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, adapating to the needs of the children. The schedule below is offered as a sample.

We include intentional community gatherings in our week. Time is set aside for community-building activities and curriculum, such as our school-wide Friday Share, during which children share finished work, engage in cooperative activities, and take time for a community check-in.

Start and End Times: Drop-off is from 8:50-9:05 and Pick-up is at 3:35.

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

•Children greet their friends before walking back to our school house.

•Teachers help children get checked-in and settled

Creating a mind map
Measuring growth of our baby chicks

Morning Meeting

9:20-9:45

  • Connect as a classroom community with ritual

•Morning song or mindfulness

•Phonemic awareness or math talk


  • 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

•Reviewing our day or week

Story-making: writing books

Literacy Work

9:45-10:45

  • Students spend time on literacy-focused work

•Story-making and writing projects

•Literacy-focused tasks related to multi-disciplinary project work

•Discrete skill work (such as phonics & spelling)

•Skill-focused reading in small groups

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

11:00-11:50

•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

11:50-12:15

•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

Math or Special Classes

1:00-2:00

•Small group math instruction

•problem-solving using mathematical thinking in small groups with teacher support

•Project work, games, building and other tasks that build mathematical. logical, and spatial reasoning skills.

•Nature Journaling and Science

•Children build STEM skills and non-fiction literacy by working in their nature journals

•Engage in real-life science around the farm

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

Choice Time: Multi-disciplinary Project Work, Student-led Classes, & Play

2:00-3:15

  • Multi-disciplinary Project Work:

    • Small groups and individuals work with teachers on open-ended project work

•Child-led Classes:

  • Children plan and led classes for other students on topics of their choosing

•Children play and work freely

Children sharing their drawings
Children watch as a monarch flies away

Daily Reflection

3:15-3:35

•Teachers lead children in mindfulness

•Breath and body awareness

•Imagination

•Exploring feelings

•Children reflect on the day

•Children share work they are proud of and things they learned with the group

•Closing songs and rituals to end the day.

Special Classes and Gatherings

Children learning to press apples after gathering them from the orchards

Nature & Entrepreneurship

Once per week

●Gardening & Harvesting

●Farm-based seasonal activities

●Working to create and sell products at a farm stand


A student gets feedback on her art from an Americorps volunteer.

Nature & Community

Once per week

●Mindfulness and Social and Emotional Learning

●Preparing for community-focused events, such as our annual Winter Solstice Celebration or Spring Gallery Night

●Selecting library books or engaging in place-making through art.


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

Friday Share

Every Friday

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

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

●Students present their finished work to the entire school, providing an authentic audience, a point of reflection, and motivation for their project work.