Are DCPS PK3-4 programs more play-based or academic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I much prefer one long recess rather than two shorter ones.

That would be my preference too.
Do you happen to know what schools have one?

Why, out of curiosity?

30 min twice seems fine to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In what schools DCPS or charter there are two resseses? Only came across ones with only one 30/40 min max.

My kids go to Janney. They had a second recess through 2nd grade.

That’s amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I much prefer one long recess rather than two shorter ones.

That would be my preference too.
Do you happen to know what schools have one?

Why, out of curiosity?

30 min twice seems fine to me.

Transitions never been easy for my DS. But definitely 2*30min or one ling is better that just one short one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In what schools DCPS or charter there are two resseses? Only came across ones with only one 30/40 min max.

L-T has two recesses throughout ECE. There's a separate, fenced off ECE playground, so they can use that when older kids are outside during their lunches and then (typically) have the run of the playground for their extra recess.

The posted PK3 schedule is a 20 minute recess midday (meets DCPS requirement) and both the principal and a parent said they do it "when the weather is good" and push to 30 min when possible. So maybe getting two recesses depends on the teacher, not officially the schedule?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I much prefer one long recess rather than two shorter ones.

That would be my preference too.
Do you happen to know what schools have one?

Why, out of curiosity?

30 min twice seems fine to me.

Because the time doing jackets and walking in and out comes out of the recess time, and it seems silly to do it twice when you could do it once.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is not 10 minutes of academics. It is a couple of blocks so 1-2 hours?

Why are the adults running the show not looking at the research or understanding what is developmentally appropriate? Same with so much screen use so early in DCPS?

The big picture is that I don’t trust DCPS to know what is best for my kid. They obviously are not following best practices. I mean it doesn’t get any easier than ECE. If they don’t have best practices for this, there is little confidence IMO that they will for higher stakes in upper grades.

And the majority of parents on here at T1 schools who are actually making excuses and supporting this are not telling you is that they are playing the lottery every year for better schools. Things get worst past ECE.

Oh FFS. I very much doubt it's 1-2 hours. Maaaaaybe 1 hour, total, over a day in PK4 when-- remember-- most of the kids are 5 years old by the end.

T1 parents are not playing the lottery *because* of this. I was a T1 parent and I was 1000% fine with my kid learning letters and numbers, and I thought our T1 preschool was terrific in part because they taught some of the kids to read. I was playing the lottery for a better middle school.

No one I know that has played the lottery has done so for ECE, we have people coming in for ECE and K, it's entirely for MS and HS.

Two of six hours is just lunch/recess/nap and another hour or so is specials usually. So that assumes the spend 2/3 of the remaining time sitting at tables doing worksheets and if teachers can get four year olds to sit still for two straight hours I mean bless them I guess.

Absolutely you can. It’s never 2-3 hours straight. It’s broken into chunks.

Please provide a schedule that includes the mandated amount of time for lunch and recess, plus specials and a 90-minute nap, and all transitions, and still includes 2-3 hours of seat work. Don't forget potty breaks!

Eh, I’ll humor you.


8:20 -8:45 Breakfast + writing practice (5)

8:45-9-15 Morning meeting and read aloud/whole group lesson (20 min)
9:15-10:00 Centers and small groups
(15- 25 min per kid/ 10-15 min with each teacher). (25)

10-10:30 Recess

10:35 -11:05 - whole group math lesson (30)

11:05 - 1:50- Centers and small groups again (25)

11:50-12:20 Lunch
12:20-1:50 NAP
1:50 -2:00 Heggerty (10)
2:00-2:05Snack
2:05- 2:20 Literacy Whole Group (15)
2:20-3:05 Specials


There’s your 2+ hours. Also FYI my old school didn’t give the real schedule to parents in terms of how long small groups were and whole groups.

Bathroom is in centers. Nope no transition times except recess. And PK 4 the literacy block is 30 min longer. Yes snack was really 5 minutes.

Wow where is the play time??? Just at the centers if kids are not in a small groups. That is it?

This is horrendous.

I'm genuinely asking, have you see most DCPS PK classrooms? What other play are they doing? Our kids went on walks when it was nice and had a lot of extended recess also when it was nice, but 18 kids in a classroom is not going to allow for a ton of large active play.

If you are asking this question then you don’t realize that kids can play all day in a classroom. I’m the PP with the older kid who couldn’t read till 1st.

Our ECE classrooms had 4 centers on the periphery of the classroom and the kids would spend 40 minutes or so playing at the centers. Then they rotate to another center and play for 40 minutes. Sometimes they get to pick what centers they wanted. During this time, the teacher would walk around, observe, make some suggestions or ask questions maybe. Above was maybe 1/2 the day. So lots of times, the kids at each centers had to work together and share and play together because the teacher couldn’t be at every center every second.

They also had a few tables in the middle of the classroom with 4 chairs and a long table with lots of chairs where kids would draw, color, paint, do kinetic sand, do art. There was a reading area and kids could sit and just look and flip thru books. Then there was circle and story time.

There was also whole class fun projects like they all worked to build an aquarium (construction paper, tracing animals and coloring) when they were learning about the ocean and animals in it. They set up a broadcasting station and made cameras and mics. They interviewed kids and their thoughts about a topic and made videos for parents. They went outside to look at clouds and draw their own clouds and talked about rain. The school also had a garden so the kids did gardening and planting. One project the kids did was a family tree so we sent in pictures and the kids made a collage and then went up to do a talk and presentation about their family.

Above are just a few examples but you get the point. No one was sitting down doing worksheets or being drilled additions. There was no math or literacy block. There was no pulling kids out in small groups from centers to do what? The teacher incorporated content and letters, numbers into the projects and what they were playing with at the centers. Some centers I remember was kitchen, magnatiles, ice cream stand selling ice cream, etc…

Those 2 years was just so much fun and my kid was fortunate to have it. He has lots of great memories from then and I pictures.

I'm the PP and that's our T1 experience. The person I respond to said it's terrible there was no play but centers. What you're describing are centers.

But your schedule only has 2 blocks of centers in the whole day and in those blocks are small groups also. Other blocks are academics.

So no your schedule is not play based the whole day and even in the center blocks there are kids who are not playing if there are small groups.

Do you know what those small groups are doing? This went from there's no play! To there's not enough play! To sure there's play but there's also some academics and that's bad period!

Specials and recess are also usually play.

There's a weird subset that's basically like if my kid learns to count in school that's bad and I agree with a different PP that's kind of odd. None of it is like the school in Matilda. It's basically sure you have play and then there's also some learning. And if your kid hates that I get it and that's OK it has no future bearing, but when people are telling you their kids are happy and socially thriving in school and people are yelling at you that your experience is wrong it's pretty off-putting.

You’re misunderstanding what we (teachers and some parents) are saying though. You can learn counting through play, it doesn’t have to be at the table, that’s more formal at not developmentally appropriate for pre-k.

What’s off-putting is SOME parents getting defensive without trying to understand because you are taking everything personally.

I have read so many other teachers say play is learning -especially guided play and a rich environment.

That’s why great reggio programs for example thrive. Play based doesn’t mean a lack of pre-academic skills being taught -it’s learning that through the environment and the teacher’s expertise.

Your experience is not wrong, what teachers are warning about is this is becoming worse and more tech is involved. A happy child is wonderful and important. But so is ensuring developmentally appropriate practices. Especially for at risk students -who are getting iPads and utilizing tech at a younger age than even 2 years ago.

All in all I understand it’s a touchy subject. A little small group isn’t the devil, it’s the amount many schools are starting to require. You should not be seeing kids for 20-30 min a day or have play be a short part of the day.

Are you willing to point to specific "great" reggio programs/schools as examples?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I much prefer one long recess rather than two shorter ones.

Same, has anyone tried to transition 18 kids from the classroom to the playground in the winter. Imagine the coats, hats, gloves, etc twice a day for 18 kids. It would take more time just to transition than play. One transition to recess for a decent time will suffice.

Also it seems like these schedules differ by school. I know my school is big on starting the day focusing of social emotional skills with strong start. Heggerty is only 10-15 minutes max. Small group is 10-15 minutes max per child a day (which is usually a game based activity that teaches and math or literacy skill), 10 minutes for math whole group that is a whole group game that reinforces a math skill. Centers for an hour (children pick where they want to go, but we also have plan activities related to the study). Read aloud for 10-15 minutes (that's supporting language and vocabulary, which should be happening during play too). Then you have specials, lunch, nap, closing. It's really interesting to hear about the iPads and homework hopefully that is not the norm, but luckily not where I am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In what schools DCPS or charter there are two resseses? Only came across ones with only one 30/40 min max.

L-T has two recesses throughout ECE. There's a separate, fenced off ECE playground, so they can use that when older kids are outside during their lunches and then (typically) have the run of the playground for their extra recess.

The posted PK3 schedule is a 20 minute recess midday (meets DCPS requirement) and both the principal and a parent said they do it "when the weather is good" and push to 30 min when possible. So maybe getting two recesses depends on the teacher, not officially the schedule?

It is true that they don’t make up the extra recess if it’s a no outside recess day, but they definitely have two recesses the majority of the time. Also, the lunch recess is definitely 30 minutes and can be more. It’s 1 hour for lunch + recess.

[Anonymous]

Is it possible or useful to make a list of known play based programs in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible or useful to make a list of known play based programs in DC?

Curious about this, with some caveats since there’s some disagreement in this thread about what “play-based” refers to.

Mostly though I think we should listen to the teachers, who probably have a better sense of not just their classroom and what their school requires but also trends within DCPS. We parents can get too defensive of our own decisions or jump to extremes. I don’t know how a section of this thread concluded people asking about play are then anti-learning and should go to forest school … really doesn’t help the discussion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible or useful to make a list of known play based programs in DC?

Curious about this, with some caveats since there’s some disagreement in this thread about what “play-based” refers to.

Mostly though I think we should listen to the teachers, who probably have a better sense of not just their classroom and what their school requires but also trends within DCPS. We parents can get too defensive of our own decisions or jump to extremes. I don’t know how a section of this thread concluded people asking about play are then anti-learning and should go to forest school … really doesn’t help the discussion.

You should attend open houses of schools within a small radius of your home and pick the school that best fits your needs.

The stress of commuting across the city is not worth avoiding an occasional small group or explicit phonics instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible or useful to make a list of known play based programs in DC?

Curious about this, with some caveats since there’s some disagreement in this thread about what “play-based” refers to.

Mostly though I think we should listen to the teachers, who probably have a better sense of not just their classroom and what their school requires but also trends within DCPS. We parents can get too defensive of our own decisions or jump to extremes. I don’t know how a section of this thread concluded people asking about play are then anti-learning and should go to forest school … really doesn’t help the discussion.

You should attend open houses of schools within a small radius of your home and pick the school that best fits your needs.

The stress of commuting across the city is not worth avoiding an occasional small group or explicit phonics instruction.

It’s not stressful to know my child is learning in a way that’s developmentally appropriate. And who said one would have to commute ‘across the city,’ your IB could very well not be using a crazy amount of tech. Your ‘whatever’ attitude is part of the reason why US education ranks so lowly across the developed world.

Apologies if I believe teachers who work in DCPS more than your experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DC is still in daycare, one very much advertised as "play-based," and they've been spending a lot of time on letters and numbers. They practice in some way every day and a couple of the kids can write their (short) name now. I was very surprised by this and now not sure what to expect for preschool...my own ignorance?

TBH having my not quite 3yo know a lot of letters and numbers in daycare isn't that thrilling ... I'd rather go to the park and slide or collect sticks.

I know some parents are really into it though. I've taken to thinking "it is what it is" and just don't emphasize it or push for more in our activities at home. They have the rest of their lives to be drilled on this stuff. I suppose I'll feel the same way about preschool.

Your kid is in daycare for what, 8 hrs/day? A little bit of phonics won’t hurt them. Kids actually enjoy learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible or useful to make a list of known play based programs in DC?

Curious about this, with some caveats since there’s some disagreement in this thread about what “play-based” refers to.

Mostly though I think we should listen to the teachers, who probably have a better sense of not just their classroom and what their school requires but also trends within DCPS. We parents can get too defensive of our own decisions or jump to extremes. I don’t know how a section of this thread concluded people asking about play are then anti-learning and should go to forest school … really doesn’t help the discussion.

You should attend open houses of schools within a small radius of your home and pick the school that best fits your needs.

The stress of commuting across the city is not worth avoiding an occasional small group or explicit phonics instruction.

It’s not stressful to know my child is learning in a way that’s developmentally appropriate. And who said one would have to commute ‘across the city,’ your IB could very well not be using a crazy amount of tech. Your ‘whatever’ attitude is part of the reason why US education ranks so lowly across the developed world.

Apologies if I believe teachers who work in DCPS more than your experience.

Whose PK is using a “crazy amount of tech”? do you really think a few minutes of learning letters is verboten and will ruin your child?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC is still in daycare, one very much advertised as "play-based," and they've been spending a lot of time on letters and numbers. They practice in some way every day and a couple of the kids can write their (short) name now. I was very surprised by this and now not sure what to expect for preschool...my own ignorance?

TBH having my not quite 3yo know a lot of letters and numbers in daycare isn't that thrilling ... I'd rather go to the park and slide or collect sticks.

I know some parents are really into it though. I've taken to thinking "it is what it is" and just don't emphasize it or push for more in our activities at home. They have the rest of their lives to be drilled on this stuff. I suppose I'll feel the same way about preschool.

Your kid is in daycare for what, 8 hrs/day? A little bit of phonics won’t hurt them. Kids actually enjoy learning.

Gosh I feel sorry for little kids today.