3.A Designing Enriched Learning Environments

3.A.01
Teaching staff, program staff, or both work as a team to implement daily teaching and learning activities, including Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs), Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), and other individual plans as needed.
In the Tree House, teachers, teaching assistants, and specialists work as a team to plan and implement a curriculum based on the needs and interests of the children. Staff meet on a weekly basis to brainstorm learning activities for the current investigation. Support staff provide insight into creating an environment in which children of varying abilities can access these activities. Special Education Teaching Assistants (SETAs) provide strategies that may facilitate learning in the particular child they are working with as well as supporting teachers in the embedding of individuals goals throughout the daily routine.

Minutes from a Team Meeting are available: Here
Members of the support team work with children in the classroom environment and therefore are readily available to provide coaching and model strategies for teachers and SETAs. This creates a consistent opportunity for all classroom staff to become knowledgeable in the invention of the children with special needs, as well as providing important strategies which benefit all children.



3.A.06
a.Teachers create classroom displays that help children reflect on and extend their learning.
b.They ensure that children's recent works predominate in classroom displays (e.g., art, emergent writing, graphic representation, and three-dimensional creations) and that
c.some displays are at children's eye level.
The classroom is a gallery in constant rotation of past, present, and in progress work. Children are given opportunities to express their learning and ideas through writing, drawing, painting, collage, sculpture, and building three-dimensional structures.


(a,b,c) For example, when we studied Trees and Frogs, the teachers created "investigation books" for the children to look through both during and after the investigations for the children to reflect what they learned. The books included photos and documentation of all the activities included in each of the investigations.  They are at eye level for the children to take off and read at their leisure.

(b,c) Recently, when we studied Winter, we displayed: 3 dimensional clay snowman,

(b,c) a mitten and glove graphing activity

Winter Web

(b,c) And a Winter Web with questions. All of these displays were at eye level for the children to observe or read.











3.A.07
Teaching staff and children work together to arrange classroom materials in predictable ways so children know where to find things and where to put them away.
The Tree House is set up in centers which are clearly defined and labeled. Places for materials are also clearly labeled so that children are able to effectively help at clean up time. When materials are moved or reorganized, children are given an "orientation" to the area.

3.B Creating Caring Communities for Learning

3.B.02 Teaching staff create and maintain a setting in which children of differing abilities can progress, with guidance, toward increasing levels of
a.autonomy
b.responsibility, and
c.empathy.


(a) In the Tree House, children are consistently supported in the development of a strong sense of self efficacy and independence. They are motivated to make decisions concerning their classroom, such as but not limited to topics of investigations, rules, changes in the daily schedule, and books to read.

(b) Children's sense of responsibility and independence is fostered by weekly jobs, and the continued reinforcement of each child's ownership of the classroom. They are encouraged to care for their belongings as well as treating the classroom materials with respect.

(c) Lastly, our classroom community supports inclusion. The children learn by example from their teachers to help each other during learning experiences as well as during emotional situations.

(a,b) Our Job Chart lists the classroom jobs and has the children's pictures and names under their corresponding job. It changes weekly and fosters responsibility and autonomy by allowing the children to complete their jobs for the coming week, either independently or with the support necessary for each individual child.

(a) The children create their own Fire Safety Plan.  This allows them to have ownership of a situation that may be scary for some of them.  Also, it helps them to recognize their responsibility of stopping and listening to teachers during a fire drill.

(a,b) We have picture schedules that allow children to be independently responsible for belongings and completing routines.

(c) We encourage children to help each other and comfort each other when they are experiencing difficult situations.  In this pic, one friend is holding ice on another child's knee after she fell down. 

3.B.11
Teaching staff create a climate of mutual respect for children by being interested in their
a.ideas,
b.experiences, and
c.products.

Children's interests and ideas are in the forefront of the Tree House curriculum. The curriculum is emergent, therefore, all of the content comes from the interests of the children. We listen to their conversations and watch what they are playing and develop an investigation from their ideas.  Teaching staff and children are partners in the learning process. Adults explore and discover alongside their students. There is an air of respect between teachers and children which demonstrates itself through interactions with the children and collaboration on learning activities.

(a) Teachers understand that the children would be motivated to complete activities if it interests them.  This is why our investigations are centered around their interests and ideas.  Also, individual activities are motivating if it involves their ideas.  This activity was a story writing activity about snow, however, the child chose to write about his family. The teacher allowed the change in idea to motivate the child to complete the activity successfully. 

(b) We believe that we learn along side of the children.  In this photo, a teacher is experiencing the paper mache activity with a child.  She is feeling the sticky substance, talking about it with him.  As co-learners we develop mutual respect for the individual experiences each child has and the learning that occurs.

(c) One of our practices is to allow the children to "explain" their drawings and pictures.  Sometimes this happens privately with a teacher or in a group setting with all the children.

(a) In this photo, a teacher is researching different kinds of trees on the computer with the children. They wanted to find out about the tree located in our playground and came up with the idea of "looking on the computer".

(c) Teachers also demonstrate an interest in children's products as they are being made.  Conversations around the process of the product would include but are not limited to questions such as "Tell me what you are making/drawing?" or"Why did you choose that color?"

3.D Using Time, Grouping and Routines to Achieve Learning Goals

3.D.04
Teaching staff offer children opportunities to interact with children of various ages.
The classrooms at the Children's Center offer within themselves multi-age grouping. At any given time the children in the Tree House are aged 3-5 years old.
Teaching staff frequently work with other age level professionals in the building to provide children opportunity outside of their own classroom. For example, a Toddler classroom once joined us to make strawberry and banana smoothies.

We also held a PM snack picnic where the children invited their toddler friends to join us for lots of fun and games.


In addition, children have daily experiences with their younger peers out on the playground.

3.D.05
Teachers plan for children to revisit experiences and materials over periods of
a.days,
b.weeks, and
c.months.
Our investigations can last as short as a few weeks to as long as a few months.  Some planned activities may last the entire span of the investigation.  A sample of a weekly activity plan is here. Children are able to revisit their experiences through sharing at group time, planned work-time activities, and stories. Artwork is displayed at the child's level and is open for revisions and additions. Structures can be placed on a "saving shelf" for admiring and completing at a later time.

(a) Before lunch, we always discuss the different activities we experienced during the morning.

(a) Also, we revisit our artwork and constructions throughout the day.  We also give opportunities for children to comment on each others' work.

(b, c) Displays are low for children to revisit the activity or experience over the course of weeks and months.

(a, b, c) Our story corner allows the children to revisit stories they wrote or experiences we documented over a period of days, weeks and months.

(a,b) Children are allowed to save work or constructions and revisit them daily to add or change daily or over the course of the week.

3.D.10
Teachers organize time and space on a daily basis to allow children to work or play
a.individually and
b.in pairs,
c.to come together in small groups, and
d.to engage as a whole group.
The Tree House schedule allows for individual work, work in pairs, small groups, or whole group activities.
Choice time allows children to choose what they independently want to do. Some children choose to work in a group or in pairs on building or dramatic play. Others may choose to paint or draw on their own.

(b) During Choice time, two children recreating a dinosaur museum after a class trip to The Morris Museum to view a dinosaur exhibit.

(a) At the same time, one child recreating the same experience. The construction area is large enough to accommodate several children working either individually, in pairs or a small group.

(a) Work-time is another classroom routine that allows for individual work to be completed. The classroom, art studio and sometimes the hallway are all utilized to allow enough space for individual and small group activities.

(a)Another example of individual work.  She is completing an observation/drawing activity planned for Work-time.

(d) Group time allows for the entire class to come together and talk about the current investigation, have show and tell, read stories, and share other classroom information.  The space is large enough to accommodate all the children comfortably for whole group meetings.



Work time allows children to work individually or in small groups on investigation related activities that incorporate developmental domains. Several activities are planned for children to work individually, in pairs or small groups.  For a specific example, some of the children in the Tree House were solving the problem of our broken tree in small groups, as well as, individually, children were drawing the tree that needed to be fixed.

(c) Small groups went outside to observe the different parts of a tree and then came in to draw them individually.

(c) We also worked in small groups to construct the tree. We utilized a quiet space in the art studio to begin the construction of the tree. The area was also big enough to save for revisiting over a period of several days. 

To view The Tree House Schedule, click here.

3.D.11
a. Teachers create opportunities for children to engage in group projects and to learn from one another.
As stated above, children in the Tree House are given ample opportunity to work in small and large groups. During our Tree Project children brainstormed together on ways to rebuild our tree and materials to use.  We researched information on the computer, drew plans, picked materials and finally, glued it all together.  This activity occurred over a period of two weeks during work-time.

In this picture, the teacher and children are researching trees that are located in our playground.

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First, we went outside to view the trees and then came back in to draw them and create plans to build our indoor tree.

As a small group, we choose the materials we wanted to use.

Finally, we worked together to build our tree.

3.E Responding to Children's Interests and Needs

3.E.01
Teaching staff reorganize the environment when necessary to help children explore new concepts and topics, sustain their activities, and extend their learning.
The Tree House environment is constantly changing, evolving, and rotating. With each investigation, as well as with the needs and interests of the children, elements of the classroom are refreshed and rearranged. Our pretend kitchen was once remodeled to become a bakery from a long food investigation. During our Tree investigation our science table sprouted with leaves, branches, roots and bark and then it was changed to dinosaur fossils on loan from the Morris Museum.

We turned the dramatic play area into a bakery after we visited a local bakery for a class trip.

The science table during our tree investigation.

Dinosaur fossils from The Morris Museum

When our children developed a noticeable interest in blocks the classroom was rearranged to allow for more elaborate block structures, and when children needed more defined boundaries to concentrate, our group time area was moved to a new spot in the room. It has also been observed that the new classroom arrangement has resulted in children coming together in small groups during choice time and begin to further develop cooperative play skills.

The old block area

a structure in our new block area

the old group-time area

the new group-time area

Also general toys and books are rotated throughout the year to peak children's interest.
3.E.02
Teachers scaffold children's learning by:
a. modifying the schedule,
b. intentionally arranging the equipment, and
c. making themselves available to children.
(a) Although the daily schedule is designed to provide security, smooth transitions, and times for movement/gross motor activities, it is flexible whenever necessary. Our daily schedule can be viewed here. If a individual of group of children are deep in the play and collaborating on an activity/project choice time may be extended. if a book sparks a particularly interesting conversation, group time may be extended. On the other hand, if children clearly need movement on a specific day group time may be shortened or eliminated. Furthermore, during planning meetings, we discuss modifying the schedule on certain days to support the participation of students into the classroom routine.  An example of a planning document that illustrates this can be viewed here.

(b) As mentioned in the previous standard, the classroom equipment is arranged with the children's needs and interests in mind. The materials are low enough for the children to access them when needed.  There are open spaces as well as cozy spaces to be alone or with a friend.  Each area is clearly defined with labels and the appropriate materials and equipment necessary for that particular area.  Furthermore, if necessary, we will organize all equipment available to us to support successful participation in our classroom.  An example of a meeting that illustrates this strategy can be viewed here.

(c) At the Children's Center we believe that development occurs though relationships. On a day to day basis, staff strives to develop a partnership with the children. Staff are available throughout the daily routine for facilitation, guidance, intervention, and most importantly fun!



3.E.03
Teachers use children's interest in and curiosity about the world to engage them with new content and developmental skills.
The Children's Center implements an emergent curriculum. Investigations and activities are based on the children's interests and inquisitions. For example, this past summer, while playing on the playground, a blimp floated over us.  The children were quite intrigued and asked many questions. 
"What is that?"
"Is that a rocket?"
"Can we build one of those?"
This interest sparked an investigation of flying machines that lasted several months. During this investigation, The Tree House staff supported the children's curiosity by researching each question with them. For example, one activity was to explore how hot air balloons fly. We used balloons, empty water bottles and hot water to illustrate how hot air raises balloons.  During the activity, the children stated their thoughts, predicted what would happen and then observed the results.  They compared their thoughts and ideas to what they observed and drew conclusions from the experiment.  This activity was highly motivating and led to other questions, thoughts and ideas about flying machines.
"I wonder how airplanes fly?" "Or helicopters?" 

3.E.04
Teachers use their knowledge of individual children to modify strategies and materials to enhance children's learning.
 During planning, the developmental skill level of children is considered in preparing activities which will be appropriate for all. Activities are modified so that all children can access the information being presented. For example, during a team meeting, we discussed several activities we were implementing for our food investigation and how to differentiate the instruction for the children.
3.E.08
Teachers use their knowledge of children's social relationships, interests, ideas, and skills to tailor learning opportunities for groups and individuals.

Every experience is treated as a teachable moment. Children's social relationships are a key factor in their early development. Staff uses their knowledge of these relationships to implement social learning opportunities and create groups and pairings that enrich children's interactions.

In this photo, the children worked together to make new colors to paint with.  After the mixing, they named the paints.  These became our paints for the classroom.  This activity fostered community and cooperation for the children.

In the Tree House, children help each other during work-time. If a child is experiencing difficulty with an activity, we encourage them to ask a friend first.  We understand that sometimes children make the best teachers and can better support each others' learning. This practice fosters community, relationships and inclusion.