit the Schedule Form

Your schedule will provide children with free-choice access to all of the Learning Activity Centers for a Substantial Portion of the day (1/3 of the time the Child Care program's operating hours).  That means that children will have access to ALL of the fully stocked (as described in the Activities Power Points) activities centers for a SPD.

Overview of Timeblocks:

After studying the PowerPoint presentation, SCHEDULES, follow these directions for calculating developmentally appropriate schedules.

Use the Calculators (below), to determine how many hours/minutes your schedule should allow children to freely choose from your Developmentally Appropriate materials and furnishings, each day. Calculate two levels of access to materials: Minimal Access (MA is lower in quality) & Substantial Portion of the Day (SPD is high quality access). The directions for calculating both levels of quality are below, beginning with the SPD calculator graph. SPD is the amount of access that children, ages 3-5 years of age, need and Much of the Day is the amount of access Infants and Toddlers need, daily. Be sure to study these terms, carefully, as you view the slide presentation, SCHEDULES in preparation for creating your own schedule.

Step1. Review the Schedule Form. You will use this form to create a daily schedule. Assume your program serves pre-school children from 6:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Record the time-blocks in Column 1. In Column 2, record the time blocks, listing the activity centers that children will have access to during that time block. Children should be allowed to freely choose and use the materials, in column 2, during the time blocks you provide. If you write that children have access to ALL Centers, this means that all the categories of materials are represented in each of the centers that are listed across the top of the Schedule Form and that these materials are available, during the time blocks given in Column 2. Children do not have to use all of the centers during the time block; you are merely providing access – giving them the choice to use any of the materials they prefer. To count minutes for each time block:

• Children may not be rotated in groups in and out of centers but must have access to freely choose from among ALL the centers for the entire time block. Each child may choose not to use ALL the centers you list, but the intent is for All Children to be able to choose to use the materials and move freely from one center to another, during that period.

Step 2. On your Schedule Form, find the row of activities (top line of grid). These are the activity centers to which children need access for a substantial portion of the day (SPD). Each activity center has its own column. For each activity column, using your time-block rows, write the number of hours/minutes each time block gives children access to the materials in the activity centers you listed beside your time-blocks. For example between 8:30- 9:30, if children only have access to fine motor materials, books and drawing materials, during the 8:30 – 9:30 time-block, write 1:00 in the time block row, within the columns: fine motor materials; books; and drawing materials. You may refer to the Schedule Form Sample, if you need further clarifications.

Step 3. On the top of the schedule form, write the number of hours, per day, your Child Care Program provides care for children ________11:30 (eleven hours and thirty minutes)___

Step 4. Look at the SPD Calculator. In the left column, find the number that corresponds to the number of hours your Child Care Program is open (11:30).

Step 5. With your finger, trace the dots, left to right, from the number of hours your Child Care Program is open to the required time amount, in the right column. The number, in the right column, shows the how much time children need access to each of the materials listed in the Schedule Form. Children need free-choice access to specific materials and furnishings for 1/3 of the time that the early care and education program is open. This period of time is considered a Substantial Portion of the Day (SPD). Schedules that provide the amount of access to the materials listed on the SPD Calculator give children the time they need to engage deeply with the materials and their teachers more opportunities for facilitating learning, analysis, and reasoning in meaningful ways. Write SPD time requirement for your schedule on the Schedule Form at the bottom of each activity column (yellow). For example, if your center is open for 7 hours, your SPD amount would be 2:20. You would write 2:20 at the bottom of each column to show that your program allows a high quality level of access for children to use the materials in the activity centers. However, for this assignment, your center is open from 6:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Step 6. Using the calculator below to identify the amount of time your schedule must provide opportunities for children to freely choose from among your activity centers, each day, write the SPD at the bottom of each activity column, in the Schedule Form.

Step 7. Below is the Minimal Access (MA) Calculator. Using the MA calculator, circle the number of hours your program is open. Directly below that number is the amount of time that children must have access to the DAP materials and furnishings at the minimal (low) quality level. Write that number in the Schedule Form row that asks for the MA amount of time. In many programs, children do not even have Minimal Access to the materials. Your goal is to create a schedule that gives children a SPD amount of access to the materials within your activity centers. The schedule is the framework makes curriculum work. A poor schedule produces poor results and often frustrated, unengaged children.

Step 8. After you complete Columns 1 and 2, and write in the accessibility time amounts in each activity column, tally (add up) each column and write the number in the space provided on the Schedule Form. Does your schedule give children Minimal Access or a SPD access? If your schedule does not provide SPD access for all the required activities, adjust your schedule to allow access to materials for a SPD - the correct amount of time.

Step 9. Revisit the SCHEDULES PowerPoint and take notes on the differences in scheduling requirements for infants and toddlers and children, ages 3- 5 years. Write a brief analysis of the differences and similarities.

Step 10. Answer the challenge questions, using the powerpoints, your text and the calculators to determine your answers. When you are satisfied that your schedule provides SPD access to the materials and activities listed across the top of the Schedule Form, and you have completed the analysis of the differences and similarities between scheduling for preschool children and infants and toddlers, submit your schedule, challenge questions and analysis to your instructor.

Hints

Timeblock - Arrival -  Children must have free choice access to ALL of the Learning Activity Centers for 1 hour and 25 minutes, during this time block.   If children are in a transitional room for part of the time that they are waiting to go to the classroom, where they will spend the day, the transitional room must provide all of the Learning Activity Centers. If the full range of Activity centers is not available during this time block, access must be provided at some other time on the schedule.  Time spent at breakfast cannot be counted as Learning Activity Center time.

Timeblock - Mid morning:  Children must have at least 1 hour and 15 minutes of access to ALL the centers, mid morning.  Children cannot be rotated from activity to activity but must freely choose how long and in what order they will use the materials in the Learning Activity Centers.  They must have this time to form natural peer groups and choose with whom they will play or work. The teacher will facilitate learning at the centers with small groups or individuals who choose to play in the center where the teacher is positioned for part of the timeblock.

Timeblock - After naptime:  Give children 1:15 minutes of access to all materials in all centers.  After children have had 1 hour and 15 minutes of access to all of the centers, during the "after naptime" timeblock you can start to close a few of the centers so that the end of the day, when only a few children are left, there will be less to clean-up. 

The Substantial Portion of the Day (SPD) requirement for a program that operates from 6:30 A.M. - 6:00 P.M. is 3 hours and 50 minutes.(See slide)  The free choice timeblocks described above total 3:50.  This is the minimum amount of free-choice access to Learning Activity Centers that you can provide and hope to earn a high quality score in a STAR rated child care program.

Timeblock: Circletime (or whole group activities) Keep whole group activities short – 12 – 15 minutes, at the most. When you add up all of the activities for the entire day, the time children spend doing things as a whole group should not total more than 50 percent of their day. This includes anything you do as a group: eating (30 minutes), napping (2 hours), outdoor play (60 minutes), transitioning, etc. Total tally for whole group format activities cannot outweigh the time children are in free-choice activities.

During children's 11 1/2 hour day they: sleep (2 hours), eat, toilet, wash hands (1-2 hours), play outdoors (30 minutes in the a.m. and 30 in the p.m.), and transition between time-blocks (15 minutes total transitioning time).  That leaves 6 or 7 hours and fifteen minutes, during which you must schedule a SPD amount of time (1/3 of the day) with free access to materials.  Children need that much time to freely choose from among the materials in the activity centers that are listed across the top of your Schedule Form and that you studied in your ACTIVITIES PowerPoint.  

To complete your Schedule Form, save it as a WORD Document and fill it in.  When your form is complete, review the Ppt once more, this time to focus on the slides that relate specifically to scheduling for infants and toddlers.  Write an analysis of the differences in the infant/toddler schedule and the older children's schedule including the meaning of the term, “ Much of the Day.”   Describe why and what ways schedules for infants and toddlers differ from schedules developed for children, ages 3-5 years of age.

Challenge Questions

1.  Using the information in the power points and your text, describe what the teacher should be doing while the children are using the Learning Activity Centers.  What learning should be accomplished during these Activities and what is the teacher's role, during these time blocks?  Why is the learning that takes place in the centers more appropriate than whole-group activities or worksheets? 

2.  Using the information in the power point and your text, define and describe the difference in the terms, "much of the day" and "substantial portion of the day.  Why are the scheduling requirements different for infants/toddlers and young preschool children?

3.  Using the calculator, below, how many SPD minutes are required in a program whose hours are:

8:00 - 12:00 Answer:  _____________________

6:00 - 1:00 ________________________

6:00 - 5:00 ________________________

Minimal Quality Access (MA) Calculator

High Quality Substantial Portion of the Day Calculator

Hours of operation       SPD hours/minutes

4.0 …...……………………1 hour, 20 minutes

4.5… ….…………………. 1 hour, 30 minutes

5.0 …..…………………… 1 hour, 40 minutes

5.5…. ……………………. 1 hour, 50 minutes

6.0 …...…………………… 2 hours

6.5… ………………….….. 2 hours, 10 minutes

7.0 .…………………….… 2 hours, 20 minutes

7.5… ………………….…. 2 hours, 30 minutes

8.0 …………………….…. 2 hours, 40 minutes

8.5….…………………….. 2 hours, 50 minutes

9.0 ……………..………… 3 hours

9.5…..……………………. 3 hours, 10 minutes

10….. ………………… ... 3 hours, 20 minutes

10.5…...…………………. 3 hours, 30 minutes

11…..……………….…… .3 hours, 40 minutes

11.5……………………… 3 hours, 50 minutes

12…….…………………...4 hours

Schedules Rubric

Review the Schedules Rubric to see how points will be awarded for your Schedules Assignment.

Environments – Part C- Rubric DAP Schedule