Creating stimulating environments
How can you design an environment that is aesthetically pleasing, both visually and experientially?
Nicole is looking to plan some new experiences for the children in the 3 – 5 years room at Cybertots. Planning fun experiences and helping the children learn new skills, is what attracted her to the child care profession.
There is more to planning experiences than a lot of people think. Nicole will need to get to know the children, design experiences that are appropriate and interesting to them, and then decide how to go about providing those experiences.
Adding decoration and variety
The environment you provide the children in your care will be the shell for all of the experiences you provide. Treat the environment not only as your own but as also belonging to all who inhabit it. This includes the other staff that use the room, as well as the children. Everyone involved should have a say as to how it is decorated, how it smells, sounds and looks.
Decoration
When thinking about the environment you need to consider it as a whole. It is a large part of the children's program and should be treated as such. Think about the floors, walls, ceiling, sounds, and smells, as well as the experiences that are provided within the room. Look at the whole picture.
To decorate the room you can use:
- art work the children have created
- commercial art work
- photos and posters of real life events, of the children, and of unknown people
- attractive, appealing colour schemes
- natural, commercial and recyclable items
- items hanging from the ceiling and walls
- things stuck to the floor.
All this, of course, needs to stay within the guidelines of the child care service.
Providing a variety of areas and experiences
Within an environment there are some areas that are mostly always present, although they may change position within the room. These areas still need to look inviting to the children.
Some of these areas include:
- home play area
- block area
- book area
- art area
- music area
- nature area.
Within these common areas you can create many different experiences. Let's look at the block area for an example. In the block area you may set up the following experiences at different times:
- wooden blocks
- Lego® Duplo
- other Lego® products
- animal characters
- people characters
- dolls house
- sand in a container
- shredded paper
- cardboard boxes.
The list is endless, yet all enhance various opportunities for play. The same can be done with all the areas within a room.
Choose an area within a room (refer to the list earlier on this page for some areas commonly found within a room). List five different activity ideas that you could use within that area in your notebook.
Is your environment inviting?
Making areas in the environment inviting and challenging is the key. When this is achieved you will be providing the children in your care with an environment that fosters play and leisure.
Creating an inviting environment
To create an inviting environment you can start with the following strategies.
- Observing the children both individually and as a group. This will assist you to identify their developmental level as well as their interests. Your observation needs to be ongoing, as the children's interests and developmental levels will change over time.
- Using your creativity and imagination to create an environment that meets the needs, interests and strengths of the children.
- Observing the children's reaction to an environment. If they are excited and immerse themselves in play within the environment you know you are succeeding.
- Being honest with yourself - do you and the other staff at the centre like being in the environment?
- Evaluating the environment regularly using the various methods of observation.
All this, of course, needs to stay within the guidelines of the child care service.
Providing a variety of areas and experiences
Within an environment there are some areas that are mostly always present, although they may change position within the room. These areas still need to look inviting to the children.
Providing creative materials
The resource below provides suggestions on using materials to enhance the environment for pleasure and learning.
Using the space
When planning an area, you need to avoid overcrowding. There are rough guidelines for how much space is required by children of different ages.
You also need to think about including different types of areas including active, passive, indoor and outdoor. This way children can choose what suits them at a particular time.
Planning space to avoid overcrowding
To avoid conflicts when children are playing, make sure you use the space available to separate active experiences (climbing, running, building with blocks, riding bicycles, etc) from passive experiences (reading books, playing with puppets, drawing etc).
This will involve some planning, based on the number of children registered each day in your room. You need to plan to avoid overcrowding and competition for space and materials, which can result in conflicts.
Different types of areas
By providing challenging, inviting and suitable areas within the environment, the children will grow to know that the environment is theirs and it is based on their needs. You should be careful not to change the environments too often - especially for the younger age groups.
Now that you know about some of the play areas you will find within an environment that cares for children, let's have a look at the types of areas that your environment should include.
Providing choices
A child care environment needs to have lots of choice! Just like you, children want to choose what they'd like to participate in and when.
You should always try to include a choice of experiences, as well as different types of experiences. The choices should be provided consistently over the day with enough time for the children to participate in the experiences they wish to, and should reflect needs, abilities and interests.
The main points to remember about an environment for children is that it should be:
- safe
- hygienic
- presentable
- inviting
- challenging
- stimulating
- inclusive
- supportive of children's strengths, needs and interests.
Respect the children's rights; respect the environment in which you work; respect the resources you have; and you will find that the children will do the same.
As well as offering choices, you also need to consider the environment in the following ways to encourage the children to play and learn.
Considering the environment
Here are some additional things to consider when designing the environment. Click each item for more information.
- Number of play spaces
- Types of play
- Active/passive play
- Clear pathways
- Private spaces
- Soft spaces
- Places of elevation
- Natural materials
- Open materials
The number of play spaces available should be one and half times the number of children in the group. For example:
10 children - 15 play spaces
15 children - 22 play spaces
25 children - 37 play spaces
30 children - 45 play spaces.
This will provide choices and disperse the children over a range of experiences, minimising overcrowding and competition for space and materials.
Provide places for 1, 2, 3 and 4 children to participate in experiences such as opportunities for:
Solitary Play
Parallel Play
Associate Play
Onlooker Play
Cooperative Play.
When planning the play spaces inside and outside divide the play spaces into active, where there will be movement (such as blocks, cars, home corner, bikes, and swings) and passive ( such as books, listening to soft music, looking at photographs, puppets, nature table/ interest table, sand and water play). By doing this, the play spaces will be set up to complement the type of play rather than be in opposition.
Ensure the play spaces you set up are arranged so there are clear pathways for the children to move freely through the room without bumping into furniture or other children.
In group care, children experience limited times to be on their own during their long day. Even when they go to the toilet, the set-up is very open and public. Being required to be social with others can be very tiring for both children and adults, but for safety and supervision, the adult needs to see where children are at all times.
So how do adults provide the opportunity for children to be on their own or feel as if they are on their own? The planned play spaces, both inside and outside, need to include opportunities for one child to participate in the play experience on their own. Dividing play spaces with hanging material can create a feeling of privacy, as can large cardboard boxes for individual children to sit in and play with a toy or look at a book. Tables set up with one chair with a water or sand play experience can also provide opportunities for children to be on their own.
You can easily make soft spaces, both inside and outside. Provide cushions, pillows, blankets, small couches and comfortable chairs for children to sit on their own, with other children or with an adult. Here they can look at books, explore the textures of a variety of materials covering the cushions and pillows (velvet, cotton, fur, hessian, suede) or sit and observe other children playing. In this way, you can create cosy and comfortable spaces for the children, just like would have at home, to relax away from the busy play of others around them.
Setting up materials at different levels (on tables, floor, blocks, shelves or platforms where children can sit) will create a variety of interests, dimensions and perspectives on the environment.
Growing flowers, vegetables, herbs and grass in the garden or in pot plants is a very important part of children's learning. Natural materials such as seed-pods, rocks, gumnuts, pine-cones, small cut pieces of wood, sand, water, earth/dirt, clay, etc are essential as learning materials for children.
Providing a range of materials that can be used in various ways creates opportunities for the children to explore materials and experiences in creative and individual ways.
Designing an environment
Do you see now how creating an inviting environment can encourage the children to play and learn? Now it's your turn to have a go at designing environments.
- Choose an age group.
- Design four environments that will appeal to the chosen age group, while encouraging play and leisure. Each environment should be different and may include areas for:
- quiet play
- constructive play
- sand or water play
- creative play
- home play
- physical play
- solitary activities
- group activities
- sports
- music
- conversations.
- The environments you design should be appropriate for the development of the age group and must consider safety issues. Safety includes physical safety as well as emotional safety. A well-created environment should make a child feel confident and safe to explore the area and attempt new challenges.
- Record your ideas in your notebook. Make sure to include any relevant diagrams and explanations.
To make sure you have completed all the activities for this section, you can use the Activity Checklist (Word 85Kb). You can print the checklist to keep in your notebook.
