Daily Life

at Solid Ground

What will my child's day look like?

Much in the same way that creativity can flourish within constraints, children thrive when they have freedom to create and explore within a predictable and nourishing daily rhythm. Our teachers thoughtfully structure the school day to integrate a variety of opportunities for learning and community-building. We seek to provide the children with balance: of time spent focused on exploration and play, time spent on academics, and time spent developing social and emotional skills.

Routines and expectations differ for older and younger children, and older children are asked to take more responsibility. This rhythm is flexible and child-centered, and we often offer fieldtrips, community guests, and other unique opportunities.

Fridays serve as a special day in our week. Time is set aside for additional project work with Weston and our school-wide Friday Share, during which children share finished work, engage in cooperative activities, and we take time for a community check-in.

Monday-Thursday

Children playing freely in our schoolyard before morning meeting begins.
Greeting a baby chick

Arrival & Greetings

9:05-9:20

•Greetings and Gear Check

•Teachers help children get checked-in and settled

•Children settle into an activity:

•Check on animals: baby chicks, monarchs, tadpoles, birds at feeder

•Lego or block challenges

•Organizing and preparing to teach classes with other children

•Greeting friends

Creating a mind map
Measuring growth of our baby chicks

Morning Meeting

9:30-10:00
  • Connect as a community with ritual

•Morning verse

•Phonemic awareness

•Singing together


  • Teachers lead students in group discussion and instruction

•Reading and discussing a book or poem

•Creating a shared graph or chart

•Creating mind maps or floorbooks

•Writing a new song or chant

•Older children plan their day or week

A student and teacher working on writing a story together. Meanwhile, another child swings on a tire and 2 others practice braiding.
Mud day! The children discovered a huge mud puddle where they had dug a "swimming pool" the week before a hard rain.

Rain or Shine Time

10:00-11:30

•Children go outdoors every day, no matter the weather*

*Proper Gear Required

•Supported free play in the outdoor play space

•Outdoor projects

•Hiking or exploring the creek at "nature playground"

•Obstacle course climbing

•Group games

•Outdoor art projects

•Nature journaling


Children cresting the hill while walking

Transition Time

11:30-12:00

•Children enjoy a nature walk on one of the many ways back up to the schoolhouse for lunch

•Children read quietly or with volunteers while others help teachers set up for lunch

•Children's outdoor gear is prepped and readied for easier pick-up.

Children building social skills and manners at our community table
Teachers often read aloud or tell stories during the second half of lunch

Lunch

12:00-1:00

•Children and teachers eat lunch together at a community table

•Children bring packed lunches

•Cross-gender and mixed age friendships are encouraged through creative and mixed seating


•Teachers read aloud from chapter books or share traditional stories during second half of lunch

•An opportunity for calm listening and lively literacy building

•Students are encouraged to stay longer to give them more time to eat and drink

Older children develop reading fluency and confidence while younger children hear stories and are motivated by peer modeling
Children proud to have succeeded at a challenging puzzle of the solar system

Quiet Time & Chores

1:00-1:30

•Older children read aloud to younger children

•Younger children love hearing stories while they rest

•Older children are motivated to read for authentic audiences

•Older children feel a sense of accomplishment and competence


•Children do chores to help school

•Children develop a sense of responsibility and community

•Feeding animals, keeping the school clean, preparing materials

•Children play board games, card games, and do puzzles to practice math, literacy, and logic

Creating a to-scale map of one path back to the schoolhouse from down the hill.
Children pretending to be crysalides as part of a monarch life cycle study

Small Group & Choice Time

1:05-3:05

•Small groups and individuals work with teachers

•Project work

•Math in small groups

•Storytelling and reading groups

•Conflict mediation


•Children play and work freely

•In our art studio and makerspace

•Outside in the yard

•Teaching one another classes they create

•With blocks and building materials

•In the dramatic play area

Children sharing their drawings
Children watch as a monarch flies away

Daily Reflection

3:05-3:35

•Teachers lead children in mindfulness

•Breath and body awareness

•Imagination

•Exploring feelings

•Children reflect on the day

•Children share work they are proud of from the day to the group

•The group addresses problems, conflicts, or concerns that happened throughout the day.

•Closing songs and rituals to end the day.

Friday

Children learning to press apples after gathering them from the orchards

Nature & Entrepreneurship with Weston

10:00-12:00

●Gardening & Harvesting

●Farm-based seasonal activities

●Working to create and sell products at a farm stand


Children working together to balance as a group on the teeter-totter

Friday Share

12:30-1:45

●Extended community building through song, cooperative group activities, & shared ritual

●Community "check-in" and problem-solving discussions

●Students present their finished work & thinking to the group