DayStar News
A Day at Day Star
7:00 am: Your child is excited as they arrive at school. They give you a hug, and then run to join their
friends in the pretend area. They have created a pirate ship, and are looking for buried treasure.
8:00 am: It’s learning center time. Your child is eager to explore the art activity the teacher has put out
for the day. Having been introduced to the concept of sculpting the day before, your child looks forward
to creating his own sculpture with clay. As they mold and form the clay into masterpieces, they increase
strength in their hands, wrists and fingers, as well as increase hand-eye coordination and visual
perception skills. Elsewhere in the classroom, students are practicing writing letters in rice, and still
others are playing phonics games on an IPod.
8:45 am: It’s worship time. Gathering the children together on the carpet, the teacher begins with songs
that remind us of God’s love for us, while many also allow for the natural movement and energy of little
ones. We share a story together. Today, we are talking about Jonah, and the children each have a sock
fish in their hands. At the appropriate time in the story, felt Jonah’s will be swallowed by sock fish and
sock fish will spit felt Jonah’s out at Nineveh. After the story, the children make whales out of paper
bags and Kleenex. Later in the day, these whales make another appearance as children retell the
worship story from the morning.
9:30 am: It’s snack time. Children are served a healthy snack that might consist of fruit, yogurt, crackers,
veggies, or cheese. Sometimes, the children will assemble a special snack. We call this “kinder-cooking .”
Not only is there a lot of pride in making their own food, but the children are more eager to try new
things when they have made them themselves! While at the table, children are guided in and practice
the manners associated with eating at the table with others.
9:45 am: It’s circle time. During this time the children practice various math skills using the calendar.
Singing the days of the week song, counting, patterning, and learning about weather are just a few of
the things they enjoy during circle time.
10:00 am: Time to go to the playground. At the playground children have many choices. They learn the
fundamentals of gravity as they swing and slide. Teeter totters teach them about simple machines and
levers. They build strength and gross motor skills as they run, jump, climb and swing on monkey bars.
When they tire of this, there are creative choices. Sometimes children choose to be pioneers, collecting
natural items to serve as pretend food and supplies, other times they choose to be explorers, pirates,
teachers, doctors, zookeepers. The mind of a child is an endless playground.
11:00 am: Back from the playground the teacher sets up a math activity. Giving each child a handful of
beans, they are asked to sort the beans by color, and then count how many of each color they have.
After they sort and count, the teacher brings them together to create a graph of the different colors
they counted. Together they explore the idea of how you can collect and display data as well as compare
data.
12:00 pm: It’s been a busy morning, and your child is ready for a nutritious lunch. Choosing healthy and
balanced foods, your child is served a delicious meal by our lunch program and Home and School
Association “cooking experts”. They again are coached in table manners and etiquette. After lunch is
finished, your child helps the teacher clean the table and stack the chairs so they can get ready for rest.
By taking opportunities to help, your child is discovering that he is a part of a community, and we all
have a part to do!
12:30 pm: Still not ready to close their eyes, your child chooses a book to read on his mat before they
all drift off to sleep. Most often as they sleep, it will be to the tunes of the masters. Mozart is a favorite
and some recognize tunes they’ve heard before. The music is soft, and relaxing, so even those who will
never fall asleep are able to relax.
2:00 pm: Rested and full, it’s time to run around again. The teacher decides it’s a perfect day to take the
class to the park. Once there, she pulls out the parachute and children grab the handles and run in a
circle excitedly. Then, up the parachute goes, and the children scurry to run under the colorful tent it
has created. Who knew building gross motor skills could be so fun!
3:00 pm: It’s story time. To help foster literacy development the teacher has chosen to read and do an
activity with the book called, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. First, students take a picture walk through the
story, while the teacher helps them with vocabulary they may not be familiar with. Then, they read the
story together on the carpet. Then, it’s time to retell the story using the felt board. All the children have
a chance to help put the pieces of the story together and tell the story interactively, while also learning
to wait patiently while their classmates take a turn.
3:45 pm: It’s time for another nutritious snack. Today the children are enjoying organic vanilla yogurt
parfaits with blueberries and cereal.
4:00 pm: It’s learning center time again and your child chooses to play restaurant in the pretend center.
Cooking up a fabulous meal with his classmate he sets the table, then practices ordering and serving a
meal to the teacher. Other students are also making choices. Some have chosen to create a workshop
and be carpenters building fine furniture, and still others are mechanics fixing cars in their pretend
garages. During this time, individual or small groups of children are pulled out for teacher time, where
they work on specific academic needs and intervention/extension activities.
5:30 pm: It’s almost time to get ready to go home! You arrive to find your child playing a learning game,
perhaps on the computer. He jumps up to give you a hug and the teacher fills you in on their exciting
day.