Preschool Classroom Design, Essay Sample for Students

Universally, a preschool classroom needs to be a fun-filled and stable environment to enhance positive child development. The design of a preschool classroom should be interactive, engaging, safe, and educational. The room layout should not be limited to allow preschoolers exhaustively engage with resources provided for in class, but it's of the essence to consider that the setting is mindful of the health and safety on the learners. Proper and efficient preschool classroom designs encourage interactive playing opportunities and allow learners a wide range of hands-on learning activities. Interactive learning area efficiently improves young children's learning through experimental techniques. There are different types of preschool classroom layouts, though a majority of early childhood educators opt for Centre-based classroom design to plan an early childhood center's floor-plan that enhances learners' educational needs.

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The indoor learning environment of preschoolers is highly influential, appealing and cherished due to the attractiveness of its arrangement. The interior space is inclusive of the learning and playing area, as well as the furniture found in a preschool classroom. Therefore, these indoor learning tools for 3-4-year-old preschoolers require conforming to caution when designing the classroom layout that is physically and emotionally upholds safety precautions, promote independence and creative thinking, and integrative and adequate for all learners.

Features of well-designed preschool classroom

The primary element to consider when organizing a preschool class is the ratio of the class size to the number of preschoolers. The size of the learning area has a considerable impact on the design of any preschool indoor learning area. The space element of the classroom dictates the number of learning materials and centers created in a preschool classroom. For instance, when classroom space is small, the learning centers require being mobile or smaller to offer adequate learning space for the learners. Accordingly, the number of learners housed in one class at any given learning period dictates the layout of the room. The learning area needs to accommodate and incorporate the enrolment of preschoolers inclusively. The classroom space should inclusively combine the educators' workstation, sitting area, desk station, and smooth access paths. Young learners need to engage with their learning environment actively, hence offering an elegant learning space enables them to learn from the situation and others actively. Practical consideration of the classroom space dictates the number, types, and size of furniture and other features incorporated into a preschool indoor learning area.

Different preschool classroom designs

Setting up a preschool classroom into different designs should put into consideration the principle element to achieve educational goals and unlimited access to instructional resources. Thus, sitting setup in every early childhood classroom should inclusively allow learners' access to the educators, resources, and interaction with each other. The arrangement and rearrangement of the preschools come in but not limited to three efficient designs which include roundtable setup, teacher center station, and achievement grouping setup, lecture, and open space set up. Each of these sitting arrangements has its pros and cons in reflect learning achievement.

The roundtable setup places the preschoolers to sit around one or more tables depending on the class size and the number of the learners. In this classroom design, the preschoolers access their learning resources from a central point either at the back or on one side of the classroom. Material centers in the round-table classroom design permanently station at the corners for easy access by each learner. The working area is a common ground for all learners; thus, preschoolers can learn from what their peers are doing. The main misgiving of this classroom setup hinders the teacher to comfortable address the whole class at the same time, therefore, learning in the round-table siting design limit complete instructional process.

The use of teacher-center station for a preschool classroom design, the educator, is placed in front of the learners, while the learners surround the teacher's station. In this classroom setup, the educator is the original instruction and activity initiator. The learners wholly depend on the teacher's facilitation in the learning process. The sitting layout does not recommend for 3 - 4-year-old preschoolers teaching due to their requirement of active engagement learning space. The classroom setup also limits active learner involvement with the learning environment. Another classroom design is the open space layout. The open-space design stations the learning stations at designated positions leaving open spaces where the learner can interact with each other and available resources. Moreover, classroom setup under the open space interactive design ensures active participation of the preschoolers with the available resources and their peers. In this classroom setup, learners get maximum access to the resource centers and actively utilize materials independently. However, this technique of classroom design requires more significant spaces to accommodate learners, resources, educators and working areas. Other preschool class designs like achievement groupings and lecture act with similar characteristics like the roundtable setup and teacher-centers stations.

Conclusion

Early childhood indoor learning area should put into consideration the principles of classroom preschool designs. The elements that constitute a classroom layout include nature, color, space, texture and focal points. Young learners easily get appealed by the manner their learning space present. Therefore, sitting arrangement need to incorporate the different features and educational needs of preschoolers.

References

Buckman, J. (2018). High Quality Preschool furniture and Preschool Classroom Design play a pivotal role in children's acquisition of Knowledge. New Jersey: Hertz Furniture Education & workplace experts.

Kaplan Early Learning Company, (2010). Seven principles of early childhood classroom Design. Retrieved from www.kaplanco.com/resources/floorplannersindex.asp