Class Presentation

The Classroom Environment is called the “Third Teacher” – the first being parents, the second YOU. For play-based learning to be successful, that “third teacher” needs to be prepared for play, too – with materials and a classroom setup that facilitate engagement and exploration. Here’s how to make sure your early childhood learning environment is helping your students learn through play.

We make your playschool classroom more engaging by setting it up to scale – for the little learners in our rooms, not the adults. Before our students arrive, take a moment to walk around our classroom on our knees. We’ll look silly, but we’ll be doing something important – seeing the classroom setup through our students’ eyes. What catches our attention? What looks intriguing? Anything above this level is likely not going to be noticed by our students.

Remember earlier when we walked around on our knees? Could we reach what we needed? A key part of play is exploration, which also means allowing students to be responsible for getting the materials they need to play. Consider limiting what is out and accessible to allow for more independence from our students. A play-based classroom is more of a “yes” space – so make sure all the things that children can reach are part of our free-choice time.

You’ll be amazed at how capable they will be when you let them show you!

We Put the third teacher to work for us. We Create our classroom setup to encourage children to Play, Explore, and Learn. An intentional classroom leads to play. And more play equals more learning!

A Play- Based Learning Environment is more than just setting out some toys and hoping for the best. Our classrooms Setup should be Intentional, with carefully chosen learning centres arranged with thought and care. The centres we choose are just as important (maybe more) as the lessons we teach. The core centres for Play-Based Learning are:

• Dramatic Play: The dramatic play area allows for social-emotional learning, as well as retelling stories and replaying important events to understand them. (a place to pretend)
• Blocks: Blocks teach so many motor skills, as well as math concepts. (a place to construct)
• Sensory/Play Dough: Pre-writing skills are key, and these centres build the right muscles for writing by allowing little hands to manipulate, squish, pour, and squeeze. (a place to build fine motor skills)
• Art: The ultimate exploration! Students learn colour mixing, pre-writing, fine motor, and creative expression. (a place to create)

Of course, we’ll love to include a Literacy Centre, Math centre, and a Science Centre in our classroom, but we try to be creative – How can Literacy, Math, and Science overlap with these centre? Can students draw a picture of their block creation (writing skills)? Can students count out how many plates are needed to serve dinner in dramatic play (math)? Overlaps in learning will happen and should happen with your centre! That’s when the play and learning happen together.