Playful learning is at the heart of children’s experience of the model. The Every Child Ready model includes varied opportunities for three types of play: structured, pretend, and physical play. Each type of play provides young learners with unique experiences that support growth and make learning fun: 

• Structured Play: This includes any playful guided activities, like puzzles, art, and some STEM exploration. 
• Pretend Play: A child-guided play with role- and perspective-taking, representational thinking, and lots of expression!
• Physical Play: Either teacher-guided exercises or child-directed rough and tumble play. This is incorporated into daily lessons through gross motor time, the morning meeting, and outdoor play.

These forms of play are woven into the daily learning components children experience as part of the ECR model, giving children ample opportunity to explore and learn through play.

The lessons and routines included in the Every Child Ready model are designed to set the stage for effective teacher-child interactions. They include eight components that are scheduled throughout the day. Each one incorporates one or more of the three playful learning strategies and addresses the thematic units and learning domains. These components that make up the balanced schedule are:

• Morning Meeting: Children are welcomed by peers and teachers. Teachers set the tone for the day with community-building, a quick and clear overview of the concepts and activities that will be explored during the lesson, and focused attention on one standards-based skill.
• Centers Meeting and Centers: Centers are free-choice learning areas focused on unit themes; activities allow children to apply the concepts learned in other parts of the day through hands-on learning and authentic interactions with their peers and teachers. Centers time begins with a Centers Meeting—where all the available centers are introduced and modeled in a way that draws attention to prosocial behavior or pre-corrections, transitioning children to Centers. During Centers, playful and engaging activities can support children across multiple domains of learning, including cognitive, physical, social, and emotional. Teacher(s) facilitate free-choice learning Centers using a variety of strategies, such as modeling, coaching, and questioning. ECR recommends having Centers twice each day. Centers can also include time for intervention support. For example, teachers can use the last 15-30 minutes of Centers for a variety of tiered intervention supports.
• Small Groups: Small Groups are 8-12 minute lessons for target skills that take place two times each day. Teachers typically conduct small groups during Free Choice Centers. Lessons use modeling, guided practice, and checks for understanding. ECR includes two types of Small Groups: traditional and flexible. Traditional Small Group lessons are used to teach targeted science and social studies content, and Flexible Small Groups (FSGs) align with the ECR Essential Standards. FSG plans provide teachers with instructional materials for targeted math, language, literacy, and social-emotional learning instruction. Teachers use data to decide where children are in their learning of discrete competencies. Each plan is designed to be differentiated and informally assessed to meet the needs of each child. Teachers may pace lessons based on children’s day-to-day performance.
• Read Aloud: Read Alouds happen twice each day. Morning Read Alouds focus on math and social-emotional learning books. Afternoon Read Alouds focus on narrative fiction and nonfiction books. As a book-based, thematic curriculum, ECR Read Aloud lessons anchor children’s learning throughout the unit. The Read Aloud emphasizes teacher-child interactions to support language development, critical thinking, and problem-solving. Teachers read thematic books multiple times to build children’s content knowledge and understanding of different lesson objectives. All Read Aloud lessons articulate core academic vocabulary and offer guidance before, during, and after the reading to maximize learning.
• Journaling: Dedicated time for written expression based on a theme-related prompt. This component includes modeling, conferencing, and Author’s Chair, where a child shares their writing out loud to their peers. Children express their thoughts and ideas through writing and drawing at their own pace. Teachers coach and conference with several children as they write and draw. Teachers highlight the work of one child per day by facilitating the Author’s Chair and encouraging peer questions and discussions.
• Question of the Day: Question of the Day is a brief component in which children share their thoughts, ideas, and opinions to a daily question related to a thematic topic. Within the lesson, the daily question integrates a skill with a thematic unit topic, such as interpreting and discussing a bar graph of how each child arrived at school. While the component is short, children can continue to give responses throughout the day. 
• Learning Lab: Learning Lab explores science and engineering content, while reinforcing the eight habits of mind (STEM) practices. Children observe, explore, construct, and experiment through daily hands-on STEM activities. Lessons include explicit opportunities for applied social-emotional learning and writing. ECR STEM Practices
• Gross Motor: Gross Motor supports balance, coordination, and social-emotional learning through movement and games. Children participate in physical play that supports gross motor development and social-emotional learning, such as turn-taking and managing small frustrations. Children often receive opportunities to lead lessons or choose gross motor activities. This physical activity occurs in addition to outdoor play.