Effective Floor Planning For Preschoolers: Importance Of Physical Environment In Early Childhood Education

Description of the floor plan

Preschool classrooms are usually organized around different types of interest areas as well as learning centers. The different defined areas should allow the children for playing and exploring materials with the guidance of the teacher either in small groups or individually. Low dividers are often seen to separate the centers in such a way so that children can move freely among them. However, skills that would be leading to effective reading and writing as well as math should not be confined to specific centers (Edwards & Gandini, 2018). The teachers need to reinforce this in various ways through effective communication, play and exploration. The assignment will show effective floor planning that would help preschoolers to develop their potential not only in academics but also in motor skill development, cognitive development, communication and others (McNally & Slutsky, 2017). Many other important aspects like the application of Reggio Emilie approach, national   National Statement on Quality Early Learning and Child Care and similar resources would be applied to develop the best leaning environment for preschoolers in the assignment.

This is the labeled floor plan and this is discussed in details in the following page in details: (prepared by author)

Description of the floor plan:

1. When the children would enter the room, they would find their name sticks on the specific circle time stools and would thereby place them in the envelop of the name chart 

1. The following planning would be done so that children can understand who is present in the room and who are absent. 

1. To the right side of the room, there would be a reading and writing area. Following Reggio’s theory, the space should be kept open which would help in welcoming the children as soon as they would arrive. 

1. A cubby system need to be introduced where the children put any of their dry work. They would learn how to identify their own cubbies do that they can find their own cubbies. It would be placed beside the doorway so that the children can learn to empty them when they pick up at the end of the day. Children love to take their work home and this would help them a lot. 

1. The bookshelves should be holding journals as well as memory books. Alight table would be placed tucked into the nook that once held storage carts. The cozy area would be offering a pace for the children who would be liking some quite time. the provided photo shows the situation before the memory book binders were place. 

1. The block area would be the noisiest area in the classroom and so it should be placed at another opposite end of the reading and the writing area. Children it would prefer it to be more open and the shelf is therefore pushed to the wall. This would invite children to enter the areas with ease and create large structures with planet of room. 

1. Effective designs and textures would be selected when choosing and displaying pieces. Plastic containers with wickers should not be used for holding toys and materials. 

1. For preparing science center, a small round table was tucked between the block areas and the dramatic play area. Science shelf would be used and should be selected so that it perfectly fits with the area and looks aesthetic. 

1. Across from the block-area would be the dramatic play center. Bid plastic kitchen would not be encouraged. In place, we would prefer it with wood stove and sink. Dress up cart would be purchased as a beautiful interesting area for the children. The teachers would be changing on what would be hung on the hooks depending on the themes. 

1. Following the principles of Reggio’s principles, displays of natural materials along with books should be encouraged. The arts of the children should be also used on the walls rather than as commercial posters.  

1. Reggio-inspired classrooms inspire the use of wires and 3 dimensional arts. Different preparations made by students would form the main ornaments of the room.

Other important considerations:

1. The library area should never be placed beside dramatic play area as children might use it as an extension of the play areas. In order to keep the place as quiet as possible, it would be set up near other learning centers.
2. The Art Center, Easel and Sand/Water Table are usually messy areas and they should be set up on the flooring rather than the carpeted areas
3. The Library and Block Centers would be set up on the carpeted areas for comfort and for noise control
4. The dramatic play area can be anywhere in the room like the math or manipulative area
5. Science/Discovery area need to be placed near the window for allowing plans to grow

This framework shows the importance of paying attention to effective creation of the physical environment in a childcare program. Five important dimensions need to be considered and these are mentioned as follows:

• Softness is mainly developed in the learning environment by incorporation of objects, which are soft and responsive to the touch of the students. One of the most beneficial feature of these soft materials is that these help the children to use their body in a free manner helping them to feel independent and free. Hard surroundings provide different experiences to the students, as they are not always responsive to the children’s demands and might make them feel uncomfortable. These had materials usually give them the feelings that not everything in the world would be comfortable for them and that they need to learn to adjust their lives and actions accordingly.
• The soft objects like sand should be inculcated as an important part of classroom and sand areas should be kept where children might play with water and sand according to their imagination (Singer & Wong, 2018). Dough and clay for artwork should be included
• The carpets, rugs, pillows and couches should be involved in the storytelling areas so that they can learn vocabularies and develop imaginations in comfort
• The furniture where the students will be doing their academics would be wooden so that excessive relaxation does not take place which might make the children sleepy
• Open and closed are the second dimension. Researchers are of the opinion that play-equipment that is open, would have no right of using it and children can manipulate them. Closed equipment can be used in only one way and they can be manipulated in only one way. Closed equipments should not be too easy that the child easily gains competence and it should not be too difficult as this might make children frustrated. Hence, objects would be selected accordingly.
• Dough and clay for artwork should be included as open objects as children can manipulate them as they want
• Puzzles with difficulty level according to their specific age can be used as close equipments and children will not be able to manipulate it and lean patience and resilience.
• Legos and tinker toys are closed equipments as specific manipulation would only result in development of proper structures and so children would need to learn to concentrate to make correct structures from legos (Ellis, 2014).
• Simple and complex are the third dimension – the play units that are selected often differ in the holding power play units are termed complex according to the different material combined (Harcourt & Jones, 2016). A simple unit has one manipulable aspects, a complex unit has two different kinds of materials combined and a super unit has three kinds of material that go together.
• A sand pile should be included as it is a simple unit
• Digging materials should be included which is a complex unit
• Play dough would be a simple unit, using toothpicks with it is the complex unit, and using cookie cutters with both of them is the super unit.
• Intrusion and seclusion is the fourth dimension and described the opportunities for the privacy and control over one’s territory. The environment of the classroom should promote collaboration and socialization but this should not reach to a limit where the children develop a feeling of intrusion within the environment. Maintaining the correct balance is important (Hong et al., 2017).
• The study room or the library room should be developed a study place where children gets time for themselves, enjoys their own time, learning and coloring pictures
• The number of students who should be admitted should balance the number of teachers. There should be proper teacher student ratio so that teacher can care and help students socialize properly and check for intrusion (Ebbeck et al., 2016).
• The equipments in the craft sessions or in sand areas should be good in number so that the children do not feel interrupted in their concentration and work by others.
• The fifth dimension is the high mobility and the low mobility. This dimension shows the level of freedom that the child would have while moving around. There should be proper balance between the low mobility and high mobility tasks so that children do not feel bored or reckless about the activities (Moss, 2015).
• The children should be allowed to play in the playground that should have age specific slides, Mari-go round and swings. This is high mobility arenas allowing child to run and develop motor skills successfully
• Puzzles games solving should be a low mobility arena.
• Drama sessions should also be arranged which needs the balance of high and low mobility arenas.

Physical safety: A safe early childhood environment needs to be strategically laid-out.

• The floor space should be large enough for some gross motor activity. However, there often exist the need to implement some important furniture like shelves, tables and similar others for different activities of the class. These might act as barriers that deter the children from running aimlessly running from one side of the room to another (Brown & Grigg, 2017).
• The tables and chairs should be child sized and should not have sharp corners to ensure safety in the classroom. They should be placed in such a fashion that one can safely walk behind them even when someone is sitting on them (Moss et al., 2016).
• Shelves should be low enough so that a child can reach the top and develop the sense of freedom. This should not feel the need to climb as that it would increase the risk of falling. Shorter shelves would also help the teacher to see all the children at every glance in all times.
• Consideration should be also given to implement shelves that are open instead of shelves which have backs so that teachers can see the children from every space in the room, even when they are present towards the back of the shelves. Shelves, which are wobbly need to be securely fastened to the walls (Nowatschin et al., 2017).
• The outlets, which are not in use, should be covered with protective covers. Something like a shelf should also be acting as blocking outlets for deterring children from tying to unplug them. Any of the cords that are plugged into the sockets need to be tucked behind the shelves or securely fastening them for preventing tripping (Biermeir, 2015).
• The furniture should be daily checked for any form of splinters, loose as even broken pieces. The carpeting should be checked for the presence of any form of snags that can result in tripling of little feet. The rugs should be covered by rubber backing and this should be preventing them from slipping. The divisions between carpet and hard floors should be secured.

• Preschool children can only flourish in a positive, trusting as well as building environment. The positive trusting environment of the classroom should include a daily schedule and an orderly classroom arrangement, it should also ensure respect between teacher and the student and ensure clear open communication between the student, parent and the teacher (Edwards & Ren, 2016).
• The stability and security of the teacher student relationship is seen to influence social and emotional learning. Therefore, in the newly set environment, effective teachers would be present who would be encouraging the children to participate in different activates of the classroom.  They would listen to what the children need to say and thereby expand their knowledge and build their vocabulary. Teachers should also encourage the children to respect each other, their cultures and their backgrounds.
• Emotions are complex and therefore, it requires a strong vocabulary to express emotions. Caregivers need to help the children by expressing their feelings when they would be not sure of the exact words (Munce et al., 2017).
• The space of the child should be respected. The teacher should ask the child before giving a hug or touching the child, The teacher should also insist the children to do the same thing with others as well. The teachers should never pick a child without permission as that can affect the behaviors and habits of children and they might not like to be touched. Children mimic adults and therefore, this would help them to develop good habits.

The physical aspectof an early childhood classroom should allow for active learning where the children would be interacting with each other and make different choices. The classrooms that would be developed should be clean, in proper repair and need to provide child-size equipments for safety and comfort. It should also have adequate lighting and natural lighting. The early childhood classrooms should be ideally arranged with different types of clear paths and labeled centers. It should have proper management systems as well as areas for both quite and active plays. Such of the classrooms should be allowing the children to move freely throughout the space without any form of interruption into the play of the child (Clark, 2017).The child-centered environment should be developed by placing the focus on six important arenas of early childhood learning. The interventions should be such that they cover the important domains of effective environment, emotions, social, writing, cognitive, psychological and physical.

• The educator should be well trained to realize when the children can effectively figure out new ideas and concepts on their own and when it becomes important to explain o them different things in step-by step manner. This would make children feel impendent and at same time, they would fell cared and included in the classroom.
• The children should be listened to and then the teacher should expand their language, build their vocabularies and develop their background knowledge. The children should be encouraged to participate in the classroom activities and honor the different classroom rules.
• The teachers should be well trained for knowing when to teach directly or when to provide sufficient time for exploration as well as discovery and when to practice specific skills and when to encourage creativity (Hong  et al., 2017).
• The activities that need to be developed should have a purpose and should be challenging enough for the children. The children should be educated about how to work together and resolve their conflicts. This would help in development of problem solving skills. The children should be also encouraged for respecting each other’s time, space and even belonging.

Other important considerations

According to Epstein et al. (2018), there is a significant correlation between the education of children and involvement of parents or family in the children’s education. Improved social, behavioral and academic performance and achievement is associated with positive parent involvements for the children belongs to any economic, ethical or cultural background. However, Epstein (2018), has indicated that involvement of parents in the children’s education is critical, especially for the family with low socio economic background or lack of resources, as it requires emotional and cognitive resilience of the parents. Therefore, it is required to develop learning environment which could invite the parents from all social and cultural background to involve in their children’s education in order to facilitate their learning session (Spodek, & Saracho, 2014). In addition, as per the National statement on quality early learning and child care inviting the families to involve in the learning session of their children enable the educators to honour the role of the family members, respect their values as primary caregiver and provide scopes to evaluate the learning experiences of their children (cccf-fcsge.ca, 2018). The following aspects need to be considered for involving parents in their children’s education-

• Adequate effort to understand the family’s requirements including the religious and cultural needs before including the child in the class in order to create learning environment which could reflect the cultural, social and traditional background of the children and their families.
• Using language which is understandable by the children and the parents as well.
• Adequate information about the learning session should be provided to the parents.
• Involving the parents while preparing learning approach and developing goals for the children
• Encouraging the parents to remain present during any educational program and activities
• Allow the parents to provide feedback regarding learning session and educational program and explore their concern.
• Involving the parents while developing educational policies
• Elect some parents as the member of board of directors and educate them about the role and responsibilities.

The Reggio Emilia philosophy can be inculcated to achieve development of a classroom that would help the children to develop to their full potential in almost all positive aspects successfully. This approach mainly considers children to be strong, resilient as well as capable who are rich with wonder and knowledge (Clements & Sarama, 2014). This approach mainly remains based on the coattails of the innate curiosity and sets objectives for assisting them with understanding their worlds and who are present in it.

• The approach discusses that children are capable of constructing their own learning. They are driven by their interests to understand and know more.
• This approach also states that children form an understanding of themselves and their own place in the world through their effective interactions with others. The educators  should strongly focus on the development of  social collaboration as well as working in groups where each of the child is an equal participant having their own thoughts and questions valued. The teacher should never be the given of the knowledge directly but allow the children in searching out the knowledge through their own investigations (Grant, 2017).
• Children are seen to be effective communicators. Communication is one of the ways of discovering things, asking questions, using of languages as play, playing with different sounds. The teachers should be encouraged in using playing with different sounds and rhythms and even rhymes which are delightful procedures for effective communication
• The environment is considered to be the third teacher and has one of the best potential for inspiring children. The environment of the children should be fillied with batural light, order and even beauty. The teacher should make the spaces free form clutter where every material would be considered for its purpose and every corner should be ever-evolving for encouraging children to delve deeper and deeper into their interests. The teacher should encourage collaboration as well as communication and exploration (Pimento & Kernested, 2015). The space should be such that children can enjoy and hence authentic materials and tools need to be provided.
• Objects and the furnishings should be wisely selected for fostering the children’s expanding curiosity. The Reggio-Inspired program should be incorporating natural, everyday, real life material as much as possible.
• Linger term projects would be encouraged as this would give the students chances for accomplishing their wk in stages. This would help them to reflect effectively about what would be finished and dam about what would be coming next (Bullard, 2017).
• Documentation panels and other forms of displays of the student work would be done as this would help in serving as the different points of reflection for the student. They would become also an outlet for parent communication. Daily snapshots as well as regularly updated “GO HOME” journal as well as long term portfolios would be the documented ways of communicating with the parents.

In order to introduce effective learning approaches and assist the children with adequate resources it is essential to build understanding regarding the children as learner and citizen (Bredekamp, 2014). According to Lee et al. (2015), every day moments and activities of the children, aged between 1 to 3 years reflects their growing understanding regarding the social responsibilities. For example, the activities associated with caring for family, sharing foods and learning resources with peers, interacting with other children and teachers and participation in the play and other activities. Hence, it is necessary to monitor the children during their learning session in order to identify them as a mighty learner and citizen (Hamer & Loveridge, 2017). Children are not considered as the citizen in terms of traditional sense, however, it is important to recognize the ability of learning new things and play their role in small activities in order to understand them and use significant strategies to improve their social sense and support their contribution to wider community from the beginning (Bredekamp, 2014).

The Physical Aspect of a Preschool Classroom

Arthur et al. (2017), have informed that it is essential to recognize and acknowledge that children are citizens in their own right in order to develop effective child care curriculum for the children from 1-3 years. In this regards, the learning environment should be developed in a way which could help to understand the children as learner and citizen and reflect the understanding of the educators as well. Such understanding would help to identify the requirements and interest of the children, hence would help to develop learning environment accordingly (Spodek, & Saracho, 2014). Reflecting the understanding of educators in the learning environment would help to motivate the children to engage in the educational program and activities and could facilitate their knowledge acquisition (Lee et al., 2015).

According to the Alberta framework, play, participation and possibilities is an effective field that could help to establish a childhood community place which considers the rights of the children, acknowledge diversity of the families and enhance the knowledge acquisition of the children (childcareframework.com, 2018). In this regards it is essential to-

• Practice effective relationship among the children, family and educators and make it visible in a unique way in the learning centre.
• Recognize the unique learning style of the children and make curriculum activities and decision accordingly.
• Utilise shared professional language for example, language that could help to create pause, reflect efficiently to make value regarding the principles and goals developed for learning session and make it clear to the children, families and for the educators as well.

Following this framework and considering the factors mentioned, the learning environment need to establish significant activity areas and it is required to explain the importance if each activity area to the parents and children in order to reflect understanding about the children as learner and citizen.

• Specific circle time stools should be provided to help the children to understand who is present and absentees as well and build sense of time.
• Particular reading and writing area would help the children to understand the importance of doing a particular task at particular space.
• A block area needs to be incorporated in the learning space which would reflect the understanding the importance of providing open area to the children to explore themselves without any restriction, hence could improve their motor and problem solving skills.
• A particular science center, which would reflect the understanding about the importance of providing science related activities to introduce the children with scientific realistic factors and explore their ability to discover new things from daily science activities.
• The dramatic play center would help to reflect the understanding about preparing the children as mighty learner, as this area would help the children to explore their emotional perceptions, self-inspiration and ability to deal with everyday problems.
• A Kitchen area would help to reflect understanding about the interest of children in various activities and improve their self-confidence to enhance versatile nature.
• Reggio-inspired classrooms with three dimensional arts would help to reflect the understanding the creative site of the children.
• In addition, adequate resources need to be present and the resources should reflect on the children-centered materials in order to make it visible that learning style and requirements of each children has been considered in an effective manner.
• Table and chair with the nameplate of the children
• Bookshelves in the reading area
• Placing the table and chair near to the windows in science area to allow adequate sunlight.
• Cubby system to teach the student about the disposal of dry works.
• Attractive graphics, videos, presentations and pictures
• Colorful books and piece of articles
• Toys in the block area.

References:

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The Importance of Involving Parents in Children’s Education

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