Major hat tip here to The Red Kitchen for her awesome schedule, system, orienting ideas and general attitude about preschool at home. I basically stole her schedule chart straight across for our once-in-a-while 2-year-old "preschool" last year, except Luke used a clip-art dump truck to move through the schedule. :-) Pictures to come (when I remember!).
For our 3-year-old preschool this year, I'd like to still use the calendar as a focusing activity - it's such a great bridge for applied numeracy and for helping silly Luke understand things like days of the week. Just like Red Kitchen posted, Luke has a pointer stick that we count the days with (but our calendar is a dry-erase, since that's what I had left over from teaching before he was born). Then we say the day of the week, month, and date.
I also want to do a "welcome song" while we're getting ready to sit down. This one is cute; we'll just change it to say "in our preschool class."
My preschool partner-in-crime (a.k.a. amazing co-teacher) starts off with a "sharing time," which sounds like a great way to get the kiddos engaged and attentive - and a good way to help them release some chatter and wiggles before we sit down for seat work.
There's obviously no wrong way to start the preschool day, but a welcome routine definitely helps set the tone for the rest of class and predictable patterns, whatever they are, help kids feel comfortable.
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