Year 1



|Transforming Early Years Environments |

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|FOBISSEA Early Years JAWS 2012 |

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Melody Stuckey Janine Bradshaw

Transforming Early Years Environments:

Within early years the environment is often referred to as the third teacher. Creating an inspiring physical environment is such an important aspect of teaching and learning with young children. As a school we have started on a journey to try and transform our learning environment with the vision of creating awe and wonder for our children. There are challenges and constraints but we believe it is a journey worth pursuing.

“It has been said that the environment should act as a kind of aquarium which reflects the ideas, ethics, attitudes and cultures of the people who live in it. This is what we are working toward”. (Loris Malaguzzi)

1 Creating Connections and a Sense of Belonging:

Learning for young children needs to be connected and meaningful. When children feel they belong and have a sense of place they are much more likely to engage in learning experiences. Our aim as teachers is to focus around making connections between home and school. We need to think about ways to make our classrooms look familiar and homely. Within our context children’s lives are filled with plastic, concrete metal, and electronic devices! What can we do to make our children aware of natural beauty and appreciate the awe and wonder of nature? If I think back to our own childhoods, we climbed trees, built huts, played at the beach, made mud pies and were surrounded by natural beauty. The children we are working with in our school are not necessarily experiencing a similar childhood. Many of our children live in apartments. Therefore our challenge as a school is to provide experiences for children to explore natural environments.

Elements of an Environment for Belonging:

It is important to create a welcoming first impression. “The arrangements and provisions in the physical environment create the context for the social - emotional climate and quality of interactions among the people there” (Curtis and Carter, 2003).

Here are some interesting questions to consider about your environment:

• Where in your school can you learn more about each other and create more connections?

• How can children and families regularly contribute to the environment so that it reflects their values, interests and lives?

• What elements might encourage family members to linger before leaving each day?

• Do areas of your environment feel institutional and need transformation?

• Could there be more softness within your environment? How?

What we have done so far?

When our building was first built it was all white and had quite an industrial look about it. As you have seen it also has a very large atrium area, which can feel empty and very large. In the last couple of years we have gradually been working at transforming the environment to create a more welcoming feel.

• We painted the large pillars warm colours to break up the big empty feeling that the whiteness created.

• We placed flags in the centre area to represent all our families.

• We bought soft furnishings like sofas and carpets to create comfortable spaces for parents to sit and chat.

• We really developed our corridor displays – to incorporate a 3D feel and to really capture children’s imaginations and interest.

• Very gradually we are trying to invest in more natural resources. In two classrooms we have experimented with changing some of the classroom furniture to white and we have removed plastic containers and replaced them with natural baskets. We have a lot more work to do in this area.

What do we still need to think about?

It would be much more inviting to have a much larger parent longue and to invest in some sound proofing as the acoustics in our building do not help provide a peaceful ambience and atmosphere.

Reflection:

Share in small groups what makes your environment invite a sense of belonging for children and families:

2.Keeping Space Flexible and Materials Open-Ended

When organising a room it is important that we consider the different domains of play. Children and adults obviously benefit from having a visual logic to the room. However far too often then teachers become very rigid about the use of space in the classroom. While it is important for our spaces to be safe, predictable and orderly for children, we do need to consider who the room is designed for the teachers or the children?

Questions to ponder:

• How many open- ended opportunities are available to the children?

• Are resources well displayed and inviting for the children?

• Are there quiet spaces for children to relax?

• Are there spaces where projects can be worked on over an extended period of time?

• Are all the areas in the classroom being used? If not are things changed around to meet the needs of the children?

What we have done so far?

• We have created open ended art areas where children can access a range of materials instead of setting up structured art experiences

• We leave some tables blank for children to initiate their own play

• We have photos of different activities on a board to give children ideas of what kind of things they might be interested in

• Having shared large group times to stimulate ideas and talk through children’s ideas and to remind children of ongoing projects

• Allowing a bit more freedom and flexibility in regards to how materials are used for example it is ok to mix lego in with the blocks to develop children’s play

• We have changed the daily schedule so there are less interruptions and introduced a ‘rolling morning tea’.

Challenges?

It has been a gradual change for the children to move towards a more creative and free approach within their learning environment. Some children still need a lot of support to make use of the resources around them. We need to increase the level of discussion when children come in the morning and get them thinking more about what they would like to do and what they need to help them. As some of our children have been in environments where activities have been put out for them it is taking some time for them to stimulate their own ideas. There needs to be a balance of child initiated and teacher led experiences. Children need prior experiences to build new ideas so an appropriate balance is key.

What do we still need to think about?

• Perhaps incorporating the scribing and drawing of plans to develop sustained big project work to support an ongoing interest.

Discussion Question:

What open ended learning experiences have worked well in your setting?

3.Designing Natural Environments that Engage our Senses:

As already mentioned if we think back to our own childhood. We probably spent a large portion of it outdoors. Looking for bugs, building a hut, making mixes with twigs, dirt and whatever else we could find. We learnt to appreciate and enjoy the natural world and all it has to offer. Often as adults we still seek to connect with the natural world by choosing beach vacations, by the lake or hit the ski slopes. It appears that in today’s society children have less space and experiences of the outdoors and are losing that special connection with nature. We as early years educators can help change this national trend.

How can we make our environment more natural?

Creating enticing aromas

There is nothing worse than walking into an early years setting and experiencing an unpleasant smell of the bathroom. Smells are linked to our long term memory so creating pleasant smells like freshly baked biscuits or an scented candle can help build positive memories. A sensory garden with fresh herbs is also a nice idea for outdoors.

Providing Sources of Water

Water should be made available for children to look at, touch listen and play with.

Landscaping with textures, colours and scents

Natural big pieces of wood, big rocks, grass, trees, flowers and herbs can all add to a more natural look in the outdoors. Having a children’s garden can become a great place for learning and discovery.

Providing natural loose parts in outdoor spaces

Set structures made of plastic are very common in children’s playgrounds. Try and invest in large pieces of driftwood, rocks, tree stumps and natural objects that children can use to develop their gross motor skills.

Offering indoor natural materials

We need to be on the lookout for natural materials for children to touch and look at. Providing beautiful things to inspire children for example fresh flowers in the middle of the table to inspire real life drawing.

Constraints and Challenges:

How do we find a range of natural materials in the environment we are in? We have even found it very challenging to maintain grass in our playground during the wet winter months and have had to resort to a more durable soft fall surface. You can see from looking at our playground this is an area we can develop.

What are we working on:

We are moving towards more ‘real’ resources in the classroom. We gradually plan to replace plastic toys and equipment with more natural looking experiences. For example we would like to replace our plastic kitchen set resources with objects you would find in a real kitchen.

We have recently developed carpentry in Reception as an open ended area for children to explore working with wood.

Questions to ponder:

What natural materials are found in your outdoor environment?

How can we get around issues such as climate?

What sources of water do you have available and how can we make it accessible and safe for the children’s use?

Who in the community could assist us with landscaping and a more natural looking environment?

How can we change our parents’ attitudes about the value of the outdoors?

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4.An environment to create wonder and curiosity.

Children have a natural curiosity and are intrigued by things such as light, colour and reflection. How can we create awe and wonder to develop children’s working theories about the experiences in their environment?

Light and Colour

Think about how light and colour can provoke wonder and curiosity. The use of mirrors, holograms and prisms present endless opportunities for exploring light and colour. Light boxes also have a way of making natural resources look more magical.

Motion

Children love to watch things move and see things in motion. Exploring ideas around gravity and speed through objects that whirl, spin roll hop and leap. This helps develop their working theories around cause and effect.

Treasures

Don’t we all love precious things. I remember as a child how magical it seemed to look inside one of my Mum’s jewellery boxes. In fact I still enjoy it! It is amazing how simple objects displayed beautifully can create this level of magic for example a few beautiful beads placed on a mirror. Trusting children with precious and fragile objects also helps them to realise the value of things and how to treat things with care and respect.

Questions to Ponder:

• What natural sources of light do we have and how can we make better use of it to explore shadows, reflections and colour refractions?

• What ways can we use artificial light and sounds to create curiosity?

• Which treasures can we make use of? How will these treasures capture children’s attention and imagination?

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A comfortable space to feel at home

Dulwich College Suzhou interactive displays to make you feel welcome

Flags from each country represented in our school to make our environment welcoming.

Dulwich College Suzhou

Dulwich College Suzhou

Dulwich College Suzhou

Spaces for children to display ongoing project work

Open ended resources

Opportunities for children to select from beautifully displayed resources

Dulwich College Suzhou

Natural resources to inspire real life drawings

Herbs to create enticing aromas

Dulwich College Suzhou

Carpentry area

Dulwich College Suzhou

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