How to set up an environment for Early Childhood Development?
In this chapter you will learn the following:
- Introduction to learning environment
- Design and organise an indoor environment
- Design and organise an outdoor environment
- The use of resources in the learning environment
- Schedules and routines
Activity
How does the environment affect you?
- Identify a few places you go to in your everyday life.
- What is it about those places that make you feel welcome or secure?
- Now consider places you do not like to go?
- What makes these places less pleasant for you?
As with adults, pre-school children are affected by their environment, even if they cannot yet express these feelings in sophisticated ways. It is your job to ensure the learning environment makes children feel welcome, secure and ready to learn.
Creating a supportive learning environment requires time, reflection, and planning. Whether children spend three or twelve hours a day in your care, the environment plays a major role in helping children develop and learn.
An environment affects how we feel and sends messages about how to act, and they can influence what we learn.
Supportive environments send children a variety of positive messages about their learning:
- This is a good place to be
- You belong here
- You can trust this place
- This is a safe place to explore and try out your ideas
The following video illustrates messages our environment send:
A well designed preschool area or space should convey to the child:
- What materials can I find here
- The type of play
- The expectations of how to behave here
- How to explore, learn and have fun
As you design your learning opportunities, your environment should set the stage for these opportunities.
There are many ways on how you can arrange the learning environment. Below are a few fundamental elements you should keep in mind when designing the environment:
- Clear Boundaries: Use furniture, shelves etc. to break up large, open spaces into focus and intended areas
- Clear Entrance and Exit paths: Show children where to come into an area with tags, pictures, symbols etc.
- Sufficient materials and resources: Have more than one toy available. Make sure there are enough materials so that more than one child can play in a specific area
- Engaging materials that spark interest: Consider what children will enjoy. Keep in mind the development milestones described in the previous lesson and make sure your activities are age appropriate to promote development and growth
- Separate loud and quiet spaces: Separate areas for reading, resting, writing and play, block, sand area
- Learning objectives: Make sure all your activities are aligned to a learning 0bjective. Once again we want to promote growth and development
Safety First: Always make sure activities are safe and that all children can be seen and supervised
In your classroom, you will need spaces for group activities, privacy, storage and display.
- Group activities
Children learn primarily through play, it is therefore important to plan areas for large-group activities.
- Privacy
Children need time and space during the day to relax on their own. It is important to provide a calming space for them to take a break from the group.
- Storage and Display
In your classroom you will have many materials, resources, toys, books, games, etc. and these will rotate constantly and be in and out of use. You will need three different storage spaces:
- Open storage to be accessed by children
- Closed storage will be for caregiver materials
- Storage for personal belongings
The following video illustrates the process of designing spaces for learning:
It is important to make the classroom feel like home. Create a meaningful environment for the children. There are ways you can add your personal touch to the classroom:
- Soft colourful furniture
- Non toxic plants
- Pillows, cushions and blankets
- Photos
- Artwork against the walls
Make sure your indoor space is ORGANISED. You want to keep the following goals in mind:
- Independence: Children must find their materials on their own. Keep it simple so that it is not overwhelming
- Easy use: Store materials that are alike together. Children need to find what they need when they need it
- Learning: Use materials that help to spark or build on children’s interests. Displays should be at children’s eye level and activities should include their own work, pictures relevant to their interests and future exploration
You can do many things to help children experience nature and learn outdoors. Spending time outdoors is valuable time for children to develop their large muscles and sophisticated play skills whilst spending time in nature.
Safety should always be a top priority in an outdoor learning environment and should constantly be evaluated. The environment should be safe and free from preventable risks. Some of the aspects to consider are:
- Fall zones
- Surfaces
- Access to shade
- Condition of materials and equipment
It is also important to always inspect your playground every day before you take children out to play. Look out for:
- Debris such as glass, cigarette butts, litter, building supplies
- Mulch that is spread too thin
- Standing water
- Surfaces that are too hot for children to touch safely, i.e metal or plastic slides, benches, concrete and tar surfaces etc.
- Natural objects that might cause harm (roots, branches, sharp rocks etc.)
- Insects such as anthills, bees etc.
- Ditches and traps
- Exposed power lines or utility equipment
Your learning environment should be designed to support a full range of children’s play and activities. Just as with indoor environments, you can break up the area into various interest areas. Areas may include sand, water, games, quiet activities, science and nature.
The most important thing is that the area should be designed to inspire, motivate, and they must accommodate the needs of all learners.
Make the most of the space you have. Your space might not always be ideal but you need to be creative. Utilize things like recycled materials or things used in our everyday lives to create an effective environment.
The environment must be organised for independence, easy use and learning, the same as the indoor environment.
There are so many toys and materials available for pre-school classrooms. While it may be difficult to decide which materials to include in your space, and limited resources available to you, you need to ensure that a VARIETY of developmentally appropriate materials are available.
When choosing materials, look for toys and materials that are:
- Culturally relevant and anti-biased
Cultural relevance means that your choice of materials should reflect the background, community, knowledge, and experiences of the children in the classroom. If you include artifacts and natural objects from the local community or neighbourhood in your learning environment, it will offer opportunities for children to experience and understand their immediate world.
There are many things you can do to ensure that your learning process is culturally relevant:
- Include pictures and illustrations of men and women, variety of jobs, range of ages, races and abilities
- Look for games and toys that allow children to work together, take turns, and celebrate each other’s successes
- Developmentally appropriate
All toys and materials should be developmentally appropriate. They should match the stage of development and ability of the children in your care. You should have a range of toys and materials available that can accommodate differences between individual children’s skills, interest and characteristics.
Examples of materials include:
- Wooden blocks
- Baby dolls
- Balls of various shapes and sizes
- Floor puzzles with large pieces
- Simple games such as snakes and ladders
- Linked to children’s interest
Children learn best when adults incorporate their interests. Whenever possible, you should provide materials that capture children’s interests and extend their learning. For example, if a few of the children are interested in construction equipment, you can turn a portion of the playground into a construction zone, with hats, measuring tools, gravel etc. to spark children’s imaginations.
- Linked to learning goals
It is of utmost importance to think about why you have selected the materials in your classroom. Ask yourself the question:
How will this item help the children learn?
Use your learning standards from your curriculum to shape classroom decisions.
Look for toys that promote math skills and patterning, literacy skills like letter matching and rhyming, problem solving etc.
Schedules and routines are important because:
- They influence a child’s emotional, cognitive and social development
- They help children feel secure and comfortable
- They help children understand the expectations of the environment
Scheduling refers to deciding who will do what and when they will do it. A consistently followed schedule helps make setting a predictable routine for both young children and adults.
Routines are events that are completed on a regular basis, frequently involved in a series of responses. For example, include the routines followed when children prepare for a nap, e.g go potty, gather a blanket, take off shoes, listen to music etc.
In your groups, complete the following activity to illustrate what you have learnt in this lesson:
Activity
You are required to create an environment that is conducive for learning. Include suggestions on the following:
What would you include in the indoor environment?
How will you design the outdoor environment?
If you have limited resources, how will you use items from your environment to use as learning materials?
Draw up a schedule for a day in your childcare facility.
Give an example of a routine that you will teach the children within one of your daily activities (You are not allowed to use the example from the lesson material).