Some teachers seem to have a hard time conducting Center Time in a way that truly grants ownership of the learning to the children while still being present in an unobtrusive way.

Center Time, which should be given to one-third of your day (for a four-hour program that is 80 minutes!!!) is NOT free play in Centers while teacher does paperwork. It is a SHARED learning time in which children choose an area of work and teachers join them to observe, assess, offer facts and support as needed, and encourage thought process by asking open-ended questions as the children work.

Center Time can be divided into smaller increments of time depending on your schedule – two 40 minute sessions or three 25-minute sessions. Here’s a sample schedule for a four-hour program:

8:30 – 9:00 Teachers Stage Centers With Either Unit-Based or Open-Ended Experiences

9:00 Arrival, Stow Backpacks, Wash Hands

9:10 – 9:30 Morning Meeting/Circle Time

9:30 – 10:00 Center Time 1

10:00 – 10:20 Clean Up, Wash Hands, Snack

10:20 – 10:50 Playground

10:50 – 11:20 Center Time 2

11:20 – 11:40 Small Group Time

11:40 – Noon Whole Group Time – Music/Movement, Art, Literacy, Enrichment

Noon – 12:20 Lunch

12:20 – 12:40 Center Time 3

12:40 – 12:55 Reflection Meeting, Quiet Literacy

12:55 – 1:00 Dismissal

Teachers can set up all Centers or limit Center choice to three at a time. Children can move through centers either as they wish or teachers can limit number of children in each, depending on classroom space.

Another way for five-day programs to do Center Time is to use four days of your week for specific subject-matter skill building using whole group or large group sessions and reserve Friday for all day Center Time or a Whole Class Project.

Class: 3-4’s		Unit: Bees
What we’ll Learn/ How we’ll Learn	Monday Literacy	Tuesday Math	Wednesday Science	Thursday Social Studies	Friday Center Day
Manipulation	Bees and B’s	Bee Sorting	Bee Hives	Bee Families
Expression	Bee Music & Art	Bee Counting	Pollination	Bee Keepers
Sensory Operations	Bee Books	Finding the Queen	Honey	We Need Bees
Schemas/Movement	Buzzin’ Around	Bee Relays	Honey/Spoon Run	Our ‘Colony’

We use the term ‘readiness’ a lot in our business – usually when we talk about whether a child is ready for kindergarten, and sometimes at the end of the year when we help parents decide if their child needs to repeat the current year or move on to the next age group. Here are seven thoughts about making those decisions easier. 

NO SURPRISES! If you have been doing your job of observing and assessing during the school year, there should be no big surprises about which child may need to repeat the current class and if you have been keeping in close contact with parents about behaviors and needs all year, parents should not be blindsided by the suggestion of repeating.

They May Want to Kill the Messenger – there is ALWAYS a sense of disappointment in parents when they hear their child might not be ready to move on, so break this news as gently and respectfully as possible and take no offense if parents are angry at hearing it.

Stay or Go? If there is a question about repeating a year, remember the child has at least three months (sometimes more if this decision is made in the spring of the year) to mature and experience learning opportunities. They may catch on and even catch up over the summer break.

There are many factors to look at. The first questions to ask are: “Does this child have overwhelmingly obvious needs in any of the basic developmental spheres of Body, Mind, and Spirit?” “Does this child have a formal professional diagnosis of any delay, disability, or debilitating illness or syndrome?” and “Does this child exhibit behaviors on a constant basis that are harmful to the self, others, material/equipment, or to the learning process?” If the answer is yes to any of these, you and the parents will need to talk about retention.

The Academic Skills (Emergent Literacy, Math, Science, and Social Studies) are the ones that represent achievement in traditional school subjects. They must never be pushed on a child not ready for them and must always be achieved through active, real experiences that allow the child to use manipulation, expression, sensory operations, and schemas (movement). Though many parents and some educators feel these are the most important readiness skills, they come second to the Executive Skills. 

The Executive Functioning Skills are the ones that best determine success in school and life. They are:

Independence        The child can determine what is needed, retrieve it, use it, and replace it

Attention               The child can listen, focus, and pay attention for a developmentally appropriate time                                                                        

SARRA                 The child can select a work opportunity; take action in the work; repeat the work as needed; reflect on the       

work through all media, apply the skills to new work

Comprehension      The child can understand what is said and follow directions

Memory                 The child can recall and retain words, facts, and instructions

Speech                   The child can speak understandably, increase vocabulary, and have conversations

Self-Awareness      The child knows him/herself in terms of age, ability, physicality, family & humanness

Self-Esteem            The child has a positive view of him/herself, shows confidence, and is willing to try

Self-Control           The child can regulate his/her behavior

Self-Expression      The child can express feelings through art, music, role play, spoken/written words

These skills are gained through play, role play, problem-solving scenarios, work on group projects, memory and listening games, and opportunities during “Center Time” (which should be one-third of their day) for interaction, conversation, comparison, negotiation, laughter, and group movement with both teachers and other students. 

Both Executive Functioning Skills and Academic Skills must be assessed when deciding on retention, but without having the Executive Function Skills, it is harder for the child to gain the Academic Skills or to have successful future school experience.