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Setting Up the Classroom - Day Care CenterDaycare licensees and administrators must give special attention to preschool day care classroom layout before the beginning of each school year. The preschool classroom is the child’s first introduction to the world of education hence making a layout that will be attractive and enjoyable to the child will be very important. A good classroom layout could make the child’s introduction to education a fun learning experience or a nightmare that could have a lasting negative effect. A good first impression of the school’s layout could help develop in a child a set of positive feelings and associations that will help carry them through in a lifetime of learning. In addition, the classroom must provide a worthwhile learning and playing experience that will help prevent a separation anxiety disorder on the children as they were left on the daycare center by their parents. One fact that daycare licensees and administrators must always consider is that preschoolers are very active - they are always moving - so having a chaotic environment is always a possibility. Planning the classroom layout to prevent this chaotic environment is both a challenge and a necessity if they want to keep the interest of the children and at the same time guarantee their safety. The old baby monitors only let us hear if our baby was making sounds, like the famous cry whenever they wake up from their nap; however, we were unable to see them. We constantly have to walk into the room, staying quiet, and look at them to make sure that they are fine when they are not making any noise. The most common used natural fabric, in these blankets, is cotton. Cotton allows very little elasticity and the finished blanket formed with cotton is comfortable for the child. Moreover, cotton helps to maintain warmth for the child as well as air can flow easily. So, this helps to keep the baby away from any skin harm or rash that may occur due to the use of synthetic material in blankets. Classroom division need not be uniform in size as different activities may require varied space requirements. Dramatic play areas are expected to be bigger in size than music area. Also, some kind of classroom activities may be noisier than others hence it will be necessary that these are assigned areas quite far from the area that will be assigned to quiet activities like the reading area. The music area must not be put very close to the dramatic area as the sound will interfere with the activities being undertaken in the dramatic area. Art and reading areas must be assigned to the quieter side of the classroom as these will need a lot of concentration on the part of the children and any noise or music could ruin their concentration. It is important to clearly mark the boundaries of the different areas of the classroom. Divisions could be in the form of shelves or by putting color duct tape on the floor in order to delineate assigned activity areas. The center of the classroom must be cleared of any furniture or large objects so it can be utilized as an assembly area of the students every time there is a need for them to be gathered together for an activity such as story-telling or show-and-tell. This area is also where students can form into a large circle when they need to be interacting with each other. The walls of the preschool classroom may be utilized for different purposes such as decoration, show area of the children’s work, bulletin board, charts, and an attendance board with the pictures of each child enrolled in the particular class. Sections of the classroom must be clearly identified usually by hanging signs that will show which area is to be used for a particular purpose. The children may not be able to read yet but they can be trained to recognize signs that will lead them to section where they must go for a particular activity Resource Author Francisco R. Higueras
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