8.4 The Temporal Environment: Daily Schedules and Routines
Jennifer Karshna, Ph.D.
The temporal environment refers to time. This includes the daily schedule (the times of day things happen), transitions, and the sequence in which these things occur. A well-planned temporal environment creates the conditions for children to focus on engaging in activities and interacting with their peers and teachers. Adults can spend time interacting with children and supporting their learning. Additionally, it provides any visitors, such as observers or practicum students,, with a sense of when things happen in the classroom.
A consistent daily schedule provides predictability. Children and adults know what will happen and when to expect transitions. Predictability reduces behavior issues (Gartrell, 2014). Predictability also contributes to children’s feelings of safety, especially for those who experience chaotic lives outside of the ECE program (Gartrell, 2014; Schwartz-Henderson, 2016). In the opening scenario for Chapter 8, the teachers’ discussion about holding group time or the art activity indicates that this classroom does not follow a well-planned, daily schedule. The teachers are not sure what to do! Because the teachers are uncertain about the next activity, they become preoccupied with planning in front of the children. Additionally, the children may be confused or may not feel safe.
An effective classroom schedule is responsive to the ages and developmental levels of the children and works within the program requirements and constraints (Bullard, 2013). Program constraints are limitations or boundaries within which programs must operate. It refers to things such as when outdoor space is available for each classroom or other requirements such as being served meals at a specific time. These can be physical (the square footage available for an outdoor space) or abstract (the times that children are arriving or sleeping), and they have direct effects on the classroom schedule. The daily schedule consists of the activities and transitions that happen throughout the day. Activities include things such as free play, small group, large group, self-care/bathroom/diapering, clean up, meals, and outdoor play. In-between the activities are transitions.
Transitions are changes or shifts from one activity to another. One example is going from breakfast to free play. Another example is going from inside to outside. Transitions tend to be a difficult time of day for children (Gartrell, 2014). It is critical to pay attention to the importance of planning for transitions. Sometimes transitions are overlooked when setting up the daily schedule. However, planning transitions can reduce behavior issues (Hemmeter et al., 2008) and can be quite helpful for the teachers and other adults, such as volunteers and practicum students. They can see the transitions in the daily written schedule. Keep in mind that it works best to minimize the number of transitions in the daily schedule.
Infants, toddlers and preschoolers require different daily schedules. Infants and toddlers need a more individualized schedule with no planned group times. Preschool daily schedules should include short group times, and the total number of large group activities should be minimal (Bullard, 2013). Preschool group time can be effective if it is purposeful and active; however, it keep in mind that young children’s attention spans are short (Gartrell, 2014). It is recommended to keep group activity to 10-15 minutes (New Jersey Early Childhood Education, 2019).
An additional consideration with daily schedules is the ratio of teacher-directed to child-initiated activities. Teacher-directed activities are those in which the teacher decides what the children will do. Group times are teacher-directed activities. Mealtimes and self-care such as handwashing or bathroom/diapering are also teacher-directed times because the adult is choosing what is happening. Child-initiated activities are those that the children choose what to do. Common child-initiated activities on the daily schedule are free play and outdoor time. The ratio should be more child-initiated activity than teacher-directed activity (NAEYC, 2022).
Daily schedules should be written and posted for both children and adults to see. Because children do not read, a picture schedule is needed. The picture schedule often has a calming effect on children, especially those that may have disabilities or engage in challenging behavior (Gartrell, 2014; Jiron et al., 2018). Although there may be a picture schedule posted for all children to see, it may be beneficial for some children to have a smaller picture schedule. There are many ideas for creating picture schedules. An internet search will likely bring up valuable ideas that can be used to create a picture schedule that works for the classroom and/or meets individual children’s needs.
Because there are many things, such as mealtimes and self-care, that cannot be skipped and usually need to be done at specific times, it takes careful planning to develop a daily schedule. An effective daily schedule promotes engagement and reducing behavioral issues (Bullard, 2013; Gartrell, 2014). Planning a developmentally appropriate, effective schedule is well-worth the effort—the days tend to move along smoothly and everyone in the classroom (children, teachers, volunteers, families) benefits because they can enjoy the delightful and interesting experience of being in an early childhood classroom.