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(Unit 5) Topic 1: Environments that Nurture Children

1 Clock Hour of Early Childhood Education

Preschool Classroom

​Topic 1 Page 8

​Creating a supportive learning environment requires time, reflection (thinking) and planning.

Whether children spend three or twelve hours a day in your program, the environment plays a major role in helping children develop and learn.

Research suggests that a high-quality classroom environment can help close the achievement gap (Mashburn, 2008). That is, children who enter school less ready to learn are those that benefit the most from supportive classroom environments. Your supportive classroom can also be an important source of consistency for children.

​In the preschool classroom children are continuing to explore their environment through exploration and interaction with others.  Preschool children have developed communication skills, enjoy playing with other children,  engage in active play that challenges physical abilities, enjoy make-believe and dramatic play situations, are becoming interested in words and numbers, know colors, and are developing small muscle skills required for cutting and writing.  

​The early childhood classroom environment presents an opportunity for educators to engage children by offering learning centers, activities, and materials that build on new interests and growing abilities.  The learning centers in a preschool may include art, reading, writing, science, math, creative, dramatic play, housekeeping, or other centers developed around the interests of the children. 

Keeping the learning centers relevant and exciting for the children may require changes of materials on a regular basis.

For example: one week the children may be intrigued with the trucks building a new road outside the center. The block center is a perfect place to build on this interest by including trucks, cars, pictures of the roads, road maps, and using the blocks to build the roads or bridges.  The next week, another interest may emerge that can be applied to a different area of the classroom. 

If your classroom uses themes as part of the curriculum, you should add materials to each center that enhance the theme.  For example, if your theme is pets, your dramatic play area could be a veterinary office, books in the library should be about pets, and your art area might encourage children to make pictures about pets.   ​

The following materials and equipment should be available for preschool age children:

• Art supplies
• Blocks
• Books and posters
• Toys and dress-up clothes
• Indoor and outdoor equipment to enhance large muscle development
• Puzzles and toys to enhance manipulative and categorization skills
• Science materials
• Musical instruments 

The following are suggested materials for preschool learning centers:

• Construction toys and props for the block area such as cars and animals
• Pattern-making materials including beads, color cubes, teddy bear counters
• Matching games and materials
• Sequencing stories and activities
• Sewing activity cards
• Measuring equipment
• Number/math activities
• Writing materials (pencils, paper, markers, crayons)
• Alphabet and phonics activities
• Listening station
• Dramatic play equipment such as a kitchen set 
• Sensory table or tubs
  
• Learning materials should be stored on low shelves that are accessible to the children without adult assistance and labeled in such a manner that children can put the materials back on the shelf.   ​

• The Power of Purposeful Preschool Environments, Community Playthings
• Classroom Environment Videos and Resources, Source: Eastern Connecticut State University, http://www.easternct.edu/cece/classroom-environment/
• Avoiding Gender Stereotypes, By Barbara Solomon from Parents Magazine
• Video: Making Room for Play: The Preschool Room Plan, Environments

(Unit 5) Topic 1: Environments that Nurture Children * Navigation Menu