Oakland, CA
Bernice and Joe Playschool

We believe children feel the most secure, learn best, and are the happiest when they can explore a diverse range of indoor and outdoor activities which our experienced and caring staff offer in an open setting. We find value in having all ages play together.

Of course, younger children will learn from older ones. But, we also believe that older children can learn from younger ones, for example, by being more nurturing and more patient, and that they can realize that they, too, were at that age once. We remember one five-year-old remarking, 'When I was a little kid...'

We strive for verbalization and socialization -- we want the children to get along with one another and to express their feelings; to resolve their conflicts through words, not hurtful deeds. To that end, we strictly disallow fighting games and weapons play, and discourage superhero references in clothing and shoes.

We encourage them to share toys. While we don't stress academics, we don't ignore them either. Children learn best through play -- it is, after all, their work. To that end, we do a lot of pre-reading, pre-writing, and pre-math hands-on activities.

Children who graduate from here are fully prepared for kindergarten.

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While events generally occur in the order shown, the scheduled times are subject to change, for example, we modify our morning schedule to allow our outside teachers to do their work.

Outdoor free play depends on the weather. On mildly showery days, some children can choose to go outside in raincoats and boots. On very rainy days, we have indoor free play.

Morning Block:
8:00a.m. - Open
8:00-9:30 - Indoor free play/
Teacher directed activities
9:30-9:45 - Indoor clean-up/ Toileting/diaper changes/ Prepare a.m. snack
9:45-10:30 - Circle Time/
a.m. snack time
10:30-11:30 - Outdoor free play/ Clean-up after snack
11:30-12:15 - Outdoor clean-up/
Toileting/diaper change/
Start lunch preparation
12:15-12:40 - Circle Time/
Share time/
End lunch preparation
12:40-1:00 - Lunch time/

At 1:00 p.m., the morning kids get picked up.

Afternoon Block:
1:00-1:30 - Prepare nap mats and blankets/
Clean-up after lunch
1:30-3:00 - Nap (or quiet) time
3:00-4:00 - Indoor free-play/ Toileting/diaper changes/
Pick up nap mats and blankets/ Prepare p.m. snack
4:00-4:15 - p.m. snack time
4:15-5:30 - Outdoor free play
5:30p.m. - Closed

Between 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., the afternoon kids get picked up.

A look at our Schedule shows that we have a large indoor free play when we first open up. Art materials are available. Depending on the day, we may have a gym, Spanish, or music teacher come in during the morning time. We clean up, have a Circle Time, have our morning snack, then a large outdoor free play time in late morning. We come in, have another Circle Time, do lunch, and the morning children leave at 1 pm. All day kids have a nap until 3 pm, indoor free play, small Circle Time, afternoon snack, then we finish the day with outdoor time.

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