In designing effective teaching and learning environments, the physical environment is a primary consideration. The physical environment of a classroom consists of: physiological variables such as light, temperature, noise, color, textures, and odors; spatial arrangements of furnishings and materials; and design adaptations, modifications for students with special needs. The learning environment includes, but is not limited to: the classroom; therapy rooms; lunch area; playgrounds; and bathrooms.
By applying a play-learn system to the five areas of child development, a developmentally appropriate learning environment is created for the preschool child. Effective early childhood environments provide the child with authentic opportunity to become engaged in learning by listening, talking, reading, writing, and playing. Effective environments nurture emerging literacy. Classroom design, the daily routine/schedule, and adult/child interactions are integral parts of the preschool program for children with disabilities, and enhance the developmental skills of independence, problem solving and choice making.
Careful planning of the learning environment (including labeling of all materials), lunch areas, playground, storage space, and use of equipment, is necessary to facilitate learning experiences. A planned environment that matches the developmental needs, backgrounds and interests of children assists them in being successful in their next environmental setting. For that reason, the learning environment is an integral part of the preschool curriculum and, as such, must be engineered by staff.
The following principles are suggested for consideration in arranging the physical environment of the classroom, keeping in mind that the teacher has more control over some aspects of the classroom physical environment than others.
Ensure a safe and barrier-free environment.
Make the teaching and learning conditions pleasant and inviting.
Obtain appropriate furniture, special materials and equipment that match the needs of students.
Arrange space functionally.
Consider educational goals in making seating arrangements.
Design Requirements
 Allow children the greatest possible bodily movement, providing environmental support to meet their developmental needs.
 Adapt to meet the needs of all children.
 Provide appropriate levels of sensory stimulation.
 Provide clearly defined and labeled work/play areas.
 Allow a child to exercise control and free choice, to take safe risks, and to engage in direct interaction with the physical environment.
 Address the child’s need to feel competent by providing well-defined boundaries.
 Provide well-organized storage and display of materials so children may see what materials are available and where they belong. Materials should include natural and found, as well as commercial materials.
 Group materials together, on open shelves, in consistent locations, and accessible for active manipulation when appropriate.
 Consider children, who are unable to access materials independently due to disability.
 Provide a variety of materials to ensure visual, auditory, and tactile stimulation.
Functional Requirements
 One work area consisting of a group of tables or one large table for group instruction and one or two work areas for one-to-one instruction.
 Large open area for movement activities and large group (e.g., block area).
 Learning areas located around the perimeter of the classroom for independent learning and small group activities.
 Multiple sets of toys/materials to encourage group play and decrease behavior problems.
 Bathroom facilities within the classroom are preferred.
 Alternative communication systems (e.g., picture schedules).
 Classroom positive behavior management plan.
The classroom teacher is responsible for continuously monitoring all equipment and materials for safety and good working condition. Dangerous objects or adult materials must be kept out of the children’s reach or in locked cabinets.
Learning Centers
A child with disabilities will flourish and benefit from an early childhood environment that empowers learning. Center learning empowers a child to be actively engaged in self-directed learning based on strength, ability, and interest.
Center learning can enhance interactive language, story response, art, reading and writing-like behavior, collaboration, buddy activity, and independence. The variety of center learning experiences is limited only by the imagination.
Learning environments, such as “centers”, enhance opportunities to grow in emerging literacy and to interactively use the communicative arts of speaking, listening, reading and writing. Centers are exciting learning environments for the child. In order to be an environment where learning occurs, the center should
have a designated location accessible to all, focused on a particular topic, using a prescribed routine to enter and exit, as well as to use the objects contained within it.
Center goals and outcomes are predetermined by the teacher, with the strengths and needs of each child in mind. Several centers can be in operation at the same time in a classroom, depending on the arrangement of the room. A center may be a spot in the room, or it may be a collection of items the child carries to a particular spot to use.
At the early childhood level, a 10- to 15-minute time frame is a maximum length of time to be within a center. The child can rotate from one center to another center during specific periods using specific strategies to enhance movement, which is also supervised by the teacher. Centers are most effective when there is high anticipation by the children about choices and participation. Activity in each center can be for small groups or for one child alone. Clearly, it is recognized that centers evolve out of children’s interests and key experiences.
House Area – allows children to act out familiar situations, explore their feelings, and begin to make sense of the world around them. A defined house area facilitates role-playing. Important materials include: cooking utensils, ironing boards, hats, refrigerator, dishes, plastic ware, empty boxes of food items, dress-up clothes, dolls, brooms, pdress-uppets, mirror, cradle, stroller, cash register, telephone, jewelry, make-up, menus, aquarium, plants, phone books, paper and pencils, or message board.
Block Area - provides opportunities for exploration, manipulation, investigation of fundamental logic and mathematic concepts, language and social development, as well as imaginative play. Important materials include small and large blocks, trucks, cars, people, street signs, plastic animals, Lincoln Logs, jumbo tinker toys, maps, travel brochures, and blue prints.
Toy Area - assists children in developing physical, social, communication, perceptual and cognitive skills and concepts. Many of the materials are open-ended items that can be taken apart, put together, arranged, rearranged, nested, stacked, sorted, or constructed. Important materials include: beads, clay, puzzles, 1-inch blocks, legos, “Lite Brite”, pegs and pegboard, cans, clothespins, shape sorting, parquetry, bristle blocks, stacking cups, pop beads, scale, counters (e.g., teddy bears), microscope, flashlight, magnifying glass, magnets, and rocks.
Art Area - provides opportunities for children to experiment informally with a variety of simple materials and express their thoughts and ideas through picture making, modeling, constructing, and printmaking. Important materials include:
easel, paint, crayons, chalk, scissors, stapler, hole punch, paste, glue, yarn, paint brushes, pipe cleaners, sponges, scraps of fabric, paper, cookie-cutters, rolling pin and playdough, straws, markers, cotton, q-tips, buttons, shaving cream, stamp pads, and templates.
Music Area – provides opportunities for children to appreciate rhythm, patterns and the beauty of language and music through listening, speaking, singing, and using musical instruments. Important materials include headphones, record player, instruments, records, tapes, tape recorder, lummi sticks, rain sticks, scarves and ribbons.
Sand/Water/Bean Table Area - provides opportunities for imaginative and practical play with unique sensory experiences and cognitive discoveries.
Children fill, empty, pump, squeeze, pour, measure, compare, hypothesize and solve problems. Materials include: cups, spoons, sponges, eyedroppers, basters, sifters, buckets, strainers, small cars, squeeze toys, and dolls. In addition to commercial items, natural and found materials should be considered.
Computer Area – provides opportunities for children to develop cause and effect relationships, match, compare, count, draw, appreciate interactive stories, and provides exposure to written words. Materials include computer, printer, and software. Adaptive technology e.g., Touch Windows, input devices and switches may be utilized.
Outdoor Area – provides opportunities to experience and enjoy the environment:
to climb, jump, lift, push, pull, and ride. Children build confidence in their motor abilities through active play as they explore, solve problems, and enjoy interacting with peers and adults. Materials include: parachute, bean bags, hula hoops, wheeled toys, climbers, balance beam, gardening equipment, role-play props, cardboard boxes, pails, shovels, and any materials from inside the classroom according to children’s interest, i.e., doll, paint and blocks.
Literacy Area – provides opportunity for children to engage in reading activities within a comfortable area of the classroom dedicated to encouraging self-selection to a wide variety of children’s books, enhancing reading and reading-like activity, comfort and relaxation. Materials include: books, puppets, puppet stand, flannel board stories, magna doodles, wipe off and chalk boards, templates, paper, variety of writing utensils, photo albums and pictures, earphones with recorded books on tape, and classroom created books.
Daily Routine
A developmentally appropriate program for young children includes play, active exploration, and movement within a carefully planned daily routine. Each component of the daily routine is significant to cognitive, communication,
adaptive, social-emotional, and physical development of children. Consistent programming builds a sense of security and helps develop concepts of time and place. Routines and structure aid the child in learning to anticipate and to feel in control of self and the environment. The existence of a well-developed daily routine should not impede the teacher from taking advantage of learning opportunities that arise spontaneously. Such flexibility will add to the plan.
Preschool children are active learners. They discover their world by direct experiences. Within our classrooms, the children are encouraged to use critical thinking skills and are provided with opportunities to: manipulate objects, choose activities, acquire skills with tools and equipment, make choices, solve problems, work independently to complete a task, use large muscles, and take care of one’s own needs, all within a carefully planned daily routine.
Daily Routine
Breakfast Children improve feeding skills, taste different foods and work on table manners. They may eat in the classroom or cafeteria.
Greeting A social time where children greet each other and are greeted by the adult. Songs, music and movement, finger plays and nursery rhymes are shared by all.
Planning Time Children make choices about activities they will do each day through gestures, tracing an object, drawings or words.
Plans also include choosing an area, materials, and people to work with.
Work Time Children carry out their plans in various areas in the classroom such as house, block, art, toy, music, computer, and book. They work on skills as specified in their IEP. The adults extend their play and stimulate their language development by providing open-ended questions and thought provoking activities.
Clean Up Time At the end of each work time, children put away materials in their designated places.
Recall Time Children reflect on, share, and discuss or act-out their experiences.
Small-Group Time Children work in small groups on adult-initiated activities based on child observations, key experiences and interests.
Some activities may include: fine motor (using small muscles for grasping, holding, and pre-writing skills), gross motor (using large muscles to crawl, run, and walk), cognitive (classifying objects, comparing sizes and shapes, learning one-to-one correspondence, time concepts of seasons) and language (past and future events relating pictures to real places and things).
Language Children learn to understand and express their wants and needs through speech, gestures, use of augmentative devices (i.e., a communication board), and/or sign language.
Children demonstrate their understanding of language through activities, which include listening, pointing to familiar objects, following directions, and responding to questions. Language and communication are encouraged throughout the school day.
Socialization Children learn to interact with peers and adults. They may play in the classroom and take part in music, art, games, and cooking, and/or supervised field trips.
Self-Help Toilet training and dressing activities are very much a part of a young child’s school day.
Rest Time Children learn to regulate their bodies to rest after a long, busy day. They rest/nap, look at books or independently play with quiet-time toys. Rest/Nap times should be limited to one hour each day. Children may often require more sleep during the first months of entry in the program.
Outside Play Outside play is considered a work time segment of the daily routine – children make choices of materials they want to play with outside. Children play with friends and adults, relax, crawl, run, jump, ride wheel toys, and enjoy nature.
Developmental playgrounds, located at each site, provide children with opportunities for movement exploration, improved locomotion, balance activities and creative play.
In addition, the playground offers children a natural environment for social and communication development.
Adults plan and provide structured play activities each day.
Guidelines for Daily Routines
 All daily schedules must be posted in each classroom. A posted pictorial display of the daily schedule assists the child in planning and predicting what part of the day comes next.
 All activities should be conducted following developmentally appropriate practices.
 Time segments should include a variety of activities that facilitate both positional and spatial changes.
 The schedule should reflect individual, small group, and large group instructional times.
 The schedule should include both active and passive activities, with the emphasis on active learning experiences.
 Daily routines should reflect a balanced program and be designed so that both teacher and assistant can implement the program.
The District School Board of Collier County does not support watching television programs or videos as part of the daily routine. A child’s time can be used more productively through active involvement in learning. Videos shown in the classroom, on a very limited basis, must be reflected in the lesson plan, relate thematically to current topic, and have an educational benefit and appropriate follow-up activities. The school administrator as per School Board Policy must approve videos brought from home before viewing.
Unique Needs of Preschool Children with Disabilities
It should be noted in the establishment of class size and adult/child ratios for preschool children with disabilities that the younger children require more adult time than do older children. Some possible ways to improve the adult/child ratio are to schedule regular parent participation, and to develop an active, trained community volunteer program such as foster grandparents. The unique needs of this population warrant the necessity for two adults to be present at all times other than their duty free lunch.
 Many of the children entering the program have never been in a school setting. Due to that situation, they may exhibit severe behavior problems adjusting to the new classroom environment. Behavior management programs are an essential part of the total program and require at least one adult to implement and manage the program.
 Due to delayed receptive and/or expressive language skills, or limited English proficiency, these children require constant repetition of commands and one-on-one assistance in following those commands.
 Most of the children are dependent on adults for daily activities (small and large group instruction, walking to the cafeteria, toileting, meals, general mobility, and safety issues regarding playground and general environment).
 A short attention span at this young age requires changing activities at shorter intervals of time. This requires extensive planning for individual educational needs and adults to teach the objectives.
 The developmental areas addressed in the preschool program require a great variety of materials and equipment to be utilized.
Curriculum
Curriculum refers to systematic procedures for organizing educational activities for children to learn through active exploration and interaction with adults, other children, and materials. A developmentally appropriate curriculum, appropriate for the age span of the children within the group, is implemented with special attention to child needs, interests, and developmental levels. The concept of developmentally appropriate practices refers to providing an environment and offering content, materials, activities, and methodologies that are coordinated with a child’s level of development and for which the individual child is ready.
Three dimensions of appropriateness must be considered: age appropriateness, individual appropriateness, and appropriateness for the cultural and social context of the child.
The Florida Early Learning Performance Standards for Three-Year-Olds and the Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Standards for Four-Year-Olds provide classroom teachers with the knowledge of what preschool children are expected to know and be able to do in the domains of physical health, social-emotional development, language and communication, cognitive development, and general knowledge development. The curriculums used to teach these skills include:
The Galileo Online eCurriculum
Creative Curriculum for Preschool – 4th Edition
Literacy: The Creative Curriculum Approach
Math: The Creative Curriculum Approach
Skill-Streaming in Early Childhood: Teaching Prosocial Skills-Preschool Children
The Galileo Online e-curriculum is the general education curriculum used in all District School Board of Collier County Pre-K classrooms. This evidence-based early childhood curriculum is designed to help teachers be efficient and resourceful when linking content, instruction, and learning goals. The e-curriculum is aligned with all eight Head Start Framework domains, assists in meeting Head Start Program Performance Standards, and correlates with the Early Learning Performance Standards for Three-Year-Olds (Appendix 3) and
with Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) Education Standards for Four-Year-Olds. Copies of the VPK Education Standards are available to participants of training sessions conducted by the District’s VPK Coordinator.
In addition to the e-curriculum, The Creative Curriculum ® for Preschool is used to describe and demonstrate how to plan a developmentally appropriate program focusing on ten well-organized interest areas. Its underlying philosophy draws from Jean Piaget’s work on cognitive development, Erick Erikson’s stages of socio-emotional development, and accepted theories of how children learn best.
The approach is practical, easy-to-understand, and immediately applicable to a variety of settings.
The Creative Curriculum provides teachers the theoretical foundation and the framework for Collier’s curriculum content. It describes how to organize a preschool classroom so that the environment is structures around 11 interest areas or centers: Blocks, Dramatic Play, Toys and Games, Art, Library, Discovery, Sand and Water, Music and Movement, Cooking, Computers, and Outdoors. Within this structure, teachers organize child-initiated and teacher-directed learning experiences that are intended to address four developmental area of learning: social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language as well as six content areas: literacy, math, science, social studies, the arts, and technology. Through experiences with materials in the different centers, verbal interactions with peers, and differentiated instruction with children, the child is expected to learn and develop in all areas.
The literacy supplement used in all Pre-K special classes, Literacy: The Creative Curriculum Approach, is an extension to The Creative Curriculum for Preschool.
The focus of this supplement is on helping early childhood educators develop a better understanding of the key components of a comprehensive literacy program, the research behind each component, and the instructional role of the teacher. This volume describes how to integrate language and literacy
The focus of this supplement is on helping early childhood educators develop a better understanding of the key components of a comprehensive literacy program, the research behind each component, and the instructional role of the teacher. This volume describes how to integrate language and literacy