8 a.m. The children start to arrive and are welcomed by Brookline Early Education Program teachers Mary McLaughlin, Liz Fennell and Suzie Bray. They put their backpacks and outerwear in the cubby room, then enter the main BEEP room for free playtime.

8:20 a.m. Gathering on the alphabet rug for circle time, the children discuss a topic related to the current class theme: sharing and caring. Today’s prompt is “Think about a time when someone gave you a warm fuzzy.”

8:50 a.m. The group goes outside to play on the playground across Cypress Field. On warm days, they spend a lot of time outside. However, today’s chilly weather delays the group by making them put on winter accessories. The teachers huddle together and make sure the children keep their hats, hoods and coats on, while the children run around on the play structure and swing on the swing set. Several of the boys are fascinated by a passing leaf blower and play in the fall leaves.

9:50 a.m. The teachers are assisted by senior Cecelia Hartigan, who is part of the Early Childhood Education class. Rounding up the last few children running around the playground, they slowly migrate back down Tappan Street toward the BEEP room. Along the way, one boy describes how he wants a leaf blower to his walking buddy. The group pauses to watch an airplane fly overhead.

9:55 a.m. The children divide into three groups, one per teacher, and head into the cubby room to shed their winter gear. Then they file back into the room and sit in their groups at three separate stations. In one, McLaughlin conducts a game of alphabet bingo; in another, children match objects with corresponding pictures with Fennell; in the third, Bray helps children match cards with children’s faces on them to their places on a board.

10:10 a.m. The groups transition out of their activities and start breaking out snacks. Early Childhood Education class members seniors Hannah Natowitz and Haley Evans and junior Hannah Baker-Lerner enter the room and station themselves at different tables, helping unscrew caps and open packages along with the teachers. At Bray’s table, children pass around various laminated pages and point at random spots on them, pretending to be teachers. Meanwhile at Fennell’s table, two children bounce food on their heads and pretend their water bottles are rocketships.

10:40 a.m. The children sit on designated mats with their names on the alphabet rug for story time. Today, McLaughlin reads aloud “The Little Red Hen” by Paul Galdone, about a cat, dog and mouse that refuse to help a hen create a cake. Asthey listen, one child grabs some hair while another sidles up to McLaughlin. After the story is finished, McLaughlin starts a discussion on the difference between niceness and fairness, then connects the story to the children by reflecting on cleanup time, when some of the children didn’t help put away the blocks.

10:55 a.m. The children are allowed to go to their desired activity stations one by one, after telling McLaughlin whether they would have shared the cake with the cat, dog and mouse. One station is a tub of dyed pasta and plastic water bottles, which the class made the day before. Another is a painting station, with eyedroppers, brown paper and ceramic bowls of colorful paint. A third is a table with purple play dough, a muffin pan and cookie cutters. The class also made the play dough the day before, with flour and water. Some children play with train tracks, plastic kitchen food or blocks instead of going to a station.

Chaos! Two girls stay by the alphabet rug andplay teacher, reviewing the story that was just read and writing on the whiteboard. One boy creates a smiley face with play dough, while another shows off a collection of blue rigatoni. A third cooks a burrito, while makingsure to bang a wooden spoon against a pan as loudly as possible. He then serves it to Fennell, who eats it along with other plastic foods. Several children take turns making business calls on the telephone and snapping photos with an old camera. McLaughlin helps cut open the water bottles at the pasta station, thenworks with a boy who started the year with very limited English on letters. Afterward, he drifts over to the block area and works on building train tracks. The teachers later chat and discuss their plans while observing the children.

11:50 a.m. Both teachers and students begin cleaning up. McLaughlin sweeps up bits of broken pasta while others put away the various objects strewn on the floor, stack chairs and mats and clean up the other activities.

12 p.m. The children reconvene on the rug and play a game called “This Is What I Can Do.” They take turns demonstrating a series of movements, which the others have to repeat.

12:08 p.m. The group transitions to a song called “Willaby Wallaby Woo” to dismiss each child individually. Those in the Extended Day program setup their mats for nap time and get their lunches, while the others go to the cubby room to collect their belongings and await pick up. Henry tries to sneak out the door. Meanwhile, the teachers play soothing piano music to put the Extended Day kids into a rest time mindset.

Extended Day: After finishing their lunches, the remaining children settle down for nap time at around 1p.m. Forty-five minutes later, they awake and head outside and play for another hour before being sent home.

Sofia Tong can be contacted at [email protected]