The environment acts as the third teacher whether you teach at home or classroom. Successful environment design allows children to feel safe, thrive, and explore their independence. We believe that the classroom environment should be set up to enable choice and discovery across all domains of learning and that children should be given easy access to developmentally appropriate materials. Children need spaces, indoors and outdoors, to run and jump, get messy, invent art, as well as sit quietly in a cozy place with a puzzle or book.
Purposeful Room Design
A purposeful room design will help your children learn and focus. Set up your room with 6-8 stations. Each week, set them up to encourage children to independently explore new materials, build relationships with peers and use their skills to problem-solve.
Many of the manipulatives, games and materials that you put in your stations are provided in your Experience Preschool Curriculum kit and will be introduced during Circle Time, small groups or table tops. After teaching children about the materials, place them in your stations.
To get started, set up your room with stations. Then equip these stations with the suggested basic supplies.
Station Signs are available from Experience Early Learning.
Include these stations in your room:
Blocks
- Blocks
- Cardboard
- Wheel toys
- Assorted figurines
Science
- Objects that sink or float
- Sand & water
- Nature items
- Magnifying glass
Math
- Rulers
- Simple scale
- Sorting or counting toys
- Matching games
Technology
- CD player
- CDs
- Tablet
- Flashlight
Writing
- Writing & drawing utensils
- Paper
- Stamps
- Envelopes
- Mailbox
- Journals
Library
- Books
- Puppets
- Pillows
- ABC games
- Loose Letter Parts
Dramatic Play
- Toy kitchen & accessories
- Dress-up clothes
- Dolls
- Telephone prop
Art
- Paper
- Scissors
- Glue
- Tape
- Drawing utensils
- Collage materials
- Easel
Looking for more information on setting up your room? Register for the Purposeful Room Design training and earn CED hours.
Design Your Room Checklist
To evaluate your current room setup and to make plans for how to improve your design use the Design Your Room Checklist.
