Our School Day
Where the Day Takes Us
At Brooklyn Free Space, each day offers children a balance of predictable routines and opportunities to explore, create, play, and connect.
Young children thrive when they know what to expect, so our days have a familiar rhythm. Within that structure, however, there is plenty of flexibility. Children's interests, ideas, conversations, and discoveries often shape where the day takes us.
Throughout the day, children make choices, spend time with friends, work individually and in groups, explore classroom materials, create, move, spend time outdoors, and participate in experiences designed to deepen their curiosity and understanding of the world around them.
🕘 School Hours
Jitterbug & Dragonfly
9:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.
Butterfly, Sunshine & Rainbow
8:50 a.m.–3:10 p.m.
🌅 Early Bird
8:00–9:00 a.m.
🌇 After School
3:00–6:00 p.m.
Early Bird and After School are optional extended-day programs.
A Day of Play, Discovery & Connection
Play, relationships, and exploration are woven throughout each day at BFS. Children move between individual and group experiences, following their interests while building new skills, ideas, and connections along the way.
💬 Meeting & Community Time
Children and teachers come together to connect as a classroom community. They may share ideas and stories, sing songs, introduce new questions or materials, reflect on an experience, or plan small-group projects together.
🔢 Math & Science
Math and science emerge naturally throughout the children's day. Building with blocks introduces measurement, balance, pattern, and spatial relationships. Cooking, sand and water play, nature exploration, and classroom investigations invite children to observe, compare, classify, predict, experiment, and test their ideas. Teachers listen closely to children's questions and help extend their thinking through conversation, materials, and new experiences.
🌳 Outdoor Play & Neighborhood Exploration
Our neighborhood is an extension of the classroom. Children spend time outdoors and may take walks and neighborhood trips connected to their classroom interests and projects. A classroom investigation might lead to a visit to a neighborhood market, hardware store, park, museum, or another place that gives children an opportunity to experience their learning beyond the classroom.
🧸 Play & Exploration
Play is at the heart of learning at BFS. Children have extended opportunities to choose what and how they play—independently, alongside friends, and collaboratively. Classrooms offer blocks, dramatic play, books, puzzles, manipulatives, art materials, natural and recycled materials, and open-ended materials that invite children to imagine, experiment, build, create, and problem-solve.
📚 Language & Literacy
Language and literacy are woven throughout the day through conversation, storytelling, books, songs, dramatic play, drawing, writing, and classroom documentation. Children are encouraged to communicate their ideas in many ways. Teachers support children's emerging interest in letters, sounds, words, and written language in ways that are meaningful, playful, and developmentally appropriate.
🎉 Celebrations & Community
BFS celebrates the many cultures, traditions, families, and experiences represented within our community. Families are invited to share traditions that are meaningful to them, giving children opportunities to learn about themselves and one another. Classrooms may also celebrate children's birthdays in ways that are comfortable and meaningful for each family.
Enrichment at BFS
Our curriculum is enriched by teaching artists who offer children additional ways to explore, create, communicate, and express their ideas. Inspired by the Reggio Emilia concept of the “hundred languages of children,” we recognize that children express themselves and make meaning in many ways—through movement, music, drawing, painting, building, storytelling, dramatic play, and more. Our enrichment experiences build on the work happening in the classrooms, giving children new materials, experiences, and opportunities to follow their curiosity and discover their own ways of expressing what they know, wonder, and imagine.
🎨 Visual Arts
Art is an important language of learning at BFS. Children explore painting, drawing, collage, sculpture, clay, printmaking, and a variety of traditional and open-ended materials. Our Atelierista collaborates with teachers and children to deepen classroom investigations and support both individual and collaborative artistic expression.
🎵 Music & Movement
Music and movement are part of everyday life at BFS. Children sing, dance, experiment with instruments, listen to different styles of music, explore rhythm, and discover new ways to express themselves through sound and movement. Visiting teaching artists further enrich these experiences through developmentally appropriate music and movement experiences.
🇪🇸 Spanish
Spanish is introduced through playful, age-appropriate experiences that may include songs, movement, stories, games, and conversation. Children have opportunities to hear and engage with another language in a relaxed and joyful setting.