Daily Jobs are an excellent way to build a community in your program and develop a sense of purpose in children. This Town square created resource guides in understanding the importance of jobs, how they can be beneficial in the program’s daily schedule, and how to best utilize them for your specific children.
After selecting the jobs that best fit your program, one way to create a job chart is to use a baking sheet and magnets. Take pictures or have children draw the jobs, then print or have children write their name (if possible laminate them). Attach a magnet to the names and the jobs. Alternatively, you can use a felt board and velcro. Make sure that the Job chart is visible daily for children, and they can have access to it if they need to look at their job for the day.
As adults, we utilize a calendar for scheduling and to remember important events and holidays. While it might be second nature to look at the calendar and understand which month, date, and day of the week we are in, a calendar is very confusing for children. We can utilize a calendar because we have gained the knowledge and experience to know how time works. Young children are developing this skill.
To foster this understanding the focus of calendars should be a visual representation of a sequence (yesterday, today, tomorrow). Time should also be relatable to children, by understanding what they did in the morning (arrival), afternoon (after a nap), evening(at home). A great tool to use in the classroom to help children build this understanding is a linear calendar. A linear calendar helps children understand the pattern of time, incorporate their own experience of the day, and visually see time moving.
