During Choice Time, students can spend time engaging in imaginative play, construction with blocks and manipulatives, playing with games and puzzles, painting, working with play dough and clay, cooking, exploring the light and sensory tables, investigating growing plants and other natural materials, and reading books are just a few of the ways the children spend their Choice Time in the classroom, in addition to enjoying snack together as a class. Circle Time allows the children to gather together, chart their course for the day, share ideas, and engage in active listening.
Each week, every child attends three specials: Movement, Investigation Room/Outdoor Classroom, and Music. Movement, led by our in-house Occupational Specialist, allows children to explore a wide variety of gross motor challenges in our expansive motor room. Younger children encounter opportunities to swing, slide, climb, and balance in an open gym format, while older children navigate complex obstacle courses that foster executive functioning skills while providing exciting ways to move through the room.
In our Investigation Room and Outdoor Classroom, our investigation specialist creates whimsical and intriguing spaces for art and sensory exploration, using paint, clay, water, loose parts, recyclables, projectors, ramps and balls, and more. Music allows children to move and groove as they sing, dance, play instruments, and learn introductory music concepts such as loud/soft, fast/slow, pitch, rhythm, beat, and melody.
Extended outdoor time is a component of every day. Children spend at least a third of their day on our beautiful playground in addition to weekly visits to our Outdoor Classroom. Our expansive outdoor play area provides opportunities for children to trike, scoot, climb, dangle from monkey bars, descend our massive embankment slides, delight in our water pump and pipes, and dig and build in our sandbox and digging square. Balls, hoops, rakes, shovels, and art materials are added to expand the fun throughout the seasons.
Pre-K children and Extended Day children eat lunch in their class groups, providing a time for social connection and active conversation. A brief rest and relaxation time follows lunch for children departing at 2:30pm, while children remaining at school until 5:30 have a more extended nap time. All children staying at TSNS into the afternoon enjoy more time on the playground together, and Extended Day children have additional free play opportunities, a planned activity or ongoing exploration, another snack, and story time before the day ends at 5:30pm.
Each week, the entire school comes together for Shabbat Sing, a joyful gathering to welcome Shabbat with singing and dancing. Our Temple Sinai clergy leads the community as we light the candles and sing together, and the last Friday of the month is a Family Shabbat Sing at which we welcome all parents, caregivers, and special guests to join in the Shabbat fun.