Routines help everyone predict what’s likely to happen and when. This helps create a sense of familiarity, comfort and belonging. When children are in a predictable environment, they feel safe to explore.

This information should be read in conjunction with planning a term program, and will help you structure your sessions with routines.

Why routines are important

Routines give shape to your playgroup. They give a beginning, middle and end and can help children understand something about time and how events can happen after one another.

For example, 'first we arrive, then we play, then we have a snack, we play some more, and then we sing and read a book and go home.’

Using words like next, after, later and then, will help support children with words associated with the concept of time.

Remember that routines can be flexible. Sometimes you may need to adapt your routine to fit in with a change or variation to your normal playgroup structure. For example, if you go on a walk, visit local venues such as playgrounds or libraries, or have visitors come to your playgroup.

A guide to what a playgroup session might look like

Your playgroup could include the components below in any order that works best for your playgroup.

Before children and families arrive

• Have your sign in station set up.
• Set up your indoor and outdoor spaces, for example reading area, home corner, puzzles, sand pit, painting area.
• Set up specific activities based on the Together message you’re focusing on, for example playdough, discovery tables, obstacle course, construction, drawing.
  • Remember to add table top information sheets for relevant activities to support families’ engagement and learning.
  • You may also want to have a couple of activities partially set up so that children and families can contribute to setting up the rest once they arrive.
• Have all the resources you need for group time ready.
• Consider providing hand sanitiser for families to use on arrival and during the playgroup session.

Arrival time

• Signing-in as soon as families arrive can show children the importance of writing and that it carries meaning. Encourage families to involve children, especially if you have an older group. They might:
  • put a mark against their name
  • find and move their name card
  • write their name.
• It may be helpful to have the daily routine displayed with times for each part of the session identified – this helps adults know what’s happening and when and helps support children to transition from one part of the session to the next.
• Welcome and greet children and families by name as they arrive, unpack their things and find an activity to engage in.
• This is normally a free play period, where children can select what activity to do or what area they want to play in. This is also the opportunity for you as the facilitator to model and guide conversations, demonstrate the ‘say what you see’ technique or pose questions to expand thinking.

Snack time

• It’s always helpful to give children some warning before a change happens from one part of the session to another. You could ring a bell to signal a change is coming or use a sand timer to show when the routine will change. This allows children to finish off what they’re doing and get ready for what’s coming.
• Children can eat their own snacks from home or you may ask for a piece of fruit from each family that then gets cut up and shared. You could also do a combination of both.
• Snack time is a time for children and adults to come together, talk with each other, share stories about their week or what activities they tried today. It’s also a great opportunity to have conversations about healthy food choices. See our creating healthy habits page for more ideas. Remember every experience is an opportunity for learning.
• Snack time could also happen as children get hungry. You may want to give children and families a choice about when they want to eat their snack. There could be a specific table set up for this where children and families sit when they’re ready to have their snack.
• Hand washing routines are a great opportunity to help families introduce children to healthy hygiene practices.

Free play

• This is an opportunity for uninterrupted time dedicated to children and families selecting something that they’re interested in to engage and explore together.
• Some children may go back to what they were working at before and others may try another activity or explore something new they haven’t tried before.
• This may be a good time for encouraging outdoor play. For example, if not all children have had an opportunity to play outside, introducing an activity like blowing bubbles might get everyone outside and moving.

Reading time

• Reading time should be part of playgroup every week.
• Having many opportunities for reading, being exposed to books, and in particular being read to, is important for children’s later engagement with reading and writing.
• Some families may have limited time to read with their children, so spending time reading together at playgroup is a bonus! You might read a story to the children, but if every parent or carer is reading with their children, it’s a more powerful experience.
• Try putting a book basket out after snack time or before group time. The children will quickly work out what to do and will be sitting on laps being read to in no time.
• The recommended list of books in the resource section will help you to look for books to get started with.

Pack up time

• Pack up time is a great opportunity for you to support parents in demonstrating and modelling a sense of responsibility for playgroup with their children.
• Introduce this so children and families know that in a little while it will be time to finish what they’re doing and help pack things up. You may have a special pack up song that children recognise as the signal to start helping with putting things away.
• You may want to have some clear rules and expectations around this that you can introduce to families and children when they first start at playgroup.
• Remember to think about ways of using this as a learning opportunity. Children can be learning concepts, such as sorting, size, full, in, on, under.

Group time

• This is an opportunity to come together as a group and take part in a shared group experience.
• Group time could be about:
  • singing action songs together
  • playing a game
  • sharing of culture (this could include an Acknowledgement of Country, cultural songs and stories)
  • enjoying a music and movement activity
  • reading or telling a story to the whole group.

Goodbye time

• Goodbye time is important because it marks the end of the playgroup session and allows children to transition to going home.
• You might choose to sing a regular goodbye song at the end of your playgroup each week.
• Remember to consider safety when families are leaving playgroup, such as monitoring gates and moving through carparks.

Communicating with families

Having communication processes in place to make sure families are aware of rules, policies, routines, and structures helps to support the smooth operation of a playgroup.

You might consider:

• providing a welcome pack of information for families
• setting up a private Facebook group to distribute playgroup information
• displaying posters around your playgroup to share information.