Constructive Play And Designing Learning Environments For Children

Overview of constructive play

According to Goodman (1994) analysis found out that outstanding method of teaching young children will be balanced between the children exposed to play and their active content understanding. Globally the professional teachers who are responsible for teaching younger children are all trained to incorporate and develop comprehended theories that are subjected to play, and use the same context to give instruction to the young children and also assess them on the same. The teachers understands the essential roles children plays will impart in all perspectives areas that includes emotional, social, mentally and physical fitness in general.  Therefore, it is always advisable that the teachers to the young children have strong background with their academic studies of play, for them to be able to evaluate problems and provide supporting services to children who faces some difficulties in playing, example being physical disable children.

An organized arranged environment has the ability to widely improve the development of children play and learning.  It simplifies the management of children in classrooms and helps in executing the objectives and goals of the curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2017). The outline arrangement of the physical environment will influence the general perspective on how the children will be feeling, acting and also behaving.  The children’s growth and their development based on the activities they participate in and materials they will be exposed to will be influenced by the physical environment playing area (DeViney, 2010). The indoor environment designed for playing activities will take a fundamental role the children language interactions and their social interaction. Therefore, the physical environment should be designed in such a manner that it will provide comfort ability, mental development through existence of variety of manipulative materials, emotional, social and physical fitness.

The outlook on how the physical environment or classroom is dependable on the teacher’s viewpoint and the objective the teacher wants to accomplish on his or her learners (Bruce, 2011), therefore, the arrangement of the room and how the instruction materials will be placed will be different  based on the teachers philosophy and objectives, however, it will be expected that the fundamental features are placed in every classroom (Hand and Nourot, 1999).

Materials that the children will use in playing are important to help them in multiple perspective development, which includes their physical fitness, their eloquent language, their emotional and social lives, teachers are required to be aware on the type of materials will require to play with based on their age, similarly, they are also supposed to be cognitive with type of the furniture the children will feel comfortable with based to the age. The following table shows learning material and centers that primary and preschool teachers are expected to use in their classroom.

Categories Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Materials and equipment
Blocks	· Accessories of blocks such as cars, people or even safety signs · Durable wooden vehicles · Cubes and small blocks which are coloured
Art	· Brushes · Liquid paints · Crayons · Drawing paper · Fabric scraps · Coloured chalks
Library	· Writing materials like markers · Recording tapes · Books · Magazines · computers
Manipulative	· strings and beads · puzzles · board games · bristle blocks
Physical education	· Beam balance · Fabric tunnels · Ropes · Steps

Research has clearly indicated that the arrangement of the classroom and its appearance will significantly affect the behavioral characteristics for both the adults’ and children.  Therefore the following should always be considered while setting up the classroom;

1. The learning centers  should be having several multiples activities
2. The classrooms should have enough natural light which reduces the lighting energy that could be used
3. Separate the noisy and quite places to ensure comfort ability on while participating in any activities based on the appropriate location.  

Provision of safe environment will facilitate children behaviors and their explorations in each activities, it is of great importance then to always consider safety of the children as the first priority to any learning center.  Parents have a lot of expectation when take their children to the learning centers the children’s teachers will be monitoring and supervising activities they participate in while playing, with a wide picture of providing safety (Wellhousen, 2002).  To avoid occurrence of any injuries and children confrontation, then a separate area of play should be considered based on the children’s age.

1. Fire safety
2. Proper sanitation facilities
3. Enough natural lighting to the room, comfortable classroom temperature and proper ventilation installation in the classroom.

Importance for physical environment

Figure 1: indoor floor plan [Nourot, Scales, and Alward, 2005]

Description of the indoor environment plan

The floor plan has been taken the way is shown to specify the location of all the facilities using compass directions, the center surface will have three table with a maximum of eight chairs each, this is an area where children will form small groups to take snacks if they are hungry, on the East side, discovery table and discovery books on the shelves that portrays a wide science concept application, on the Northern East the sinks have been installed to serve the children while they are interacting with activities in discovery sections and also while they will be on the art section that is located in North west, on  West part of this floor plant arrangement of manipulative and blocks object together with section of playing with the blocks have been included, on the area found on South East  at the Conner will have library section and next to the library we will have the teacher’s desk, it is at this point that the teacher can monitor and supervise all the activities taking place throughout the floor. The south west section will have dramatic area.

Well-equipped and organized indoor environment will have direct influence on the quality of children’s development and learning, the well-equipped indoor environment should be comfortable, aesthetic, interesting and appropriate for children of age between five to eight (  .

Research as indicated that if all the criteria will be implemented then most of the children will embrace it as their second home, where they are able eat, play, learn and sometime sleep. The outlook of the indoor planned environment should be aesthetic and should also make the children feel they are secured, safe and happy with the environment, and also ensure that children will gain confident on playing and learning.

The indoor space will require detailed planning and should always be flexible with an aim of accommodating changes on children needs and interest.  The books that will be placed on this classrooms need to be attractive to reflect fascinations of the children, all resources that the children may be requiring to interact with be accessible to them. Example is shown on the floor plan where the children can easily access manipulative blocks, move to circle time block play and other places without restrictions.

The reading section should be separated entirely from the playing sections in order to prevent the children from being destructed, and ensuring that peaceful concentration and understanding of the children is completely achieved. The following should always be considered in designing the reading sections;

The area of the storing books always is located at the corner at a distance from noise, the children will only love the books if they will be provided an attractive comfortable learning place. The children will need a quiet place where they can move to during the day.

The science area will be incorporated with wet areas since science is taken as a process of investigation, the area can too be fixed with magnifying glasses, and pulley and even funnels, the children while in this section should be instinctively introduced to nature.

Learning environments

The wet area should always be near a sink since at the end of the day the children will end up dirtying themselves and they will require cleaning their hands.

The area will require a working bench where the children will be constructing using wood and other recycling materials (Casey, 2010), the tools used here should real and not imaginary tools. The working bench should be supervised to prevent children from getting injured.

Figure 2: workshop area [Nourot, Scales, and Alward, 2005]

The area should be located near the sink and the drawing materials should be available,  the art will enhance the student creativity which at the end will build the child confidence and self-esteem, it is through art that the children will start discovering that if I mix two different colours then the end colour will be this.

The outdoor environment comprises of area that outside on a classroom or building, it can also be taken as open environment; the group of student who may be allowed to participate in playing activities under outdoor environment includes early childhood at an age bracket of three to five (Department of Education and Training, Victoria, 2016). The aim of the children of this age bracket to be allowed to play outside is that they require minimal monitoring and supervision, it is at this environment that children will shout, vigorously play and also participate in messy projects and they can also interact with natural ecosystem like animals and plants (Greenman, 2007). The research has also helped in identifying several benefits of children playing outside which includes;

1. Improvement in physical health
2. Increase in mental ability
3. Eloquent language
4. Improves creativity
5. Releases stress

Figure 3 : outdoor environment plan [Nourot, Scales, and Alward, 2005]

The area has been subdivided into sections of play, which comprises of dramatic area where children can play inside some structured constructed houses, manipulative section where there will be availability of playing tools, the playground which is at the center of the plan layout for playing with balls and also physical sections where the beam balance, steps, tunnels and even playing ropes will be found.

The outdoor playing environment will have different outlook depending on the curriculum program and objectivity of the teacher. One may have an open green space, garden or even wooden areas, whereas others will only have paved areas.

The overall importance of outdoor environment is to ensure students remain active throughout and give them a break from indoors, it is advisable then the outdoor should well designed at safety measures undertaken to prevent children’s accident from occurring.

The design should include the following criteria’s;

1. The space should be adequate to ensure that all the children have a place they will play to
2. Provision of shelter place that are able to provide shade
3. The area should be close to bathrooms
4. The area should be easily accessed from the indoors

The area should be design almost similar to indoor environment and should be able to support the children playing activities, this area may include quite section, manipulative sections, dramatic section and art sections in order to promote an outdoor engagements.

Figure 4: outdoor learning area

Categories	Materials and equipment
Quite area	· Painting materials · Reading articles · Blankets
Art	· Brushes · Liquid paints · Crayons · Drawing paper · Fabric scraps
Dramatic	· Playing house · Sands · Tools
Manipulative	· construction tools · writing materials
Physical education	· Beam balance · Fabric tunnels · Ropes · Steps · Playing ground · Playing balls

The planning activities outside should be a supplement to activities of indoor environments, where what was learn theoretical indoors can now be physically be seen and interacted with, this includes several lessons fields;

Subject	Activities
Science	Using the outdoor environment to explain the scientific concepts like water cycles
Mathematics	Using the outdoor environment to measure diameter of trees or any other object
Creative writing	Using outdoor environment to enhance understanding of nature, example observing different types of clouds
Language	Improve student language eloquence by explaining to them for example about the sun that they observe in lined with evaporation topic

Activities	Cost
1. Security deposit	$8000
2. Equipment
Games	$50,000
Furniture	$7,000
Computers	$20,000
School telephone	$1000
Office Misc. equipment	$1,500
3. Working capital 4. License and permits	$45000 $1200
5. Inventory	$7,000
6. Misc.	$20,000
Total investment	$160,700

In conclusion, it is clear that planning for environmental section play in order to maximize the activities the children need to participate in while playing is challenging. It is advisable that sharp playing materials should place away from the children since they are most likely going to cause accident with them, either by injuring themselves or others. However, exposure to the environmental play will affect the children interaction with the learning activities and this are always achievable. The creativity of children will help simplify complex learning activities.

Reference

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2017). Australian                      Curriculum: F-10 overview: Personalised learning v.8.3. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/studentdiversity/student-diversity-advice-personalised-learning

Bruce, T. (2011). Cultivating creativity for babies, toddlers and young children (2nd ed.). Abingdon, Ox: Hodder Education.

Casey, T. (2010). Inclusive play practical strategies for children from birth to eight (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

Department of Education and Training, Victoria (2016, July 18). VEYLDF Practice Principles – Integrated Teaching and Learning Approaches . Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__MSg1X3TVE

DeViney, J. (2010). Inspiring spaces for young children. Silver Spring, MD: Gryphon House

Holiday-Goodman, M., Lively, B. T., Nemire, R., & Mullin, J. (1994). Development of a Teaching Module on Written and Verbal Communication Skills1, 2. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 58, 257.

Hand, A. J., & Nourot, P. M. (1999). First Class: A Guide for Early Primary Education. Preschool-Kindergarten-First Grade. CDE Press, Sales Office, California Department of Education, PO Box 271, Sacramento, CA 95812-0271 (Item Number 1475, $12.50 plus $4.95 shipping and handling).

Wellhousen, K. (2002). Outdoor play, every day: Innovative play concepts for early childhood. Cengage Learning.