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CHCPR502D: Organise experiences to facilitate and enhance children’s development

Establish an environment that can foster children’s development

Contents

Provide opportunities for children to plan and/or modify their environment 4

What makes a good environment? 4

Evaluating the environment 5

Meeting developmental requirements 8

Organisation of the physical environment 9

The three R’s – reduce, recycle and reuse 15

Provide opportunities for children to plan and/or modify their environment 17

Assisting children to modify the environment 18

Design environment to accommodate all aspects of children’s development and curiosity 20

Design environment to provide children with a choice of experiences 22

Environments that foster choice 22

Providing choice within the environment and setting 23

Implement strategies to engage children in activities, especially those who have difficulty entering or exiting situations 24

Provide materials that capture attention, stimulate response and engage children 28

Outdoor environment and play spaces 30

2 Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCPR502D: Reader LO 9387 © NSW DET 2010

Provide opportunities for children to plan and/or modify their environment

What makes a good environment? Before we can take on the task of evaluating our own current setting, environment and resources we need to consider the aspects that we find important to provide children with a large number and variety of opportunities to develop and enhance their learning and development. So are first undertaking is too look at some environments and gather information on what aspects are important and how we might be able to achieve these.

One thing early childhood educators are particularly good at is sharing knowledge and ideas so remember to look around at the services nearby and see how they approach environments. Ask other educators if they know of any services that have inspiring environments and see if you can visit. There are many good resources that deal with creating effective and inspiring environments in early childhood services. Check out the resources at the end of this topic.

There are also a large number of web sites that you can explore. Take a look at the following ones and where offered take the virtual tour. Consider aspects that you feel will create not only a welcoming and secure environment but one that fosters a sense of curiosity, wonder and will support children to explore and learn about their world and the people within it. Pay particular attention to what the environment looks like, the messages it gives out and how workable it is. List the items that you feel are important to create an effective early childhood environment that enables all stakeholders to feel at ease.

Mia Mia Child and Family Centre: http://www.miamia.mq.edu.au/Setting/setting.htm

UTS Child Care: http://www.childcare.uts.edu.au/index.html

Aberfoyle Park Campus Preschool: http://www.aberfopkgn.sa.edu.au/tour.html

Hilltop Children’s Centre: http://www.hilltopcc.com/documents/Logistics/physical_space.htm

Diploma of Children’s Services: CHCPR502D: Reader LO 9387 3© NSW DET 2010

http://www.hilltopcc.com/documents/Logistics/physical_space.htm

http://www.aberfopkgn.sa.edu.au/tour.html

http://www.childcare.uts.edu.au/index.html

http://www.miamia.mq.edu.au/Setting/setting.htm

Virtual tour of Hilltop: http://www.hilltopcc.com/documents/Logistics/rainbow_room_pictures.htm

Bright Horizons – Virtual Tour: http://www.brighthorizons.com/Site/pages/tour.aspx#

Project P.L.A.Y. School: http://www.projectplayschool.com/projectplayschool_009.htm

L’Atelier: www.latelier.org/door/

I hope you found these websites interesting, I know I enjoyed finding them for you to explore. These sites showcased a wide range of environments and some will appeal to you more than most. As a rather tidy person, I’m drawn to aesthetically pleasing environments with limited clutter but still provide children with the opportunity to explore, act, create, talk, sing etc rather than those with lots of resources in limited spaces – a little cluttered. But this is a personal opinion and I’m sure you have your own preferences.

Aspects that are common to these services are:

• the inclusion of real, authentic resources • the creation of a home like feel using adult and home decorator

furnishings alongside childcare furniture • the use of natural materials, • opportunities for children to access and choose materials and

resources for themselves,• using limited space to the max, • opened materials• use of colour to enhance environments • use of lighting to soften and define spaces• use of mirrors to reflect light• differing levels for play – some higher, some down low• considering the outdoor environment as well as inside• resources and furnishings reflect diversity and other cultures

Activity 1

Evaluating the environment During your course I’m sure one of the considerations in planning and implementing learning opportunities and provisions for children has been to make them aesthetically pleasing – it’s almost become the catch cry of children’s services learners. But what exactly do we mean by an aesthetically pleasing environment? Think back to the photos of environments you have explored on the web and to services where you have completed Professional Experience,


http://www.latelier.org/door/

http://www.projectplayschool.com/projectplayschool_009.htm

http://www.brighthorizons.com/Site/pages/tour.aspx

http://www.hilltopcc.com/documents/Logistics/rainbow_room_pictures.htm

worked at or just visited. I’m fairly certain that while all of these services believe that they provide an aesthetically pleasing environment but some of them may not have really appealed to you. What is really pleasing to one person may look disorganized and unattractive to others; we only need to look at fashions over time to see this.

So how do we make decisions about the aesthetics of an environment? A good starting point is to consider some of the aspects you identified in the last heading. We need to develop a set of criteria that for our service reflects what we consider to be not only a pleasing environment for children, families and staff but one that is manageable and allows for children to grow and learn. We then need to assess our service environment against these criteria.

The basis for our environment like all other aspects of the program is our image of children. If we perceive children as:

• capable and resourceful• competent investigators and explorers• creative and imaginative thinkers and problem solvers• valued and contributing members of the community• capable communicators• knowledgeable about and in awe and appreciation of the world and

nature • then we will provide them with a many and varied opportunities to

demonstrate their capabilities and competence through:• making decisions and choices to support and extend their learning

and development• expressing themselves• working collaboratively with others and considering their views• constructing knowledge about the world around them through

experimentation, posing and testing hypothesis • taking absolute delight in the unexpected• making discoveries • being curious• expressing themselves,

then the environment will need to support this.

Activity 2

Environments that inspireAs a teacher, I’ve taken many learners to visit services across a wide range of areas and on many occasions I’ve seen environments that inspire me to adapt and make changes to improve my own environments.


Many of my learners are inspired by the environments shown in books such as Designs for living and learning, the Australian ‘Just’ Series and the Mia Mia Child and Family Centre Videos. These resources show real services and how they have used their environments to inspire not only the children but the staff and families.

Activity 3

Strategies to assess the environment Let’s think about some active strategies to evaluate our environments. To do this effectively we need to consider both children and adults.

An old trick that many stores and supermarkets use is to place lollies and other child attracting items on the lower shelves, in an open space or right next to the checkout as they know children will see them and place some pressure on the adult to buy them. A clever marketing strategy – they have researched their market and considered product placement from a child’s perspective.

We should take a page out of their book and not only evaluate the environment from our perspective but that of the child.

Once you have developed the criteria you want for your environment, then you will need to check the service against it. We use checklists for assessing children’s development so why not use one to assess the environment.

Walk through the service and take a long look, what do you see?

• Is there evidence of the diversity of the children, families and community? Are there soft, home like furnishings?

• Is the entry family friendly –space to get inside, spend time, and get the pram past?

• Are all aspects of children’s development covered? • Are there areas that assist children to develop physical skills?• Do children have access to the outside as well as the inside

environment?• How is nature fostered within the environment?• Are outside opportunities authentic or are they just inside

opportunities moved outside? o Is the children’s art displayed respectfully – hopefully you won’t

see long lines or walls of similar art works where even the children can’t identify their own work.

• Is there natural lighting or soft lighting?• Does the environment have colour, texture and living things?• Is there easily accessible storage space for the children?

Later you will complete an activity where you construct an environment checklist so this is just a starting point.


Consider it from a range of perspectives – the educator, the parent and the child. There are two ways to see it from a child’s eyes. The first is to get down low (on your knees) and look from the same angle as the child. The second is to empower the children to assess the environment. Ask them what they think is needed and assist them to compile their own evaluation checklist. Finally let them assess the environment and make suggestions for change.

Another useful strategy is to choose one area at a time to evaluate and make some observations of how the children use it, how often it is used, how it looks, the types of resources there and then discuss it with other educators or families. This is often the method used in the outdoor play space and then a working bee will be organised to modify or improve it. Big changes might need some fundraising.

If you find an area children spend little time in or use inappropriately, take the time to ask the children why they stay away from it. Then brainstorm what they would like to see in the area, adaptations they think would improve it.

Keep a record of the changes made. Before and after photos are great reminders of what has been achieved.

A quick and useful strategy is to walk through and around a familiar section of the environment, looking for areas that need to be de-cluttered, tidied, organised or changed. This can be as simple as checking the notices in the entry are current and old notices are taken down. Moving a piece of furniture that might obstruct the twin pram that the new family struggle through the door with each morning. Discard old and uninspiring resources or those that are broken, chipped or no longer used.

Meeting developmental requirements In order to fully evaluate the environment, you will need to have a broad idea of the developmental skills of the children you will be working with. Before you are able to evaluate the environment in terms of developmental appropriateness, you need to be familiar with what each child will probably be doing as their skills progress.

For this section, you will need to consider the children you will be working with during your final Professional Experience placement.

You will need to revise the typical development for the age group you will be working with. It would be worthwhile to revisit some of the earlier topics and look at some of the child development texts. List some of the key aspects of development that the children you will be working with should be progressing towards.


Once you are aware of the children’s levels of development, you need to arrange the environment so that each area of development will be supported and enhanced in a balanced way. Children need the opportunity to practice and extend their skills in each area of development throughout the day.

Developmental / curriculum framework areas reflected in the environmentCheck how the environment reflects the developmental/ curriculum framework areas by noting the play space or learning area against the appropriate developmental area on the following chart. You will need to consider both indoor and outdoor environments. Map overlaps as well as obvious links e.g. puzzles are predominately a thinking and problem solving activity but also assist physical skills. Use the following table.

Once completed, look to see if there is an even spread of development / curriculum framework areas being supported and challenged, both indoor and outdoor. List any changes that could be made to enhance the children’s development.

Developmental / curriculum framework area

Indoor Outdoor Modifications

Thinking, investigating, exploring, problem solving child

Healthy, physically active child

Social child

Feeling child

Communicating child

Creative child

Spiritual and moral child

Organisation of the physical environment Once we have evaluated our environment, we can set to organising it more effectively. Most children’s services have areas allocated to particular types of


play – art area, block area, dramatic play, science and exploratory play etc. Educators and children need to organise the spaces within each area so they are easily maintained and it’s not a huge task to put things away or tidy up.

SpaceServices all have differing amounts of space that can be used for play both indoors and outdoors. The NSW Children’s Services Regulations 2004, decree how much space each service requires per child both inside and outside. This has been deemed to be the minimum amount of space necessary to provide quality care. Many services are built only to the minimum space requirements and so need to think creatively about how to use this space the most effectively. Consideration needs to be given to where to place equipment and how to make best use of it. Ideally, services should have enough space and equipment so they don’t need to pack up tables to have lunch or snacks but this is not always the case. Educators need to make choices on how to set up the environment to meet requirements of the program, provide high quality learning opportunities and meet the service philosophy.

We need to consider making the environments suit our philosophy and program. If the program has a lot of large group learning opportunities then a large space will be needed for this. Most services needing a large space rely on moving equipment out of the way or packing up most of the resources from the floor space. We need to rethink this. If educators are not careful we can spend much valuable time each day packing away, moving and unpacking equipment. Think about changing the focus to small group opportunities where the need to pack away or move furniture is diminished.

Routine times can present logistics issues – does the service have enough tables so children can have lunch without needing to use the tables where learning provisions are placed. Where do the beds go at rest time? Many services will do a big pack away so that beds can go on the main floor area. Think about placing beds around equipment, tables and cupboards. At first children may fiddle with or poke things but as they become used to the arrangement will settle down to rest. If our image of children is capable and resourceful then we need to believe this and trust them to do the right thing at rest time. Making small changes mean less moving of equipment and less packing away which results in a more consistent environment for children and more time for educators to be with them.

Consistency of surroundingsConsistency is vital in the early childhood environment; children need to be able to find the toy they were playing with yesterday so the game can be continued. When wanting to draw, they need to know where everything is kept so that valuable time is not lost looking for resources that have been moved. For many


years it was common practice in early childhood services to change the room around on a weekly or monthly basis. As well as being time consuming and a risk to our backs it meant the children were always being faced with a changing and unpredictable environment.

Think about how frustrating it is when the local supermarket reorganizes the shelves. A simple duck into the shops for bread and milk becomes a confusing, time consuming and frustrating experience. If we can be unsettled by this then constantly moving the early childhood environment will unsettle the children.

Display and access to resources Environments should be organised so that children can access materials and resources independently – many a moment is lost if children need to rely on adults for everything.

How we display materials sends unspoken messages to children. If we have most resources in cupboards with doors or curtains in from, if cupboards are turned to the wall, it tells children they are unable to use the resources and they need to get permission. There are items that are a little too risky to leave out permanently and that’s okay but children should be empowered to ask for these.

The most suitable way to display resources is on open shelving. And yes, these areas can get messy so educators need to develop strategies to keep the areas tidy and easy to maintain. Believe it or not, children will put things back where they come from if this is easily done.

Many services have different ways to arrange materials for display and access. Some of the more common ones are:

• cane baskets on open shelves that contain resources and loose parts• clean plastic containers on open shelves so children can see what’s

inside without pulling it apart• toys and resources placed directly on shelves• books displayed on a slanted book shelf• home corner resources stored in cupboards as in the home kitchen• dress ups on a moveable rail


Cane baskets on open shelves

Dress up area with hanging space and open storage

I remember one learner on the final Professional Experience placement working with a group of three year olds who loved to put things in bags and carry them around the room. They were keen to help pack away but often had so many things in the bag, they couldn’t remember where they went. Some of the most popular carry items were collections of animals. The learner sat down with the group and discussed ways they could store the animals. The general consensus was to place them in big can baskets on the shelf but one child kept asking how he would know which animal went in which basket. They group decided to place simple pictures on the baskets – they even made these – showing farm animals, zoo animals, marine animals, reptiles etc.

Another service I visited had difficulties with the large amount of construction materials they had which were used everyday by some very active builders. Getting big boxes off the shelf, moving them to a suitable area and packing away at the end of the session proved to be challenging and rather frustrating. The solution in this case was to purchase a number of large, heavy cane baskets for the construction materials to go into. These baskets were then arranged around the edge of the construction area as a low divider. A staff member cut pieces of wood to make lids and then painted a diverse range of people and children on them. The lids enabled the baskets to double as small seats as well as storage.

Resources easily accessible to children 1 Resources easily accessible to children 2

Activity 4


Under construction One of the many joys of an emergent curriculum is the opportunity for children to keep on working on items of interest and returning to extend and further develop them. The old saying is ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ well neither was the city with the interconnecting roads and bridges that children build on a regular basis.

Our organisation also needs to consider how we will deal with this. Art areas will need a space for unfinished work so children can allow it to dry and continue on later. Block construction needs to be in an area big enough to build but also where structures can be safely left. Educators are okay with this as we value the children’s work. Problems can arise with cleaners who like to have everything packed away so their job is a little easier. We need to ensure that other service workers understand the importance of leaving children’s constructions and work in place and ask that they vacuum or clean around them.

Modifying the environmentWe have reflected on your early childhood service environment and have considered how the environment reflects the backgrounds of the service users and established that the environment is developmentally appropriate for the children.

Let’s now consider how we can use this information to make changes and modifications to the environment. Remember that any modifications you make to the environment will still need to reflect the service philosophy, policies and procedures and meet licensing and accreditation guidelines.

Within most services the modifications will generally be small, large scale modifications tend to happen when there are significant concerns within the environment or there is a major change to philosophy or alterations to the service.

• Some of the areas that may be modified include:• use of play spaces – redefine areas for specific provisions or learning

areas• creating secluded spaces• provision of materials• making opportunities to extend play and projects over a longer time –

the whole day, a couple of days or a week or more• document and display the children’s work for parents and others to

appreciate• ensuring the environment reflects the approach to planning and

programming• adding materials that reflect a more inclusive and diverse approach.


It’s important for educators to be reflective when programming to provide a high quality program. By being able to modify the way we do things, we are constantly providing and environment, which is rich in possibilities and extends our understanding of the children. This is not change for change sake but change for the enrichment of children’s lives.

An effective environment will have flexibility which can be created using flexible spaces and moveable equipment. To do this we need to consider a number of aspects:

Effective environments

Play spaces at different height, levels and angles

Children love to be in spaces that are interesting, lots of children play under tables, climb into bookshelves etc. They stack things on top of each other to create height. Let's plan to include these interesting spaces.

Dedicated spaces for active play indoors

Children need to be physically active and often spend more indoors than outdoors. They need the opportunity to move and develop skills such as balance and strength.

Quiet spaces for children to work together in pairs or small groups

Quiet spaces for children to work together in pairs or small groups - These areas enable children to focus on learning opportunities, have discussions and to work co-operatively.


Spaces for quiet, individual play

Children need space to 'chill out' and reflect just as we do. Plan for little nooks and cubby spaces where children can spend some quiet time and engage in solitary play. To ensure supervision is not compromised try using transparent fabrics, plants as screens that create the illusion of being enclosed whilst still being visible

Open-ended play materials and equipment

Equipment such as boxes and pieces of fabric enable children to change the environment and extend their creativity and imagination. Provide lots of open-ended materials both indoors and outdoors.

Activity 5: Creating play spaces

The three R’s – reduce, recycle and reuseDirectors within children’s services are excellent at juggling and need to manage the service on a tight budget. I’m sure as you have looked through the suggested websites and photos you will have been gathering ideas of resources that are a must have. However, many services are not able to buy a lot of resources and need to carefully weigh up the importance and value of each resource before committing to it.

As educators we need to be aware of the resources that are available within our service and the local community and we need to apply cost reducing methods to ensure we provide children with the widest range of resources possible. This may mean sharing equipment between a couple of the rooms or making decisions to make do and save the budget for a larger purchase.

This is an exciting time to live in – our world and community is becoming very environmentally conscious and we are encouraged within our homes to reduce, recycle and reuse our waste and other unwanted resources. What a bonus to early childhood! Let’s gather in these and use them within the services.


We’ve talked about using real and authentic materials, adult sized furnishings and soft, home like furnishings so let’s apply the three R’s to get them.

Reduce Simple things like adding some corn flour or cellmix base to acrylic paints to extend their use. Not throwing out the paint in the paint pot at the end of each day – covering and reusing later.

Recycle Many art and collage materials can be gathered from recyclable materials. Loose parts such as buttons, ribbons and lids can be added to construction and home corner areas.

Things that we would throw away as they are broken – old mobile phones, clothes and shoes for dramatic play.

Reuse Use cloths that can be washed instead of throw away wipes. One of the best wind chimes I’ve seen are a collection of old metal hubcaps that are strung along a line and the children hit with a variety of old spoons. Metal spoons make a different sound to the wooden ones.

Activity 6

There are many places in the community where you can access very cheap or free resources. Families are always happy to contribute.

I often add to my collection of seed pods when I go for walks and love going to the beach where I gather interesting shells to add to the block corner. My poor husband even had to cut up pieces of tree branches to make a variety of tiny wooden logs in a selection of sizes and thicknesses for the block area. These often get moved into the play dough as well.

Activity 7

One service I know of decided they would like some knitted blankets for the children to use in home play. They approached an aged care facility in the local area, provided the wool and knitting needles and the residents made the blankets as part of their diversion therapy. The children visited the home when the blankets were ready and sang some songs. This relationship between the service and the home is still continuing.


Provide opportunities for children to plan and/or modify their environmentWithin child centred curriculum approaches such as Emergent Curriculum and Reggio Emilia the children play a major part in the planning of the program and must have opportunities to contribute to the program and planning ideas as you have discovered in the topic Design and implement programs to enhance children’s development.

These contributions extend to the environment both physical and the resources within it. This can be a little challenging for educators as not only do you need to think about planning high quality learning opportunities, you have a responsibility to keep the children safe. Occasionally educators will say, ‘I don’t think you should do that with the equipment, it’s not very safe’. Safety is a very valid consideration and we should ensure the safety of children but we also need to allow them the chance to move things around.

Let’s look at some of the ways we could assist children to plan and modify the environment safely whilst still allowing them to experience challenge.

Strategies to assist children to contribute to the planning process Educators need to provide opportunities for children to add their ideas to the planning process. Many children will spontaneously offer their opinion and ideas on how to change their environment or access different resources during their play. ‘Let’s ask if we can build a cubby’ is one example. Sensitive educators will follow the lead of children and assist them to carry through with their ideas. But we need to develop strategies where educators actively plan to gather this information. This ensures that children are provided with the opportunity to be involved in planning the environment and learning opportunities, ensures the program and environment reflects the interests of the children but also clearly says to children that they are allowed to put forward ideas and that these are valuable and worthwhile.

Here are some strategies are:

• Implement a morning meeting where the program for the day is discussed, children are asked about the provisions or learning opportunities they wish to undertake and the equipment they want to use. This should include placement of learning opportunities and equipment.

• Make a point of telling children that they are able to come to you with ideas for play or the environment.


• Encourage children to record information for things they would like to do or equipment and resources to play with through drawing etc and putting these into a suggestion type box. Educators can also record the children’s ideas in writing and place in the box.

• When planning to purchase equipment, discuss it with the children. If you are about to buy some new construction equipment, ask the children which attributes they need to have in construction equipment and then look at the catalogues with the group.

Activity 8

Assisting children to modify the environment Generally children are always modifying and adapting the environment to suit their play. Think about the children who constantly move things around. Over the years many educators have been frustrated by children taking the playdough all around the room and even outside – ‘keep it on the dough table’ is the catch cry of many.

Why do you think educators are so troubled by this practice of moving dough about and adding other materials to it?

Most of the reasons given for the valiant attempt of educators to keep the dough on the table are:

• It’s messy and will get stuck to other things or trodden into the carpet• Children could slip on it if it gets on the floor• Gets left in ovens, cupboards, trucks etc and dries out• Gets messy and needs to be replaced.

Play dough is a play material that holds great appeal to children and they enjoy using it in many different ways.

Before we look at how we can assist children to modify the environment let’s think about what things that they could modify. Expectations for possibilities also need to be guided by the children’s age groups.

Generally older children will be more easily able to modify and change their environment due to their physical skills, communication of ideas to others, expression of ideas, problem solving, awareness of safety and negotiation with others. Educators appear more at ease to allow these children to modify the environment than younger children. But we need to assist children of all ages to modify their environment.


For an infant this could be as simple as choosing the toy to play with. For toddlers it could be their constant picking up and moving of equipment.

Activity 9

Strategies to assist children modify their environmentChildren will naturally modify their environment as they play but as educators we can make this easier and safer. We should ensure that there is a wide range of materials and equipment within the room that children are able to move and a wide range of open-ended materials that can become whatever they are needed to be. As a child did you ever make a bus by lining up some chairs one behind the other and use a plastic plate (or another round object) as the steering wheel?

I saw a new version of this recently, instead of a bus it was a plane. A number of children in this particular group had recently travelled overseas and were reliving the experience with the rest of the group. They moved the chairs to create the play space they wanted.

Ensuring that equipment is easily accessible is another helpful strategy. Keeping equipment in the same place, in boxes, baskets or on shelves that children can reach will enable them to act more independently. Having to rely on an adult to get equipment from the storeroom can be frustrating.

An important strategy is to send the message both verbally and non-verbally that it’s okay to move the equipment around and to create interesting play spaces. If we say it’s okay and then glare and make comments such as ‘as long as you remember to clean it up’ says I’d prefer you didn’t move anything.

Discussing with children the need to make play spaces safe is also important; encourage them to think about things like will other children trip over it if we build the cubby here. Talk about safe heights and if they want to build higher play spaces they need to have an educator check it’s safe and supervise their play.

Listening to what the children want to do and providing prompts to how they can modify the environment. The aim is for the children to feel confident and make the changes for themselves where possible. When children have ideas ask them how they plan to go about it. Offer suggestions and definitely tell them if there idea is not safe but then ask how they could adapt it a little to make it safer.

Activity 10


Design environment to accommodate all aspects of children’s development and curiosity

Earlier in this topic we have discussed the need for children to be able to act on and modify their environment and to make choices about the play and resources used. Emergent programs come from the actions and ideas of the children within the service as well as the educator reflecting on what the children are doing and interested in and how to support and extend these.

The play spaces need to be open-ended so that children can mould them to fit their particular play and learning situation. Open-ended spaces encourage creativity, imagination, exploration and problem-solving. There are many ways to use equipment and space and as educators we need to support children to explore these. Children will discover new ways to use equipment, analyse equipment and spaces and propose ways to use them within their play, they will solve complex problems and come up with alternatives as needed. Educators need to trust that children are capable and can manage.

When planning play spaces we need to consider all the developmental areas and ensure that we provide opportunities and resources to enhance each area.

Earlier in the topic we looked at a number of environments that inspire not only the children but the educators. Read the following article on Aesthetic Codes in Early Childhood Classrooms to refresh your memory on some of the important characteristics.

http://www.designshare.com/Research/Tarr/Aesthetic_Codes_1.htm

Open-ended space 1 Open-ended space 2


http://www.designshare.com/Research/Tarr/Aesthetic_Codes_1.htm

When planning settings to capture children’s curiosity and imagination we need to look at the world from the child’s perspective. Children are intrigued by the natural world, small objects, objects with interesting shapes, reflective surfaces, machinery and objects with moving parts or cogs, interesting sounds, water, movement, light and colour, treasures, beads, tree decorations, things that engage their senses and this list goes on. Our environments should contain these aspects.

Activity 11

Children need to be able to act on the environment and have a range of hands on materials and resources that they can use and explore. When placing interesting collections of objects together as part of a play space remember to include some books or other resource materials that will provide new information for the children and extend their learning.

Provide opportunities for children to be involved in projects and investigations and support these using appropriate resources. I’ve heard some people within children’s services say that emergent curriculum is easy and you don’t need to do much planning just let the children do what they want. But this definitely is not the case emergent and project based learning requires planning by educators and collecting, providing and arranging resources to support this learning is quite challenging.


Design environment to provide children with a choice of experiences

Environments that foster choice Children need the opportunity to make choices and decisions about who they play with, the materials and resources they want to use and the provisions they prefer to take part in. These choices need to be real. Offering a child the chance to do a puzzle or a painting is not really a choice, it’s about asking them to pick from a very limited selection.

The environment should be set up so the children can make real and meaningful choices about their day and play opportunities.

Think about some of the choices that we as adults make. Imagine that its time to buy some new plates and cups. You go along to the local home wares shop and are immediately confronted with plates and cups in many shapes, sizes and colours. There is a large range to choose from and they are displayed beautifully. Making a choice is part of the shopping experience. Instead of buying the plain white round plates, you might decide to get the square ones in a range of colours. The way they were displayed helped you to see what is available and allows you to choose.

We need to arrange our environments for children in much the same way. They need to be organised and easily seen while at the same time looking attractive and interesting. There is no reason why spaces for children can’t be beautiful.

Children make choices not only on what they will play with but how they will arrange it. Remember back to building cities and roads from blocks or even rearranging the doll’s house. Choices of materials to build cubbies – children in urban areas may build cubbies within their house or apartment using blankets and sheets etc where children in rural settings may have access to tree branches, pieces of wood, bits of old fencing. Some of my cubbies were made from old fridge boxes. Children need to be able to act on the environment and move things around to support their play.

Activity 12


Providing choice within the environment and settingProviding children with choice is vital. Educators need to provide children with many opportunities to make choices about their learning, their play and the equipment and resources to use.

We covered providing choice in the environment back in learning outcome two - Evaluate and modify settings, environments and resources to ensure all aspects of children’s development and learning are fostered and provide children with choices so let’s revise this briefly.

These choices can be simple or complex from choosing which bike to ride to creating a game that requires a large amount of equipment and materials.

Children need to be supported in making choices for their play and also in accepting responsibility for these choices. When children choose to put all the Lego blocks onto the floor then they need to be responsible to pack them away when finished. In environments where play and the right to make play choices are respected, children learn to take responsibility for their actions.

Educators can support children’s choices by providing an environment where equipment and resources are easily accessible, the environment is organised so children can easily put equipment away when they have finished with it. Providing lots of open-ended materials so they can become anything the children need. It doesn’t mater that you don’t have superhero capes if you have some long pieces of fabric that can become one. These resources need to be organised so that children are not always dependent on adults to get things for them.

Activity 13


Implement strategies to engage children in activities, especially those who have difficulty entering or exiting situations

Within a group there are always children at different stages of play no matter their age. Some children feel confident entering play and others may find it challenging. There are children who don’t know what to play with or have difficulty engaging in self-directed play. These are the children who are often asking the educators what they can play with, what can they do? We need to think about how we can support these children in play as well as other children in the group.

You will have explored assisting children to enter play in earlier topics so let’s look at how we could set up the environment to assist this process.

One strategy is to make play inviting – set up the provision and the environment to entice children. Create special interest areas where children can focus on some resources that you have set up, as the children become more involved with the play, add new props and assist them to extend their ideas. Set up a space within the room or the service entry where you put intriguing and unusually items to explore – you will find that the children will gravitate to this area to see what is there today. Leave these items out for a period of time so children have the opportunity to explore them fully.

Set up specific invitations to learn that are aesthetically pleasing and have a variety of open ended materials to play and create with. This is not restricted to toys but you can also make the art and block areas look more inviting. Children feel drawn to areas that look attractive and have many different things to use and explore.


Interesting objects 1

Interesting objects 2

Another approach to assist children to engage in play is to demonstrate how to use the equipment or resources. Be involved in the play with them – remember not to take over.

It’s also useful to set up equipment to be used by small groups of children rather than individual play. Place two chairs side by side at a play space so children know that two people can play there.

Place painting easels next to each other so that children can talk to each other and share ideas as they are painting. They can look at each other’s paintings and this can provide a starting point for a conversation.

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Loose parts and open-ended resources When thinking about play and children’s environments I often think back to my own experiences as a child or to the games my own children enjoyed playing. We were always encouraged to play outside and to make our own toys and equipment for games. Much of this was created with simple things collected from the environment. I remember once that my mother was surprised by the delivery of a large floral arrangement like the ones we had seen in the florist’s window. This sparked a game of florists and we collected and delivered flowers for days on end. After a few days we were banned from picking the flowers in the garden (there weren’t many left then) and needed to think creatively in order to continue the game. Some of our new flowers were leaves (the street trees provided a great deal of these), a collection of wonderful fluffy feather dusters, some old knitting needles and rolled up paper cones stuffed with paper.

Think back to your childhood and list some of the things that you used as play props.


I bet your list includes collections of rocks, leaves, shells, old tins and jars, lids, buttons, pieces of material or a collection of hankies, pieces of wood, dolly pegs, shiny paper, egg cartons, boxes and probably many more.

These items are what we refer to as ‘loose parts’. They are open-ended materials that can be used to transform and change play and experiences using your imagination and creativity. Children will use loose parts as props to extend and support their play and investigation of their world.

Loose parts should include many natural materials as well as man made materials.

Natural loose parts

Being open-ended (no specific purpose in play or a wide range of purposes) they are flexible and can become whatever the children need them to be. A collection of milk bottle tops can be used by children as:

• money at their shop• food for their picnic • water bowls for the doll house dogs• edges around a building• a fence to keep the farm animals in• a trail leading to a treasure• decorations for the sand castle• fairy swimming pools,

and many other things limited only by our imagination

We need to include collections of loose parts within the environment so that children can use them within their play. This will allow them to use their imaginations, be creative and problem solve. They will also assist in developing their sense of wonder and beauty in the environment.

Try storing them in baskets on shelves near the play equipment. Many services have collections of loose parts in baskets on the shelves with the blocks.

Loose parts can be collected from a wide range of areas for little or no cost. Encourage families to bring in items you are looking for. They can also be bought for low cost at some of the $2 or liquidation shops – things like pretty polished stones, glass nuggets (used in vases) and small organza bags. I have a few old


tyres and some hubcaps that get turned into many things. These were given to me after I made a few enquires at the local auto wrecker.

Big loose parts Small loose parts

Earlier we discussed visiting op shops to gather resources and this can be a good place to source loose parts. Many have a big container of buttons that they cut off clothes that are destined to become rags. Make friends with the workers in these shops and often they will save interesting things for you or look out for a special treasure.

Activity 15


Provide materials that capture attention, stimulate response and engage children

Over the years I’ve been working with children, I have seen many different resources and odd things capture the interest and imagination of the children.

We need to ensure that our environments are full of opportunities for children to go ‘wow – look at that’ or to want to touch, hold, manipulate, use materials. Again this is an area that appears to be limitless – children are fascinated by many things, sometimes simple and sometimes unusual.

For example: Ryan, 18months, spent a glorious 15 minutes dropping small rocks into a flower pot that was about half full with water that he had found at the edge of the garden. He listened to the splashing, he dropped them from full height when standing and from a low level when sitting, he took them from the water and marveled at how they sparkled when wet, he wriggled his fingers in the water and he laughed and chuckled the whole time. Ryan found some wonder in very simple materials.

Many children are interested in reflective materials such as mirrors, crystals and beaded curtains. These can be hung in our rooms to make dividers or to hide old walls. Try putting them somewhere where they will catch the light and maybe even leave a reflection on the wall. Hang crystals from windows and create rainbows on the walls, floor, and ceiling.

Try putting plastic mirrors in the bottom of the water play tray or on a table with pretty stones / shells for patterning.

Use the natural world around us and provide children with opportunities to notice natural things such as light shining through the window to create rainbows, reflections and shadows. Make sure you have lots of natural lighting in the room and position equipment to make the most of this.

Services that follow a Reggio Emilia approach may use overhead projectors to create patterns, shapes, shadows, reflect objects etc. Whilst this type of equipment may have some safety issues it is invaluable in capturing interest and engaging children. Children are able to competently use a wide range of


equipment and we should assist them to do this. Remember to supervise any equipment that has the potential to be a hazard.

Provide opportunities for children to be actively engaged in the natural world outside. Spend time looking in the yard for simple things like bugs and how the grass moves in the wind. Remember that the outdoors environment is just as important as inside – learning takes place everywhere.

Creative outdoor environment Aesthetic environment

Interesting indoor environment Enhancing the sandpit

To create this feeling of wonder and curiosity within the environment you need to include and consider the following aspects:

• opportunities for children to engage their senses • creating movement and motion • opportunities to see and explore light and colour• include sound within the environment• provide treasures for children to find, use, investigate, for example:

to engage the senses: grow herbs in the garden and have children pick them for use in lunches etc, smell of food cooking in the kitchen.

for movement and motion: open the windows and let the wind gently blow, hang wind socks in the trees

for light and colour: place crystals in the windows to capture light, pieces of cellophane for children to look through


for sound: gentle wind chimes in the yard or on verandah, trickling water in a fountain,

treasures: place random boxes around the room with interesting items for children to explore, putting the farm animals into the pot plants.

Outdoor environment and play spaces As we noted earlier in the topic, outdoor environments is an area many services neglect to plan for. It seems to be a space where the children can go and engage in gross motor play but outdoors is much more than gross motor. As educators we need to think about the outdoor space and plan for it.

We need to consider how outdoor play can be fostered in its own right and is not just an extension of inside, with some inside activities moved into the yard.

Connecting children to the earth Outdoor play provides us with the opportunity to foster children’s connection to the earth and an appreciation of nature and the world around us. Look at the section in the NSW Curriculum Framework on the Spiritual and Moral Child at http://www.community.nsw.gov.au/documents/childcare_framework.pdf

Many educators and learners find this particular area of the child a challenge but think about it in connection with creating a sense of appreciation of the world and this connection to the earth (children seek out a connection to the earth from an early age with explorations of water, dirt and other natural materials). We need to foster this connection, as unfortunately not all children get the opportunity to play in a natural environment. Many services now even have artificial grass so children may not even know how it feels to sit on the grass and have it tickle and scratch your legs.

Consider having animals for the children to care for in the outdoor space – on no, I can hear the chorus of shock, horror, ‘the regulations won’t allow us to do that’. Yes they will. You need to think carefully about making the areas for the animals safe (sometimes we need to protect the animals from the children rather than the other way around), the type of animals you are going to have and the care issues. I have seen many animals cared for very happily and safely in services, these range from fish and birds, to ducks and chickens, tortoises, rabbits, guinea pigs. Children learn many things from the care of animals – responsibility, types of food they can eat and why, how to keep animals healthy, companionship, gentleness, about life and death as well as about the animal itself.


Children learn many things from the care of animals

Other ways to help children connect to the earth and the natural world is the care of gardens. They learn about being self sufficient and sources of food, that it’s important to look after the world around us. They develop a sense of environmental responsibility. First steps at gardening for younger children can be simply watering with a watering can to the more complex task of planting and caring for seeds.

Authentic outdoor resources and settings We’ve discussed providing children with authentic materials – real pots and pans to play with, Tupperware containers etc as part of the service equipment and we now need to think about providing authentic materials outside. We need to choose real things for the children to play with and they should also reflect real outdoor pursuits, for example many services provide some cooking equipment in the sandpit such as a stove, pots and pans but do we really cook on a stove outside? No, the outside cooking happens on a BBQ. So when we’re planning for outside let’s think about some real things that take place outside that we could use to foster children’s play.

Activity 16

Click on the link below and see some learning spaces this preschool has created: http://www.projectplayschool.com/projectplayschool_020.htm

Outdoors is an important area, so remember to think about it and find new opportunities to extend play rather than just gross motor and sand play.


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