Daily Routines in Prekindergarten

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain a better understanding of daily routines in a prekindergarten setting. The study was conducted in a Tennessee prekindergarten in a pod-style classroom. Participants were nine adults (teachers and paraprofessionals) and 47 preschool children. Naturalistic qualitative methods of observation and participant interviews provided the data for interpretative analysis (Hatch, 2002). Knowledge of activities and participant perspectives was gained that was instrumental to understanding the more generic case of daily routines in early childhood settings. Factors found to be influential to routine design and enactment were the setting, teacher power and philosophical stance, and children’s developing memory for routine events.