A Typical Day at Penguins
We believe that the best days are often those that happen spontaneously! Having said that, each month we will have a specific theme that some of our activities may focus on (for example, one month we may look at the world or mini beasties – eurgh!) but we think sometimes even the best laid plans can be swept aside if something more exciting comes along!
We have a very loose guide to our typical day which is determined by the age of the children we are looking after, the weather, how the children are feeling on that particular day and so on. Our main focus is that the children have fun and receive suitable activities to aid their development and meet their individual needs.
8am-9:30am: We tend to all play together in the Mini Penguins Playroom while we register everyone in (arrivals are no later than 9:15am). We talk about where we would like to go or what we would like to do that day. Each month we have a topic that helps concentrate our planning so we sometimes might take an unusual trip to say a Castle, as part of a knights topic. Most days are child-led and we go with the majority vote of what everyone would like to do and what the weather person says!
09:30am-10am: We all eat snacks together in the Mini Penguin (0-3yrs) playroom and the King Penguins (3-5yrs) help to prepare snacks or get the things (wellies and coats) ready for our outing. After snack, we check nappies and do a loo trip before heading off in the car. If we are staying home the King Penguins tend to head to their playroom but sometimes we split the children based on what they want to do. Some might want to bake so they stay downstairs while others want to build a train track so they go to the other playroom. We use Pinterest to show the children the types of things we could do that day on top of the usual, playing with toys, singing, dancing etc.
10am-11:45am: We have lots of fun during our outings/activities and we steer children's learning towards specific learning goals we may be helping them to achieve (called Next Steps). For example, someone might have the next step to count to 10, so together we would count rungs on the ladder for the slide or scoops of flour as we bake a cake.
11:45am-1pm: After our activities/outing we put our things away and wash our hands, sometimes we have lunch at home, or we have a picnic when out. We usually read a book (or 3!) together and change nappies ready for afternoon naps.
1pm-3:30pm: Once the little ones are asleep the older children do some number and letter work or a circle time activity before choosing a quiet activity such as painting, play-doh, board games or dressing up - whatever they fancy. If any mini penguins wake during this period they usually join in or do quiet activities such as puzzles or building blocks etc.
3pm-6pm: Once everyone is awake from naps we have a little bit of free play, serve dinner and generally pop the TV on, read a book or play a group game (sleeping lions etc) so that we can clean up and get everyone ready to go home.
