Starting the Year by Creating a Community of Young Learners

The classroom environment that I set up is very thought-out to create a calm, safe environment that the kids will learn from no matter where in the room they go. Sometimes I may be there to participate with and guide them, but many times they will be exploring materials, looking closer, discovering, creating, problem solving, and practicing skills we are learning about independently and with friends! Everything that is put out for them in the beginning has no directions or preconceived end results. It is purely exploring the materials, learning to take care of the materials and building relationships as they explore together! Here are some of the materials they explored in the beginning.

In our Building Area they were only allowed to play with the blocks on the bottom. If they did a good job of being safe, respectful and responsible, I would add another cubby of blocks. This continues until the whole area is open! I have everything out so that they can see what they are working toward.

The baskets on the top are open to build with also. The white baskets are what I call Loose Parts that are open ended materials that encourage creativity as they have no set purpose…their imaginations are the limit! They like to use these along with the blocks! When the all of the blocks are open to them, they will get to start getting to use the loose parts as well. 



This is our Dramatic Play Area! Here is where they role play and build vocabulary and language skills. A lot of stories happen here and a lot of writing as they see how many of the careers they are role playing use writing for many reasons and want to do the same! It can be a kitchen, restaurant, vet clinic, doctors office, space stations, toy factory….whatever they are interested in, we will create it here!



This is our Art Studio! Here they started out with only red paint and will work up to all of the colors! All of the materials we use for art, we also use to show what we notice in science so this area mixes science and art a lot!



We call this Transient Art! They create with more open ended loose parts.



Clay is wonderful for strengthening their finger muscles and creative thinking! 



This is our Literacy Area! Here they will enjoy stories, write stories and practice literacy skills that we learn together!











Here is our Math Area. They know that when they are here, they are mathematicians! Right now they are freely exploring math manipulatives that we will use later as we practice math skills.









Here is an area to explore cause and effect as they paint a rock with water! I put out some line cards if they are interested in creating any of the different lines!



This is our science area. It is starting out with a focus on stories but using items from nature and familiar creatures they may want to explore for science! As they learn about science tools and informative writing, they will use this area to look closer and show what they notice using writing and the different art materials available to them.



They have done a great job taking care of the materials and getting along with each other as they explore each area! They are very quickly becoming good friends and a wonderful community of learners!















I am excited to see what this incredible group of kids will choose to explore as we grow as learners together! In my next post, I will explain how I use the Mystery Box to introduce new materials!