Home / Educators / Professional Development (3 - 5 YEARS) / Creating the Learning Environment
- Introduction
- Plan and Organize the Space
- Establish Routines
- Foster Exploration
- Try It
- Wrap Up
- Standards
- cognitive development: the process of knowing, thinking, reasoning, and remembering
- emotional development: the ability to recognize, identify, produce, and respond to emotions in yourself or others
- language/linguistic development: the process of developing language skills to understand when others speak and to speak and engage in conversation
- physical development: the ability to perform physical activities that require motor skills like running, jumping, and climbing
- self-regulation: regulating or controlling one’s emotions, thinking, and behavior
- social competencies: the skills needed for successful social interaction; in young children these include making simple decisions, interacting with others in productive ways, and being able to resolve conflicts in appropriate ways.
- social development: the ability to use appropriate social skills to communicate and interact with others
Introduction
Before watching this video, read the text below. When instructed, watch the video from the beginning to end.
An effective learning environment supports children’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and language development. You can create an environment in which young children thrive by offering purposeful spaces and materials, incorporating daily routines, and providing opportunities for exploration.
In this 45-minute, self-paced tutorial, you will explore best practices in creating a learning environment that supports children’s social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and language development. Three short videos will show seasoned educators using best practices in action. After watching each video, you’ll review and reflect on what you’ve seen and heard.
During this tutorial, you will:
- Explore best practices in creating an early learning environment that fosters children’s developmental growth.
- Learn how to design a learning environment that prompts children to explore, experiment, and interact in different ways.
- Examine how established routines support children’s developmental growth.
- Discover how to use activities, materials, and language to promote children’s exploration.
- Plan how to apply what you’ve learned to your current practices.
First, do a self-assessment to discover what your strengths are and to identify specific skills you'd like to work on.
- Download and print the Self-Assessment (PDF).
- Complete the first half now, before you begin the training.
- Save the sheet with your answers. At the end of the training, you'll complete the second half, compare your "before" and "after" responses, and find out how far you've progressed.
Watch an overview of Creating the Learning Environment featuring Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, Associate Professor of Education at Wheelock College in Boston, MA.
Download and print the Learning Log (PDF). Use it during the tutorial to answer questions, reflect upon the materials presented, and jot down ideas and insights about how to apply what you have learned to your own learning environment.