When it comes to teaching young children, the physical environment of the classroom is very important.  Children need to feel as if the classroom is a place where they can come and be themselves.  They need to feel safe in the classroom.  Before researching the design of early childhood education classrooms, I drew a sketch of a local kindergarten classroom.  This classroom is one that I spent some time working in for a field experience for another class.  One day while I was observing in the classroom, I took a few minutes to sketch the layout of the classroom on white paper.  The next step I took involved researching the physical environment of early childhood classrooms. After doing a little bit of research on this topic, I now understand the importance of the classroom layout.  The physical environment of a classroom is important because it is the place where learning takes place.  Because of that, it needs to be arranged in effective ways for children to be able to learn.    

According to an article I read, each kindergarten classroom will be different.  However, regardless of the individual resources, each classroom must have certain elements.  One of these elements is a space for children to store their work or personal belongings.  This space can be cubbies, storage bins, or baskets.  Another element is a space for group meetings.  This space needs to be large enough for children to sit comfortably and see each other during conversations.  The other elements are a variety of spaces for working, quiet places, places to store materials, and places to display children's work respectfully.  

In addition to this article, I found another article that was very helpful.  According to this article, early childhood facilities have the most profound impact on their occupants-more than any other environment.  The environment should support high-quality activities and allow for "optimal use that fosters quality learning."  Because of this, the design of the environment cannot be understated.  One concept that I found interesting in this article was that children are very sensitive to space.  They respond to many different kinds of space: big spaces, open spaces, small spaces, and others.  The right kind of space creates educational purposes, activity, and imagination.  Another interesting concept is that children remember places far better than people and things.  Because of this, every design detail within a space is essential.  Because learning is a physical activity, children need large spaces to be able to skip, jump, move, and play.  Children learn with their whole bodies.  There are different areas that are often included in early childhood classrooms.  This includes areas for art, music, a library, listening and writing activities, blocks, dramatic play, science and discovery activities, mathematics and games, woodworking, sand and water tables, and quiet activities.  I did not realize that there were so many areas included in early childhood classrooms!  I understand that many classrooms do not have all of these areas.  At the end of this article, there are three examples of floor plans.  There is one for a preschool classroom, one for a kindergarten classroom, and one for a first grade classroom.  

With these two articles in mind, I decided to assess the physical environment of the classroom, as seen in the sketch I had drawn of the room.  There are at least two changes I would make in the layout if this classroom was my own.  One thing that I add in this classroom is a "dramatics" area.  As the first article points out, kindergarteners enjoy stories and fairy tales.  They also enjoy role playing such as playing school and house.  Because of this, a curriculum area focusing on dramatics is critical in kindergarten classrooms.  Another change I would make would be storage areas.  The children in the classroom all have their own cubbies to store their backpacks and other items.  This is very important in the classroom!  However, the children do not have easy access to materials in the classroom.  The bookshelf that is filled with wonderful books is behind a table.  It is difficult to retrieve a book from the shelf for this reason.  Children need easy access to materials that they might wish to use in the classroom.  As one of the articles points out, this will influence behavior.  The classroom also needs more shelves that are lower to the ground so that the children can reach them for materials.  The materials should also be very organized.  These are two changes that I would make in this classroom.

I now have a greater understanding of the importance of the design of early childhood classrooms.  These are things I will keep in mind in the future, as I design my own classroom.  What about you?  What have you found works really well in your classroom?  What doesn't work so well?  Please share by leaving a comment below!  I'd love to hear from you!    

Click here to see the sketch I drew of the kindergarten classroom.

Interdisciplinary teaching deals with teaching a unit across multiple curricular disciplines.  For example, one book could be read to the children and there could be a variety of subject areas that relate to that book.  I recently had the opportunity to learn more about what interdisciplinary teaching is and what it looks like in the classroom.  This was a particularly neat experience because I did not have to find an activity for all of the curriculum areas.  Instead, I learned of great activities from my classmates!

The first step in this project was to go to Youtube to watch a video.  This video was a reading of the book "Mama, Do You Love Me?" by Barbara Joosee.  This book is one that I was not familiar with prior to watching the video.  I must say that I loved this book!  It is a very well written story with great illustrations.  I also really liked the theme in the story.  The next step was to find an activity that could be adapted to be a response to the book.  I was assigned the curriculum area language arts.  When I finished watching the video, I began to search for an activity in the curriculum area of language arts to go along with the book.  After I found an activity, I typed up the information and cited where I found the activity.  I was ready to go!  

When I arrived in class the next day, I began to see how the various curriculum areas fit together.  My classmates had been assigned different curriculum areas, including mathematics, science, craft, music, and technology.  These are just a few of the many curriculum areas that our class covered in this project.  It was so neat to see all of the activities that everyone found to adapt to go along with the book.  As we began to discuss the activities as a class, I quickly saw how they were all related.  For example, a craft activity someone found was clearly linked to language arts.  The activities all looked like a spider web in the sense that they were all interconnected in some way.  

As we discussed in class, research shows that children learn best when they learn through these connections.  They need to be able to connect different concepts in their minds that include a variety of curriculum areas.  This will help the children create meaning.  I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn about interdisciplinary teaching.  It is something that I will definitely use in the classroom! 

Click here to view my activity sheet.